Summary

Elon Musk, co-head of the Department of Government Efficiency under Donald Trump’s advisory team, revised his claim of finding $2 trillion in federal budget cuts to a “best-case outcome” of $1 trillion.

Musk’s earlier target, dismissed as unrealistic by experts, had included the entire discretionary budget of $1.7 trillion.

While Musk and co-lead Vivek Ramaswamy plan to recommend cuts, specifics remain unclear.

Experts warn savings may require targeting mandatory programs like Medicaid, potentially causing hardships.

  • theneverfox@pawb.social
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    1 hour ago

    Can we take a moment to acknowledge a few billionaires made their own government department, and people are just rolling with it?

    They’re a random private company. Why are we just letting that fact slide???

  • chuck
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    2 hours ago

    Seriously what an unexpected outcome…

    The one trillion difference needs to be paid back from his salary and a potential salary claw back for this underperformance.

  • Nunar@lemmy.world
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    3 hours ago

    And Trump won’t bring down grocery prices. I really wish Americans were smarter. It’s going to be a rough ride. At least I’m not going to have to subscribe to the NYT to see the obituary that I want to.

  • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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    11 hours ago

    Wherever he cut, you can safely assume it will only hit the people at the bottom, not those at the top.

  • affiliate@lemmy.world
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    13 hours ago

    i’m actually kind of shocked he admitted this. isn’t his usual strategy to promise super unrealistic things, not deliver, and then make the same promise the next year?

    • utopiah@lemmy.world
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      3 hours ago

      Indeed, but I bet he isn’t used to hide things in the public. This is a federal budget, not yet another of his corporations. I bet he knows the very best accountants but that’s just different.

  • 5in1k@lemm.ee
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    14 hours ago

    If he cuts anything it’ll be support for middle class and poor people and itll be jack shit, it will fuck everything up and it will be touted by clowns as a success.

  • makyo@lemmy.world
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    22 hours ago

    Anyone who actually believed they would find $2 trillion was an idiot, the rest of us knew they’d just cut the things they hate, bump the subsidies that favor them and their friends, and call it a day.

    • bitchkat@lemmy.world
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      8 hours ago

      I expect them to privatize and then somehow claim they cut the budget because they are paying a private company instead of running whole departments themselves (govt)

    • Cypher@lemmy.world
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      21 hours ago

      Your comment will age poorly when Trump’s tarrifs lead to a collapsing economy and he prints money like mad to solve it, resulting in hyper-inflation letting President Musk keep his election promise.

    • CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      20 hours ago

      The funny thing is…it’s not like their voters would care if they lied. They could literally say “We cut the budget by $17 trillion by making sure the trans kids don’t get surgeries!” And their voters would fucking cheer.

      They wouldn’t look deep enough to actually care what they cut.

      So the question is why even make this announcement? I’m guessing it’s a distraction from something else.

      • wjrii@lemmy.world
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        11 hours ago

        Not even there. DoD is ~$840B and DHS another sixty. Not even one trillion in the entire US security apparatus, but they were going to so easily find twice that. It was always pure nonsense.

  • Whateley@lemm.ee
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    16 hours ago

    Those two clowns couldn’t find their own asses in a dark room with both hands and a flashlight.

  • shininghero@pawb.social
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    18 hours ago

    Oh please, you’re not even going to get $100 billion without stepping on some toes in the Military-Industrial complex, and that’s going to make you some lifelong political enemies.

    • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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      16 hours ago

      Oh that’s not what he meant at all.

      He meant slashing social security and Medicare. Obviously rich people aren’t going to feel the pinch.