re: Elon Musk is very concerned about the US going bankrupt

Debt and corruption is what you get when you vote in lawyers to run a country

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Pretty easy fix in my opinion

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It requires something that Washington DC doesn’t have: political will.

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I'll leave the moral debate to others, but correct on the latter. We were financially bankrupted (at least) a dozen or so yrs ago when the Federal Reserve fatally compromised their own balance sheet. Few people will figure it out because it ends with upheaval that looks like something else. But the point of no return has been passed.

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The road to financial ruin for the US was laid when Nixon dropped the gold standard. The inflection point that signified the point of no return with regards to US debt occurred during the Financial Meltdown of 2007-2009. When the US government and Federal Reserve decided recklessly to use ZIRP, TARP, QE etc. to save US corporations from their poor business decisions it opened the door for the Federal Reserve to forever carry US debt on their balance sheet while increasing the debasement rate of the USD. I won't even go into the details of the COVID19 Hysteria deficit spending, I will say that BS was largest boondoggle and wealth transfer in US history.


All of this^^^^ has resulted in historic wealth transfer from the working class to the .1% The road back to financial stability for the US will be a long, winding and bumpy road and would require a reduction of the US government of 50% with much of the fiscal responsibility returned to the state level.

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Doesn't matter. Still cut these to the bone. Big Government needs downsized.

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Sure. Fine.

But this is a discussion about our debt/deficit, and someone referenced DOGE within that specific context and its potential impacts.

The specific comment from our hourly worker

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Hopefully DOGE can prevent this

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Hopefully DOGE can prevent this. I think we are getting close to the point of no return.

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Not sure if serious. DOGE can only make recommendations. They have no power.

Also the problem is spending. It will take more than recommendations to turn off the facet. Congress has showed time and again its not willing to do that.

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Hopefully DOGE can prevent this.

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At best, I think they can only slightly delay the inevitable.

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I think we are getting close to the point of no return.

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We've been borrowing money to service the interest on previously borrowed money for over two decades now. Each year we borrow more (sometimes a little, sometimes a lot) and now interest rates are higher than they have been in a very long time. We're now at the point where annual debt servicing is over $1T and will not be going below that in the foreseeable future while the federal government continues to borrow more than it brings in each year. In other words, we're beyond the point of no return, but only because no one wants their program(s) cut.

Currently, it would take cutting ~30% from the entire budget (SNAP, pay for the military, utilities for government buildings, pay for every federal employee, the amount spent on copy paper in any given office, Social Security, Medicare, etc) just to balance the budget. That's a massive cut to everything and with 1/3 of Americans benefitting from some federal spending (Medicare, Section 8, VA benefits, GSLs, Pell Grants, etc), that guarantees any across-the-board cut that large is going to be highly unpopular.

That widespread unpopularity is the key as politicians run on doing popular things. Anyone even suggesting such a cut would likely lose their next election, voting for (much less passing) it would cement the death of their political career. This all means no one in Congress nor the Presidency will touch this much of a cut with a 10-foot pole. Ever.

Some will push for smaller cuts over a longer period of time, but the same issue with political expediency still exists as eventually enough candidates running on "making your government work for YOU again" would get elected to reverse those cuts.

The electorate is addicted to government programs to the point of preferring to elect enablers. We've indoctrinated generations to now believe that being on public assistance is okay (ie: it's okay to be on it for as long as you like, not something so shameful that you should bust your arse to get off of it). It's going to take generations to revert that mindset back to common sense self-reliance, but that's first going to require changing the philosophy of the education sector (which will likely take at least a generation itself).

The next recession we have is likely to be rampant with stagflation as the consumer debt load is massive, dependency on federal programs is high and the federal government's response is to just dole out more money to the masses.

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Also the problem is spending

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And nothing will be done, because politicians cant get re-elected or praised by putting us into a recession.

The can will continue to get kicked down the road until govt starts coming for your Retirment accounts.

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If Ukraine loses with our backing it will weaken the dollar because our might vs BRICS would be diminished.

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Correct, our dollar is protected by our military. However, protecting Ukraine is a very far stretch to say it is to protect the dollar. You make it sound as if the US military is 100% involved when it is absolutely not.

I pray Putin removes Zelensky real soon. I also pray Ukraine remains out of NATO. NATO has become a huge problem and if the US does not get out of it, the NATO dog will one day bite the US in the femoral!!

There’s not even such thing as money any more. It’s numbers on a computer scree.

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Hopefully DOGE can prevent this

It cannot. Not enough meat on the bone.

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Possibly but being a fatalist will surly not prevent it.

If you lose your job or take a pay cut, you at least look at marginal things to improve your position. Maybe not have 5 streaming services but cut it to one. Will eliminating $100/mth from your household budget prevent bankruptcy, probably not but it is a start.

We as a country have to face some budget cut pain, unfortunately, but over time (a long time) it will improve but it has to start somewhere.

When I was in highschool, SS / Medicare and national debt were big topics but no one had the political will to address so after 30 years, the problems can no longer be ignored and will cause real pain to fix.