Who do you propose be put in charge? Why when the Democrats were in power weren't they put in charge before?

As for an actual audit, those have been done left and right. Audits only validate where the money is going not why.

Clearly they are doing something, budgeted spend is being cut and most notably if they weren't doing anything we wouldn't be having this discussion. We are also only a handful of weeks into the presidency. They're being very clear about what they are doing. Looking line by line at some of these cuts, I've yet to see anyone here actually debate the validity of all of the spend. Yes good programs will likely be impacted, things will be course corrected and brought back where appropriate.

It's a painful process no mater who is executing it. The only way to reduce the budgetary spend of the country is to do just that, cut spend. You start small and work your way up.

interesting to behold this inversion where the "conservative" side is taking dramatic and rapid action, changing things quickly, while the "progressive" side vociferously defends the status quo

It is, the right appears to be playing the same hand the left has for years and the people are supporting it. Naturally this makes someone that has strong left leaning convictions frustrated as they come the realization that they aren't the majority and the numbers of people that support one narrative on the internet aren't a reflection of society as a whole. The bigger picture is this isn't localized, that's how you know it's a larger problem. Countries around the world are having the same discourse and results. People are done with it. Identity politics is over. Spending excess money to support these groups is over.

That narrative is so boring and tired, and it's ultimately why Trumpism will be short lived and fade to the dustbin of history.

I'm not a leftist, and I mostly don't care about the groups, the right can have them. I care about things like medical research, nuclear energy and the food supply, which are all at risk because the regime's only tactic seems to be to unplug everything and see what breaks, and then decide if they even want it to work. They're not trying to run the country efficiently, they're trying to punish federal employees.

Most people are like me - they want real solutions for housing and health, not the impotence we get from the neoliberals or the kayfabe we get from Trumpism.

That’s the beauty of it all, we’re all along for the ride and will see. We should all hope for the best.

"Identity politics is over" says the guy supporting hyper-identity focused mysoginists.

I get it you’re upset, but that’s a you problem not a we problem. This is what was voted for. To bring it back to the main topic, the implied god mode access doesn’t exist.

Wasn't the previous administration voted for too?

Remind me how many people voted for someone else than the current president?

Doesn't matter, when the previous admin was in did they take in the considerations of the losing party? Nope. To the victor go the spoils.. of implementing the plan you ran on.

>when the previous admin was in did they take in the considerations of the losing party?

Yes. Many big bipartisan bills, immigration crackdown that Trump can't even match now.

The conservative side is not taking action, it is regressing things to pre-1968 norms.

Progressives weren't defending the status quo, they were trying to improve the lives of people who were at the bottom of social order for centuries.

it is hard for me to think of a more status quo candidate than Harris

Funny you say that when she was cast again and again as a "crazy" "radical" "socialist" "lunatic".

Which one is it?

you do know different people say different things?

I am sharing my personal opinion

The opposition will always employ fear tactics like socialist, marxist, facsist, science denier etc

For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.

You are embracing those clear, simple answers. You are going to pay dearly for it.

We’ll have to disagree. I believe the mindless waste of the past administration and their programs and narratives on things like biology were clear simple and wrong.

"There are only two sexes and genre doesn't exist" is simple and wrong. "Genre is a social construct and is a spectrum" isn't.

Sorry you feel threatened by people not wanting to be pigeonholed into your tiny tidy restrictive categories.

What I think is irrelevant, what is codified as the stance of the US Government is. They are acting on that assertion. I'm sorry you feel threatened by it and pigeonholed into your beliefs. This is the exact status of definition for the HHS and USG.

    Sex: A person’s immutable biological classification as either male or female.

    Female: is a person of the sex characterized by a reproductive system with the biological function of producing eggs (ova).

    Male: is a person of the sex characterized by a reproductive system with the biological function of producing sperm.

    Woman: an adult human female.

    Girl: a minor human female.

    Man: an adult human male.

    Boy: a minor human male.

    Mother: a female parent.

    Father: a male parent.

https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2025/02/19/hhs-takes-action-p...

You can argue what you want, but they are enacting actions against what they have defined as truth. That's the by product of winning an election, you get to make the changes you ran on.

> I have common sense.

So no you don't have any actual evidence.

> An actual audit would be great, but would take more than the 30 days that Trump has been in office.

Right, which is why it's still ongoing. They have a year to complete it.

Everyone is all parroting democrat talking points about Elon, I'm just enjoying seeing all the billions in crap get cut.

> Right, which is why it's still ongoing. They have a year to complete it.

So maybe the President's special boy shouldn't be tweeting that 150 year olds are receiving Social Security payments because he doesn't understand cobol's datetime system. That only way I take these people seriously is the way I would take a toddler with a lit torch seriously.

We don't have the data in front of us to actually prove your point one way or the other. Resulting to name calling and hyper emotional responses doesn't elicit the behavior of cooperation. Instead, engage on data and facts.

If you said "He's making statements without any data to back up his claims" I'd respond, at this point you're correct, we do not have the data to verify. Collectively we could ask for more transparency. The result is we agree more data is needed.

A few replies up, when presented with a clear example of the DOGE team having carte blanche access to sensitive government data, you handwaved it away. Don't accuse other people of being hyper-emotional when your own reasoning is so plainly motivated by political sentiment.

I didn't. The report came out that it was an accident that was directly rectified. Show me where that's wrong and hand wavy.

You're telling us to trust the word of people who were caught either lying or being staggeringly incompetent. It's irrational. You're letting your political sentiments cloud your judgement. You're having an emotionally-driven reaction.

You’re telling us to trust the word of people being caught either lying or being staggeringly incompetent.

While I disagree with everything going on, the cobol date time thing is just some myth everyone came up with. Go find me a single source to that claim because I can’t.

The claims from Musk are complete garbage and I have the receipts to show it.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43116844

Now that’s the type of report I like to see. Not “transparency” via tweets.

So, where is your evidence that fraud of such scale is happening in the federal budget that requires unprecedented (and likely extremely illegal) access by people who are not qualified to be running a gas station IT system, let alone the entire financial and IT backend of the federal government? This is such a dishonest discussion and I suspect you types know it.

The audit will continue, sorry. Fraud has already been posted everywhere ($55b and counting) so if you haven't seen it, you aren't looking.

Maybe Democrats won't lose every branch next time and you guys can have a say.

The people want this audit, despite what HN is parroting.

I bet you'll cash that $5k check you get from the savings.

> Fraud has already been posted everywhere ($55b and counting) so if you haven't seen it, you aren't looking.

Not too surprising to find another propaganda victim…

Here, I did your research for you:

> After correcting an apparent clerical error, it now shows $8.5 billion.

https://www.npr.org/2025/02/19/nx-s1-5302705/doge-overstates...

Further proof that this is not an “audit,” but a show trial.

And NPR could only confirm 2 billion of those contracts were actually canceled. It's an endless fountain of bullshit.

Cool, then why are you so upset?

He doesn't seem upset to me.

Why can't you follow comment guidelines?

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Why do you keep posting this in every discussion?

Frivolous spending != fraud.

Please read commenting guidelines at https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Is there a difference when it comes to the taxpayer?

It's all waste. Fraud if there were kickbacks, we'll see about that.

Maybe there is no difference, but I think honest framing matters.

> "Fraud has already been posted everywhere ($55b and counting)"

I'm looking for some evidence to support your $55 billion fraud claim, not just $55 billion in waste. If it's been "posted everywhere", please link to it!

> just $55 billion in waste

"Just" lol. After a month.

Replace the fraud w/ waste if that makes you feel better about the audit.

I'm sure investigations will reveal fraud, it takes awhile to build a case.

But even if there is zero fraud (fat chance), gotta love the savings from waste cuts!

Dang, I was really excited to read about the $55 billion in fraud after you claimed that it has been "posted everywhere". :(

Please let me know when you find the evidence!

Also, I never said I dislike the audit. I do, however, dislike dishonest framing.

Again, we'll just say it's "waste" until investigations complete.

Glad I could frame it better for you so you can feel good about the savings.

Also glad to hear you like or are at least content with the audit, since you don't "dislike" it.

Yup. We'll see how it goes.