Question for Republicans. What do you think about Musk being given the access that he's been granted?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had a $1.83 trillion budget deficit last year. Unsustainable. Musk thinks he can cut a trillion in spending. Good, let’s see what he comes up with. His experience at Twitter showed him that three quarters of the people employed there were useless at best.

The only way to make a serious dent in spending is to reform OASDI, Medicare, and military spending.

I don't think politicians from either party have the political courage to tackle this issue. A significant reform will be very unpopular, despite the fact it is needed.

I don't think now is the time to reduce military spending given the way he treats our allies.

But the debt is a really, really big deal. I'm hoping this is all showmanship to get leverage for budget negotiations in March and Musk will be more normal after that. Because this is unsustainable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had a $1.83 trillion budget deficit last year. Unsustainable. Musk thinks he can cut a trillion in spending. Good, let’s see what he comes up with. His experience at Twitter showed him that three quarters of the people employed there were useless at best.

And he cut Twitters value by over 75% in that same period of time. Is that what you want for our government?

I want you to capitulate and restate to me the fact that:

1) our national debt is $105K per person.
2) our national debt is $323K per tax payer.
3) we CANNOT continue on this course.
4) the solution for this problem is not constantly raising taxes and rates.
5) the federal government spends and wastes too much and that the time has come to tackle it with seriousness.

No but the cuts cannot and should not be done by a single person. We The PEOPLE are the ones who elect people who decide on the cuts. MUSKovich is not an elected official and should in no way be the one making the cuts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am okay with it, the swamp and control in DC is very real. While I no longer live there, I did for thirty plus years, the entitlement and sense of power was everywhere. I truly did believe most of those people were untouchable so it's' sorta of poetic to see them sweating under the collar as it were, also unbelievable at the same time. This will make a great movie one day and yes, I am enjoying watching the turmoil. Incidentally, I don't think it's as bad as most of you are making it out to be, nothing wrong with the incoming administration having access to all of this information. I think once it became clear there would be roadblocks, which is probably all the way back to the election month, they knew they'd have no choice.

So what makes you think Musk has your best interest at heart?

Do you think he should have access to everyone's private data, which is what he's doing right now.

+1. People please don't believe Musk has your back. He does not. Neither does Trump. They are not fighting your fight, they are serving their own needs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had a $1.83 trillion budget deficit last year. Unsustainable. Musk thinks he can cut a trillion in spending. Good, let’s see what he comes up with. His experience at Twitter showed him that three quarters of the people employed there were useless at best.

The only way to make a serious dent in spending is to reform OASDI, Medicare, and military spending.

I don't think politicians from either party have the political courage to tackle this issue. A significant reform will be very unpopular, despite the fact it is needed.

I don't think now is the time to reduce military spending given the way he treats our allies.

But the debt is a really, really big deal. I'm hoping this is all showmanship to get leverage for budget negotiations in March and Musk will be more normal after that. Because this is unsustainable.

The only way to permanently fix the debt, is to change the law. Firing a bunch of people who will be hired back in three or four years isn't going to do it. But the MAGAs don't get it.

[Anonymous]

Here's one of the other issues with Elon now having access to every American's social security and financial info -

Elon Musk has plants in China.

China has a law that says the CCP can ask businesses for any information whatsoever.

If that data is in Elon's possession, the CCP can ask for it.

That's frightening. And it's astounding that Elon has put us in this position.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had a $1.83 trillion budget deficit last year. Unsustainable. Musk thinks he can cut a trillion in spending. Good, let’s see what he comes up with. His experience at Twitter showed him that three quarters of the people employed there were useless at best.

And he cut Twitters value by over 75% in that same period of time. Is that what you want for our government?

I want you to capitulate and restate to me the fact that:

1) our national debt is $105K per person.
2) our national debt is $323K per tax payer.
3) we CANNOT continue on this course.
4) the solution for this problem is not constantly raising taxes and rates.
5) the federal government spends and wastes too much and that the time has come to tackle it with seriousness.

No but the cuts cannot and should not be done by a single person. We The PEOPLE are the ones who elect people who decide on the cuts. MUSKovich is not an elected official and should in no way be the one making the cuts.

Yes, we have to make some cuts.

But that said it's absolutely ludicrous to stomp feet and insist that taxes are completely off the table. That is ideological derangement of the right wing, started by Grover Norquist, and it's based on lies. In the 1950s we had tax brackets significantly higher than we do now, AND WE PROSPERED. And no, it wasn't "communism" - it was under guys like Eisenhower, who actually FOUGHT actual communism, as opposed to today's right wing who would rather fight their fellow American and pretend it's communism they're fighting.

[Anonymous]

He isn’t even qualified to enter the buildings. He is as corrupt as Trump and an even worse security risk. Musk is a sociopath. He doesn’t give a shit about the country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had a $1.83 trillion budget deficit last year. Unsustainable. Musk thinks he can cut a trillion in spending. Good, let’s see what he comes up with. His experience at Twitter showed him that three quarters of the people employed there were useless at best.

And he cut Twitters value by over 75% in that same period of time. Is that what you want for our government?

It’s hard to say what Twitter/X is worth today. It’s potentially very valuable as a way to train AI models using real time comments from users. Grok AI is really good when you ask it about news events happening now.

Twitter is not a business. Twitter is media.
Twitter's value is in how it let Musk take over the government to plunder it for himself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve seen zero justification for turning over decision-making and control of our government to an unelected private individual. You cannot replace Congress or our co-equal branches of government balances this way. If Congress doesn’t act, I expect a lot of this will be challenged in court (not the best because it’s costly and slow).

What actual legal authority is there for our government to operate this way? Seems to be exactly what the founders sought to avoid (centralized power at the hands of the wealthy few).

Imagine if Biden had installed someone like George Soros inside the US government to start controlling everything. It would be completely unacceptable (and I suspect we’d hear that from GOP members of Congress).

To answer your question the Federal bureaucracy sits squarely under the Executive Branch. It belongs to that one of the three branches of the government, it does not sit under Congress or SCOTUS. Which is why, for example, agencies and bureaucrats routinely deny to answer questions in Congressional probes. It can be legitimately argued by constitutional scholars that some of the laws Congress passed affecting the bureaucracy are actually unlawful. The constitution makes clear the Executive branch runs the government, not Congress or SCOTUS.

That is most likely why there's this state of paralysis and no real confidence in lawsuits doing anything more than temporarily halt the EOs affecting the bureaucracy.

As for OP's question, I don't consider myself a Republican but I approve most of what I see Musk doing if just because all his actions is bringing far more transparency into an extremely opaque system of agencies and unelected senior bureaucrats.

I find it hilarious that folks think Musk is being more transparent about government. Particularly when government undergoes multiple audits, files hundreds of reports, attends and host numerous conferences and presentations and use to have lots of meetings (viewable on C-SPAN) to inform on exactly what is going on. Now things are just being destroyed and folks fired but people have no real idea WHY except because Elon said so or they are Trump enemies.

It’s like because some people didn’t pay attention they believe there was no transparency yet because Trump keeps talking (about nothing) people believe they now have some.😁

Objectivity is useful. I've worked adjacent to the Feds for decades. We have seen and learned far more about various agencies' spending and actions in the last few days than we have in a decade or two. I know how difficult, cumbersome and tiresome it is to find out about spending histories. The FOIA is fighting the bureaucracy to get basic disclosures and quite often a lot of stuff is simply stonewalled off. Agencies are summoned to Congress to testify all the time and regularly say they can't say this or that because it's all protected by secrecy acts or whatever.

By contrast, Musk is posting endless screenshots of his discoveries every day and boasting about his actions. He is telling us way more about what he's doing and agencies are doing than the agencies themselves ever told us in my entire life. It's astonishing what is coming to light. And I suspect we will learn a lot more. But there will be people who will forever bury their heads in the sand because government and bureaucrats can do no wrong. Ever. We understand that's how you think. So I'm not paying much attention to angry people right now. Because the revelations aren't going to stop and I would also advise people to be a bit cautious before being overly defensive. We're going to see and learn a lot more.

Oh Lord have mercy. You know WHY govnt agencies don't "tell you about what they do??" It's because they don't have an ad budget or personnel. You all really cannot actually be this dumb but I think you really are. And I've posted this once already and I'll post again, it's all out there. It is literally all public. Most agencies have PUBLIC webpages to review where funds go. In fact I guarantee you that Musk just freaking screenshoted those for his "big reveal" on Shitter/X!

You are replying to a rabid liar. They fabricate claims, without even bothering to fabricate evidence (except when they make their xitty AI generated photos and videos.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At this point it ai beyond obvious that structures and process have been used to entrench the status quo. Congress nor the American voter have the stomach to make needed changes.

An American citizen (immigrant!) is working to improve serious problems. *If* somehow he manages to deliver, it will be one of the greatest gifts ever received by our country. Entrenched interests have had decades to fix these problems. They’ve failed. Might as well try this. Just give him and his team a blanket pardon before Trump leaves office.

Just goes to show that we need immigrants. They get the job done. Musk should remind Stephen Miller this. LOL

The only job Musk gets does is stealing from his employees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had a $1.83 trillion budget deficit last year. Unsustainable. Musk thinks he can cut a trillion in spending. Good, let’s see what he comes up with. His experience at Twitter showed him that three quarters of the people employed there were useless at best.

And he cut Twitters value by over 75% in that same period of time. Is that what you want for our government?

It’s hard to say what Twitter/X is worth today. It’s potentially very valuable as a way to train AI models using real time comments from users. Grok AI is really good when you ask it about news events happening now.

Twitter is not a business. Twitter is media.
Twitter's value is in how it let Musk take over the government to plunder it for himself.

They do sell ads, and I have noticed a lot more big advertisers on there now compared to a year ago. So it is definitely generating revenues.

The big eye opener for Musk was the Twitter Files, which showed him how our government was strong arming media companies into becoming censorship vehicles. Kind of a big mistake in retrospect, wouldn’t you say?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They are loving it on conservative Reddit.

That is insane. Musk is a private citizen and an immigrant. How can they support him having that access?

The New York Times comment section has a lot of people who think it's wonderful and that Elon will clean up government waste.

i read NYT comments. id say its 10:1 against Trump.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hmm I think the impulse to trim down some agencies is a good one. The federal workforce is gigantic. I feel for the employees, but as organizations it'd probably be healthy to take a wrecking ball to them and rebuild. I have doubts about Musk. He has been given an aura of extreme competence by his fanboys for succeeding with Tesla and SpaceX. However, stories from engineers working at these places suggest Musk is a disruptor and incompetent hack in many ways, even if he does make some good decisions, particularly with personnel. I think he managed to surround himself with great and passionate talent given the nature of these ventures (EV/Rockets), and these companies have succeeded in spite of him. I doubt Musk will be as effective as democrats fear he will be in the long run and will likely eff something up sooner than later causing his efforts to stall. I think that's a shame really, as I'd rather prefer a more competent (and compassionate as possible) re-org.

You can’t rebuild once trust is broken in this way. People won’t want these jobs and those that return will demand a lot more money for the risk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had a $1.83 trillion budget deficit last year. Unsustainable. Musk thinks he can cut a trillion in spending. Good, let’s see what he comes up with. His experience at Twitter showed him that three quarters of the people employed there were useless at best.

The only way to make a serious dent in spending is to reform OASDI, Medicare, and military spending.

I don't think politicians from either party have the political courage to tackle this issue. A significant reform will be very unpopular, despite the fact it is needed.

As someone not collecting disability or veterans benefits, not eligible for Medicaid, and too young to really expect to get much from SS, at this point I’m like F it. Burn it down.

I’ll take less national debt for my children’s generation and my life will plug along just as it always was. America voted to cut for trillions from the budget and this is the only way to do it, so do it. It’s not what I voted for, but let’s give our country the results the people have asked for.

There are so many people out there cheering for Feds like me to lose our jobs. So why am I going to bother caring if they lose their benefits that my paycheck helps fund. If you don’t want me to have a job (which contributes taxes toward these programs) then just cut it all off.

And I am sorry for the people who didn’t vote for this. I do have empathy for you. The rest of you are idiots.

I am fascinated that so many on here think Musk is actually trying to cut spending to help the country. He is only in there to benefit himself. And what he is doing won't fix the deficit and could result in so many significant harms. Man, so many of you are stupid AND gullible.

Of course, that is the only explanation for Trump being POTUS again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had a $1.83 trillion budget deficit last year. Unsustainable. Musk thinks he can cut a trillion in spending. Good, let’s see what he comes up with. His experience at Twitter showed him that three quarters of the people employed there were useless at best.

The only way to make a serious dent in spending is to reform OASDI, Medicare, and military spending.

I don't think politicians from either party have the political courage to tackle this issue. A significant reform will be very unpopular, despite the fact it is needed.

I don't think now is the time to reduce military spending given the way he treats our allies.

But the debt is a really, really big deal. I'm hoping this is all showmanship to get leverage for budget negotiations in March and Musk will be more normal after that. Because this is unsustainable.

If debt is a really really big deal- then what do you think about Trump and Elon wanting to get rid of the debt limit?