re: Elon Musk: Annual fraud of US Taxpayer $ is an estimated lower bound of $1.5 Trillion +

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It's not a partisan issue for me. I think "we the people" have lost all control of fedgov.

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We agree on this. We agree that there is far too much bloat and fraud.

But I don’t agree with defunding it all.

And unfortunately, when discussing cuts to be made, you don’t see enough people calling out wasteful but lucrative private company contracts awarded to well connected people, like Kushner and Trump Jr. (Same for Democrats who are profiteering)…

They’ll ignore those things and instead focus on cutting the govt programs that are providing assistance to less fortunate citizens.

So in the end it becomes a partisan issue when determining what is bloat and fraud.

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No one has the political, ethical, or moral will to do this.

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Eventually they won't have a choice

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But I don’t agree with defunding it all.

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Then nothing will be fixed because those in control take advantage of everyone having a sacred cow - it's too important/virtuous to be cut.

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They’ll ignore those things and instead focus on cutting the govt programs that are providing assistance to less fortunate citizens.

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I think fedgov/permanent Washington have proven itself to be untrustworthy to the point it can't be given dollars to spend on even worthwhile efforts. It's in the DNA of DC to waste/gift $1 for every $2 it spends legitimately.

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So in the end it becomes a partisan issue when determining what is bloat and fraud.

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Not really. Where partisanship comes into play is when "bloat and fraud" are okay because I'm good with the spending or program. That seems to come down on partisan lines. Willingness to cut it all is decidedly nonpartisan, and in fact not supported by either side.

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Any reason to take this statement seriously?

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You should take
Fraud seriously

Over what time span?

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And unfortunately, when discussing cuts to be made, you don’t see enough people calling out wasteful but lucrative private company contracts awarded to well connected people, like Kushner and Trump Jr. (Same for Democrats who are profiteering)…

They’ll ignore those things and instead focus on cutting the govt programs that are providing assistance to less fortunate citizens.

So in the end it becomes a partisan issue when determining what is bloat and fraud.

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I'm against it all, but there is difference in waste and fraud. We can agree that there is a lot of government waste that needs to be cut. But fraud is criminal and people need to be jailed.

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Any reason to take this statement seriously?

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Any reason to think he's wrong?

We have a government with an insatiable appetite for taxpaer money that has not passed a budget in decades. That means we have automated budget increases, with little or no scrutiny.

While the foxes are watching carefully over the henhouse, a 23 year-old guy with a camera figures out that a bunch of Somalian immigrants are ripping us off to the tune of at least 9 billion dollars - in Minnesota, and average sized state.

Is there any reason we should not check the rest of the states? If Minnesota has $9B in fraud that we know of what else could their be?

I would guess that the $1.5T is low, once we start finding fraud in defense contracts, foreign aid, SS, Medicare/Medicaid, etc...

Yep, and good old-fashioned nepotism and corruption is considered waste.

But Musk isn’t making any distinctions, or providing any data to back up the estimate.

But I agree that actual fraud should be uncovered and prosecuted.

Hey, did you know that Trump fired 17-18 of the inspectors general, whose job it was to investigate this?

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Any reason to take this statement seriously?

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Honestly think it’s not somewhat true? The waste is OOC.

It’s pretty incredible that 20% of the federal budget is fraud, and yet DOGE was able to discover none of it.