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

[Anonymous]

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.

Are you comfortable with Elon Musk having access to YOUR personal information? Because that’s what’s happening.

[Anonymous]

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.

Aren't we all useless when it comes down to it?

[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.

Do you think maybe that Musk himself might have some entrenched interests of his own? Or do you think he’s doing this out of the goodness of his heart?

Of course the potential exists that he has his own entrenched interests. But I’m told time and time again that government employees are not the enemy, but rather noble civil servants seeking to serve the public good. Perhaps Musk can be given the same deference?

Again, does this particularly bother me? I don’t think so (this doesn’t mean I’m a fan of it, either). If he can actually slow down the spending after decades of drunken spending by Congress on both sides, the outcome might be worth the pain. I just know that I don’t trust anybody in Congress to actually be able to deliver on meaningful, impactful government reform.

Less than 100 years ago the British Empire was the mightiest the world had ever seen. Today they are on an apparent irreversible path to irrelevance and inability to care for their own people. I fear the same fate awaits us absent drastic change that cannot be delivered from within the system.

If it’s all going to sh*t anyways, might as well try something unconventional.

[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.

Are you comfortable with Elon Musk having access to YOUR personal information? Because that’s what’s happening.

NP here. As an employer and private citizen, he’d have our personal information on file if we’re his employees.

And that would be by choice. You work for an org, you give— better yet, entrust said org with your private information.

But we are not his employees, therefore why would we provide such access.

Unless…?

[Anonymous]

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.

According to an internal email sent by Elon Musk to employees, X is 'barely breaking even,' citing stagnant user growth and underwhelming revenue. Musk purchased Twitter for $44 billion in October 2022, a deal financed in part by $13 billion in debt.Jan 27, 2025

New York
CNN
—
The social media platform formerly known as Twitter is worth almost 80% less than two years ago when Elon Musk bought it, according to estimates from investment giant Fidelity.

Yeah, a real success story.

[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.

According to an internal email sent by Elon Musk to employees, X is 'barely breaking even,' citing stagnant user growth and underwhelming revenue. Musk purchased Twitter for $44 billion in October 2022, a deal financed in part by $13 billion in debt.Jan 27, 2025

New York
CNN
—
The social media platform formerly known as Twitter is worth almost 80% less than two years ago when Elon Musk bought it, according to estimates from investment giant Fidelity.

Yeah, a real success story.

Tesla is next…

[Anonymous]

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.

Hard to know what you mean by "those people."
The fact of the matter is that spending is appropriated by Congress, which is made up of people we elect. Some more committed to their constituents and principles, some more committed to their egos and ideology. But we elect them, period. Appropriations have to start in the House. The President is not given a line item veto. It is his JOB to carry out the laws, not make them.

Elon is not elected. He has made no oath to serve the Constitution. Although he has top-secret clearance, there are areas that even his Space-X involvement does not permit, and that is via contract between Space-X and the government; Space-X lawyers have told him not to ask for additional access due to 1) his drug use and 2) his contacts with foreign governments. The stuff he is doing with executive agencies is extra-legal, and there is certainly the potential for him to use his power criminally--IF Trump allowed the DOJ to even prosecute him, he would pardon him.

I live in a red state with a particular boot-licking senator, and even that senator made a statement to the press in our state he has concerns about the power of Congress being invaded.

[Anonymous]

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 largest deficits we've ever had relative to GDP were in 1942 and 2020. 2020 deficit was half of 1942. Both times the US was facing a major global peril. The 2024 deficit was just slightly larger than 1983, when Reagan was President, and followed Reagan's first tax cut. The deficit increased each year Trump was in office.

There are exactly 12 years since 1938 we have not had a deficit, and 8 of those years were under a Democrat president.

[Anonymous]

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.

You mean the experience at Twitter that is cratering the company.

https://futurism.com/elon-musk-begs-advertisers-return-twitter-revenue

https://www.theverge.com/2025/1/24/24351317/elon-musk-x-twitter-bank-debt-stagnant-growth

[Anonymous]

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.

Agree about our deficit, but Twitter/X is a disaster... not a great example of building value.

[Anonymous]

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.

His experience with Twitter left it barely treading water, not sure it is even making it through 2025. But ok.

[Anonymous]

And you all are ok with him hacking DOE with his unsecured, easily hacked server? Now it isn't just you, that is your kids' personal info on the line here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He's infiltrated OPM, the US treasury, has access to Social Security information, which means information on pretty much every worker in the United States.

Is this something you support? And if not, what do you plan to do about it? This is a Pandora box you opened.

Despite all that, Democrats are most focused on USAID. That's what matters the most to them.

[Anonymous]

Gonna be funny when the next President opens the doors of some of our other agencies to teams from the Open Society Foundation and lets them run amuck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Opposed, but I despise most of these autistic tech sociopaths. They are the scourge of civil society.

You said it.