FRIDAY, JANUARY 10, 2025
World's richest nutcase relents: Just for the sake of preserving the record, here's the heart of the news report from CNN:
Elon Musk now has a new, lower target number for DOGE’s budget cuts
Elon Musk has walked back his previous claim that he could cut at least $2 trillion from the federal budget, saying Wednesday that half that amount would be “an epic outcome.”
Musk, who has been tasked by President-elect Donald Trump to co-lead the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, called the $2 trillion target “the best-case outcome.”
“If we try for $2 trillion, we’ve got a good shot at getting one,” Musk said in an interview streamed Wednesday evening on X, which he owns. “And if we can drop the budget deficit from $2 trillion to $1 trillion and kind of free up the economy to have additional growth—such that the output of goods and services keeps pace with the increase in the money supply—then there will be no inflation. So that, I think, would be an epic outcome.”
[...]
Musk, the world’s richest person, is looking to downsize the federal budget and operations by slashing spending, curbing regulations and cutting the workforce. However, budget experts have scoffed at his pronouncements, saying that eliminating $2 trillion from a roughly $6.8 trillion budget is unrealistic.
Please ignore the incoherence included in this strange person's new remarks. As for CNN, have "budget experts" really been "saying that eliminating $2 trillion from a roughly $6.8 trillion budget is unrealistic?"
Attempting to do that wouldn't be "unrealistic." As every budget expert knows, that would actually be the budget goal of a fully certified, genuine nutcase. It may be time for our major news orgs to stop being quite so polite.
Questions:
Does this nut-ball know what he's talking about? Does this richest of all nut-balls care?
At any rate, a new battle cry has now fully emerged:
Nut-balls of the world, unite! We'll call it the new federal government!
Does he care?
ReplyDeleteNo. He does not. He, like Trump, is only practicing brilliant exaggeration to demonstrate his own undeniable brilliance.
The spiel from the exemplars of MAGA who post here is that if you criticize Trump or his henchmen for walking back the thing they said yesterday, you must be a paid soros-bot, or “woke”. Apparently, MAGA voters not only don’t disapprove of their heroes’ lies and empty promises, they cheer them on, because it upsets the right people. Imagine living your life like these MAGA-ites.
DeleteThe felon's tax cuts added about $1.5 trillion to the deficit over ten years. If you exclude the military, SS, Medicare/caid there ain't much left to cut. Do the maths and raise taxes on yourselves. It ain't that complicated.
ReplyDeleteI don’t see the problem with what Musk said. I think the following points are reasonable:
ReplyDelete1. Aiming for a $2 trillion spending cut may be unrealistic , but having a high goal may be an effective strategy for getting a smaller, but still significant, spending cut.
2. Getting a $1 trillion cut would be valuable to the country
I will add my opinion. VP Al Gore had pretty much the same responsibility as Musk now has. IIRC, despite a sincere effort, Gore got virtually no cut. If Musk got a cut of half a trillion, that would be terrific.
How much do you think Musk will cut from children's mental health funding? That's usually where Republicans find "government waste".
DeleteRepublican voters expect government services to be there when they need them. As soon as a Republican voter doesn’t get what they think they deserve from the government, there’s holy hell to pay. That’s why this eternal performative “we must make massive cuts to government” is so ludicrous. It’s the mantra of the rich and corporations.
DeleteIf only the Blue Tribe elite spent more time trying to reason with poor, oppressed DavidinCal.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteOne obvious area to cut IMO is all the DEI departments. These departments are worse than waste -- they are positively pernicious. And, if the government bases hiring and promotions solely on merit, the departments will run better, allowing future staff reductions.
DeleteThere are units that are not worth keeping. One is the Department of Education. They give out money, which is fine. But, their educational leadership probably does more harm than good.
All those special ed kids & their families disagree.
DeleteHow much will we save by eliminating DEI departments?
DeleteIf the government is going to base hiring on merit, white people will never get jobs.
DeleteOne very obvious place to look for savings is in aid to countries like Israel who, while sucking at the teat of Uncle Sam, can afford universal healthcare and a free secondary education for its students.
DeleteDavid in Cal,
DeleteTelling Republican voters to go fuck themselves, when they beg for Daddy Government to help them, doesn't cost a penny. I'm hoping that's where Trump will find most of his savings.
Jesus David in Cal, the last time the budget was balanced was when VP Al Gore was in office you duplicitous wanker. He found all the monies. Also just above your comment I noted the nazi oligarch could find $1.5 Trillion,. 75% of the made up target of the non-governmental made up oligarch commission, by simply restoring the tax rates cut for the felon's donors. You pretend to have valid points but you just a brainwashed fool who refuses facts.
DeleteDavid in Cal knows he's full of shit, but the Republican Party's bigotry makes him feel all tingly inside.
DeleteFive months and four days from today is Donald Trump's birthday, but I'm too excited to wait until I give him his gift, so here goes.
ReplyDeleteRepublican voters are a shit pile of bigots, who tried to overthrow the country because black people's votes were counted in the 2020 Presidential election.
Do you think I should tell Trump my Birthday, in case he wants to reciprocate?
Trump and Musk are called "sociopaths" and "nutballs" for one reason. They don't give a shit what actors or professors or cable TV personalities or legacy media liars say or think so they are subjected to soviet-style defamation but fortunately it has no effect anymore.
ReplyDeleteDemocrats aren't used to this kind of insubordination and try to sell the truth and as pathology.
They don't know how to act now that presidential candidates, CEO's, and voters decided to ignore the low IQ and mentally ill elites running those cultural institutions. They have no control over speech and thought now.
Trump and Musk are normal and in charge now. They have exposed the lies but Democrats helped them do it by wrongly assuming they still had the power to control and shape the narrative. Democrats are deranged and incapable of coexisting with loss of control of speech and thought. They are spiraling.
Democrats built an economy that works for everyone. They made sure Americans earned a living wage and the wealthy paid their fair share.
DeleteBiden’s own messaging often clashed with voters' realities - claiming inflation was temporary and the border wasn’t a crisis. The public dismissed these narratives as untrue.
Delete1933 called and wants its definition of Democrat back.
DeleteThere is an objective reality distinct from voter perceptions. Leaders engage with reality.
DeleteLeaders engage with reality, Democrats put tampons in men's bathrooms, call breast feeding "chest feeding" to pretend men can do it, and mutilate sex organs then call it a "sex change."
DeleteSure they do, Soros-bot. Why wouldn't they?
DeleteZuckerberg orders the removal of tampons from the men's bathrooms at Meta's offices. What a nutball!
ReplyDeleteThat's performative of him. It isn't like they were hurting anything by being there.
DeleteYes, @9:49 removing the tampons is performative, but that's OK by me. Having the tampons is also performative. The tampons give the message that boys can have periods. which IMO is a false message
DeleteThe message that there is a Republican voter who isn't a bigot, is also false. Obviously.
DeleteIf only Blue Tribe members spent more effort listening to Musk ....
ReplyDeleteDavid is doing all the work. Where is Cecelia?
ReplyDeleteShe lived in Pacific Palisades.
Delete... and it was at this point that a rare and peculiar fanny-wind was hereby produced. A newly-discovered relief was readily noticeable. It had been nearly a decade since such an occurrence.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDelete"Does this nut-ball know what he's talking about? Does this richest of all nut-balls care?"
Thank you for this, Bob.
As long as you idiot-Democrats get triggered, I know the new administration is doing everything right. The stronger triggered the better.
Cheers, Bob.
When people get triggered, you always know you're doing everything right. That's how you know teaching critical race theory in schools is the right thing to do.
DeleteIdiot-Democrats get triggered by CRT? That's new to me, Soros-bot. You probably saw in one of your Soros-bot dreams.
Deleteanon 8:56, "Soros-=bot" - that's a good one. You're too clever for these "Soros-bots!!"
DeleteWhat is your concept of a plan you very stable genius.
DeleteThe betting odds that Greenland will own the USA after Trump negotiates with them is at 3:1.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteI am the Democrat mayor of LA. Climate change made me an incompetent idiot.
Climate change is a hoax. Like calling a businessman "honest".
Delete
ReplyDeleteI am the Democrat governor of CA. Climate change made me an idiot who protects fish and fucks over people.
Which Republican big-government solutions are you disappointed she didn't enact?
DeleteThe Republican big-government solution of not being (predictably) a total idiot.
DeleteWhat, in the name of Tommy Fucking Tuberville, is that supposed to mean?
DeleteThe felon also said there is a giant valve in No CA that will flood the central valley if open. Go find it and open it for the good of the country. It is located up the felon's ass.
Delete