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Re:The Young, Inexperienced Engineers Aiding Elon Musk’s Gov... by watwut on Monday February 03, 2025 @03:26PM (#42922560)
There is about zero chance Trump and Musk will make debt smaller.
Re:The Young, Inexperienced Engineers Aiding Elon Musk’s Gov... by XajniN on Monday February 03, 2025 @04:20PM (#42923347)
Why?
Re:The Young, Inexperienced Engineers Aiding Elon Musk’s Gov... by toomuchtodo on Monday February 03, 2025 @04:44PM (#42923623)
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/elon-musk-say...

https://usafacts.org/answers/how-much-does-the-us-federal-go...

You would have to cut entitlements if you're relying on cuts alone, and those require Congressional action to change. It's absolutely wild people actually believed Musk without spending a few minutes understanding the issue.

Re:The Young, Inexperienced Engineers Aiding Elon Musk’s Gov... by nomel on Monday February 03, 2025 @07:43PM (#42925723)
Is "not grow so fast" a worthy goal, by a department with an efficiency directive?

$250 - $500 billion are lost to fraud, every year[1]. That's near 40% of social security spending.

[1] https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-24-105833#:~:text=GAO%20est...

Re:The Young, Inexperienced Engineers Aiding Elon Musk’s Gov... by toomuchtodo on Monday February 03, 2025 @08:04PM (#42925963)
Certainly, building systems to search for and prevent fraud is a worthy goal. Solving for that is orthogonal to what is taking place (which is Musk and his loyal, inexperienced band of lackeys doing whatever they want without governance and oversight). Is all of USAID fraud? Does the executive branch have the authority to unilaterally shut the program? No, these are the actions of authoritarians.
Re:The Young, Inexperienced Engineers Aiding Elon Musk’s Gov... by unethical_ban on Tuesday February 04, 2025 @01:49AM (#42928941)
Everything Musk and Trump have done have been virtue signaling, removing oversight and political independence, gutting consumer protections, and pissing off our allies.

A Russian puppet candidate could not do more damage to this country than what the Trump administration is doing right now.

Nothing being done fights the large causes of fraud/waste/abuse. Nothing being done helps the cost of housing or the cost of healthcare or college or fuel.

The so called successes of the tariff wars so far have been done at the expense of our long term credibility as a nation.

Re:The Young, Inexperienced Engineers Aiding Elon Musk’s Gov... by achandlerwhite on Monday February 03, 2025 @04:44PM (#42923633)
They would have to reverse the deficit to start reducing debt and that is unlikely with a cost cutting approach.
Re:The Young, Inexperienced Engineers Aiding Elon Musk’s Gov... by stouset on Monday February 03, 2025 @04:26PM (#42923432)
Look at the growth of the national debt during the last Trump presidency.
Re:The Young, Inexperienced Engineers Aiding Elon Musk’s Gov... by mrguyorama on Monday February 03, 2025 @07:46PM (#42925754)
And Bush, and Reagan.

Find me a Republican president who did not increase the national debt.

Re:The Young, Inexperienced Engineers Aiding Elon Musk’s Gov... by xnx on Monday February 03, 2025 @04:22PM (#42923371)
Actual debt won't get smaller, but reported debt can get smaller when they fire whoever is responsible for reporting that.
Re:The Young, Inexperienced Engineers Aiding Elon Musk’s Gov... by throwitaway222 on Monday February 03, 2025 @05:12PM (#42924000)
Firing is what is needed, but it won't happen for people that report spending, it will happen for those that hide it.
Re:The Young, Inexperienced Engineers Aiding Elon Musk’s Gov... by Acrobatic_Road on Tuesday February 04, 2025 @08:36PM (#42942352)
No, but they could slow the growth of debt.