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Musk backtracking on finding $2 trillion in budget cuts

Posted on 1/9/25 at 7:44 am
Posted by bigjoe1
Member since Jan 2024
1444 posts
Posted on 1/9/25 at 7:44 am
CNBC this A.M.

$1 trillion would be a good start.
Posted by UltimaParadox
North Carolina
Member since Nov 2008
51024 posts
Posted on 1/9/25 at 7:54 am to
Well even 1 trillion is unrealistic unless he wants to make cuts to medicaid and social security, which is political suicide for those in Congress.

Even if he laid off every govt worker in the USA it would only save 300B.

I think this is Musk finds himself after pulling a number out of his butt and now has to slowly walk it back. By July they will act like 1 trillion was an unrealistic goal
Posted by tigerfoot
Alexandria
Member since Sep 2006
60638 posts
Posted on 1/9/25 at 8:01 am to
Let’s start with a budget and stick to it.
Posted by bigjoe1
Member since Jan 2024
1444 posts
Posted on 1/9/25 at 8:08 am to
quote:

Let’s start with a budget and stick to it.


Oh I agree. Let's cut as much fraud and waste as possible and then restrain
spending.
Posted by TheBoo
South to Louisiana
Member since Aug 2012
5372 posts
Posted on 1/9/25 at 8:13 am to
quote:

Well even 1 trillion is unrealistic

I disagree. they will have NO issue finding at least 1 trillion in wasteful spending. Having congress or agencies do anything about it is unlikely though.
Posted by Big Scrub TX
Member since Dec 2013
38355 posts
Posted on 1/9/25 at 10:57 am to
quote:

Even if he laid off every govt worker in the USA it would only save 300B.
I think 100% of fed payroll is like $100B.
Posted by tigeraddict
Baton Rouge
Member since Mar 2007
14372 posts
Posted on 1/9/25 at 11:07 am to
quote:

I think 100% of fed payroll is like $100B.


but what is the associated pension liability on top of that.......
Posted by Big Scrub TX
Member since Dec 2013
38355 posts
Posted on 1/9/25 at 11:14 am to
quote:

but what is the associated pension liability on top of that......
Not sure, but when Musk discussed firing people before, it was couched in terms of extremely generous severance packages.
Posted by evil cockroach
27.98N // 86.92E
Member since Nov 2007
8874 posts
Posted on 1/9/25 at 12:04 pm to
quote:

Musk backtracking on finding $2 trillion in budget cuts
it's all mindless talk. DOGE will only be someone's idea and never a real department. Musk is smart. He will never work for DJT. He saw what happened to Rex. A friend and a BOSS are two way different things.
Posted by Tarps99
Lafourche Parish
Member since Apr 2017
11442 posts
Posted on 1/9/25 at 6:45 pm to
That is one issue I have with showboaters, they promise the moon when they know full well they can maybe do a third or half.

Elon could have done this…He could have said we have about 500 billion dollars in cuts that the federal government can cut, that way when they find the trillion in cuts it has more of a surprise value.


That way you don’t have to backtrack your statements and apologize. You make an underwhelming statement that way you can surprise your fans when you can actually do more than what you said.
This post was edited on 1/9/25 at 6:47 pm
Posted by UltimaParadox
North Carolina
Member since Nov 2008
51024 posts
Posted on 1/9/25 at 7:28 pm to
quote:

He could have said we have about 500 billion dollars in cuts that the federal government can cut, that way when they find the trillion in cuts it has more of a surprise value.


If he finds 500 billion in cuts I think everyone should be ecstatic, I'll be shocked if he saves 50 billion
Posted by Art Blakey
Member since Aug 2023
287 posts
Posted on 1/9/25 at 8:31 pm to
The only way they get 1T is by cutting rates to zero and getting the Fed to play along and yield curve control the long end.

Entitlements
Interest
Defense

That's it. That's the budget. The rest of the budget items are individual peanuts.
Posted by kaaj24
Dallas
Member since Jan 2010
877 posts
Posted on 1/9/25 at 9:30 pm to
Swamp is deep
Posted by SlidellCajun
Slidell la
Member since May 2019
15918 posts
Posted on 1/10/25 at 7:21 am to
Anyone that believed musk is naive or just not looking at the real numbers. No way he could cut 2 trillion without some serious law changes.

Round numbers -
6.5 trillion in expense
4.5trillion income
-2 trillion shortfall

Of the expenses we have a few area that won’t be touched as they are mandatory spending -

Social security. 1.5 trillion
Medicare. 950billion
Interest on the debt 1 trillion
Medicaid 700 billion
Total 4.15 trillion

Other areas of high importance but not mandatory-
Defense. 1trillion
Non defense 900billion
Total- 1.9trillion

Problem is , The mandatory items are growing faster than inflation as our population ages. Musk isn’t going to cut that.

The solutions are very unsavory. Raise retirement age. Change Medicare structure. Politics won’t allow those to be hit. High interest rates hurt our borrowing expense. That is a market issue.

I like having someone oversee expenses because it raises awareness to the issue but let’s be real. There’s only so much anyone can do.



Posted by UltimaParadox
North Carolina
Member since Nov 2008
51024 posts
Posted on 1/10/25 at 8:47 am to
If they wanted to give Musk real power in the government they would have put him in charge of OPM or GAO.

GAO is already DOGE, so the whole thing is redundant anyways. Plus I see now DOGE is hiring people to help write the reports and do the investigations, so more efficiencies.

The whole DOGE thing is pure politics

And to be fair, Musk would have never accepted any govt position because of the conflict of interest. He would never remove himself from the companies he runs, as he would be in line to lose a lot of money
This post was edited on 1/10/25 at 8:49 am
Posted by lsu xman
Member since Oct 2006
16686 posts
Posted on 1/10/25 at 8:55 am to
The market would tank so hard if the govt had $2T in budget cuts.
Posted by Art Blakey
Member since Aug 2023
287 posts
Posted on 1/10/25 at 9:12 am to
quote:

The market would tank so hard if the govt had $2T in budget cuts.


Everything would. That would be 7.5% of gdp gone, great depression. DOGE is a distraction.
Posted by Decatur
Member since Mar 2007
31647 posts
Posted on 1/10/25 at 11:23 am to
Is “DOGE” like Musk’s personal lobbying group? Just vaporware? Still looking for details on this.
Posted by WM88
West Monroe
Member since Aug 2004
1961 posts
Posted on 1/11/25 at 9:32 pm to
1 trillion is 1000 billions.
Sort of unreasonable.
Posted by jmarto1
Houma, LA/ Las Vegas, NV
Member since Mar 2008
37870 posts
Posted on 1/11/25 at 11:50 pm to
I care less about the number and more about efficiency and efficacy
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