13 ms·

Like sure I’m not familiar with the value of these programs, but you get that these programs are literal pennies compared to the government’s budget right? It’s

by mlazos 2y ago

Like sure I’m not familiar with the value of these programs, but you get that these programs are literal pennies compared to the government’s budget right? It’s not even worth talking about these. DOGE cuts aren’t going to add up to shit and you bet we’re going to hear “mission accomplished” in six months, meanwhile Russia and China and are going to grab global influence in the absence of USAID and we won’t experience the repercussions for years after these clowns have left office.

ikiris 2y ago
[flagged]
- Dig1t 2y ago
  lol these are my tax dollars! I’m sorry, I have nothing against gay people, but I do not want my tax dollars going to sex change operations in Guatemala. We have people in CA affected by fires, people in Carolina who still need help rebuilding after flooding, people in Hawaii that need to rebuild after their own fires. Did you know that most of FEMAs budget was spent housing migrants who crossed the border illegally instead of helping Americans affected by hurricanes? The current situation is one where bureaucrats and NGOs enrich themselves off the back of taxpayers and the problems that actually need solving in our own country go completely unsolved. We voted to cut all of this garbage, if they can’t spend it wisely then just pay down the national debt, which is at crisis levels BTW, or give it back to the taxpayers.
  - MarcelOlsz 2y ago
    Hard to take anyone seriously who rambles about anything other than corporate welfare and income inequality. Anything to distract from class. Now you're sitting there typing up diatribes about sex change operations in Guatemala.
  - 1659447091 2y ago
    > these are my tax dollars! These are not "Your" tax dollars. Some of them are other peoples tax dollars that do want this. So do as my father had and claim that "your" taxes mean you "own" least 1 E4 and a couple of E-2/3's in the military--or whatever your preferred interest is and let the other American tax dollars pay for the things they want. Because You, personally, did not fund the entire US budget. It is not all "your" taxes.
    - Dig1t 2y ago
      > Some of them are other peoples tax dollars that do want this. Well then those people can take their money and donate it directly to the causes they care about. They do not need to use my tax money for it. Yes actually some of this money WAS mine. I paid into this system (actually I was forced to under threat of violence), and I do not want my money being spent on this. I would rather keep my own money or have it used on paying down the national debt. All money spent by the government is ultimately taxation, if it doesn’t come directly from taxpayers it comes from us in the form of inflation. i.e. printing more money than there is value in the economy.
      - ModernMech 2y ago
        I also pay into the the system, and I want to spend my tax dollars on all the things you don't want to. Moreover, I want to defund all the services which benefit you personally. Where does that leave us as a society?
        saagarjha 2y ago
        It leaves us in the libertarian utopia which the commenter above you clearly desires to live in.
        oigursh 2y ago
        I'd like my tax to pay for some oxygen for that other person, since they have clearly been deprived of it for a while.
      - 1659447091 2y ago
  - Galatians4_16 2y ago
    > lol these are my tax dollars! No, those dollars have been extorted from you fair and square. You have no control over who gets the spoils.
    - buhfur 2y ago
      True. But I can vote for someone who ensure my tax dollars are going where I want them to go.
      - nielsbot 2y ago
        fine. they should do it legally, not fascistically
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
  - zelon88 2y ago
    > I have nothing against gay people, You don't get to dictate that to other people after going on a rant specifically about gay people. I mean you can, but nobody's gonna buy it. You need to realize that perception is reality, and the perception here is you are very narrow minded. More concerned with taking condoms away from gay people than you are with saving your own country from a 20 year old gang of fascists who stole your SSN on a USB stick and stood up a blank WordPress site to brag about it. — $6.3 million for men who have sex with men in South Africa See, you can't paraphrase to add (what you view as) negative connotation and then claim "I have nothing against gay people." The money did not go to South Africa with the earmark "so gay men can have sex with gay men." It went to something you don't see the value in. It went to something you think is unimportant. Like HIV medication, or STD prevention, or treatment, or gasp a $.50 condom that maybe prevented a diesease. The takeaway for you is this; your anti-LGBT bias clearly shows through. You are not as middle-of-the-road as you think you are. Sir, you are brainwashed. This is not about cost. This is about regulating others and preventing lifestyles you disagree with from having access to medical care. You think that by deincentivizing LGBTQ activities you can regulate LGBTQ culture. Good luck. > We voted to cut all of this garbage Yeah, well we both voted for a lot of this garbage that was created by a BYPARTISAN ACT OF CONGRESS. Your orange clown has no right acting like a king in a country that we all built together. Your vote shouldn't be able to erase all of mine. The government was built with checks and balances. Respect them.
    - angelgonzales 2y ago
      [flagged]
      - Brybry 2y ago
        South Africa has the most people infected with HIV by far. [1] It's a bit crazy to me that it's not listed in their key issues as more than 1 in 10 adults (maybe even 1 in 5) in South Africa have HIV. HIV-positive gay men are at a higher risk of transmission for obvious reasons [2] and I can think of a lot of good reasons for the US to want to fight infectious diseases in other countries. I assume the $6.3 million is really $4.3 million here[3], of which $1.9 million was given to 'OUT LGBT WELL-BEING'[4] for 'ENGAGE MEN’S HEALTH: COMPREHENSIVE HEALTH SERVICES FOR MSM IN SOUTH AFRICA ACTIVITY'. If you look at the health services they provide in [4] it's testing/screening for HIV, it's HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis, etc. In 2021 they had two mobile health teams providing those services to gay men. [5][page 14] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIV_adult_prevalence_rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIV_adult_prevalence_rate [2] https://hivinfo.nih.gov/understanding-hiv/fact-sheets/hiv-and-gay-and-bisexual-men https://hivinfo.nih.gov/understanding-hiv/fact-sheets/hiv-an... [3] https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_72067423FA00008_7200 https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_72067423FA00008_7... [4] https://web.archive.org/web/20240715043923/https://out.org.za/ https://web.archive.org/web/20240715043923/https://out.org.z... [5] https://out.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/OUT_Annual_Report_2021_final_web.pdf https://out.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/OUT_Annual_Rep...
  - cellwebb 2y ago
    > We have people in CA affected by fires, people in Carolina who still need help rebuilding after flooding, people in Hawaii that need to rebuild after their own fires. Trump wants to end all federal disaster relief.
    - braebo 2y ago
      And he literally dumped billions of gallons of water from their reservoirs[1] that they needed to fight future fires. To nobody’s benefit, mind you, and at a great expense. [1](https://stocktonia.org/news/california-water/2025/02/01/trumps-emergency-order-dumps-water-out-of-san-joaquin-valley-reservoirs/ https://stocktonia.org/news/california-water/2025/02/01/trum...)
  - Brybry 2y ago
    I don't know if there's any evidence that your tax dollars went to sex change operations in Guatemala. $350k (out of $2 million) was given to ASOCIACION LAMBDA. Yes, gender affirming care is mentioned in the description but that could mean almost anything. [1] If you look at what they promote it's mostly about gender equality and protecting people from violence. Workshops, safe spaces, collecting statistics, some HIV testing stuff. [2][3][4][5] I'm not saying it's impossible but I haven't seen any evidence and the people making the claims are known chronic liars. And most of FEMA's budget was not spent on housing illegal migrants. Disaster relief funding is separate and much larger than Shelter and Services Program funding[6][7][8], as ordered by Congress in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023. [9] [1] https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_72052024FA00001_7200/ https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_72052024FA00001_7... [2] https://www.asociacion-lambda.org/ https://www.asociacion-lambda.org/ [3] https://www.instagram.com/asoclambda/ https://www.instagram.com/asoclambda/ [4] https://www.unaids.org/en/resources/presscentre/featurestories/2023/june/20230627_guatemala-LGBTIQ-migrants https://www.unaids.org/en/resources/presscentre/featurestori... [5] https://gt.usembassy.gov/2023-human-rights-report-guatemala/ https://gt.usembassy.gov/2023-human-rights-report-guatemala/ [6] https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/false-claims-fema-disaster-funds-migrants-pushed-trump-rcna173955 https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/false-claims-f... [7] https://apnews.com/article/fema-migrants-nyc-funding-luxury-hotels-doge-c7d2c0b029bc653293a478b4bf5d59b1 https://apnews.com/article/fema-migrants-nyc-funding-luxury-... [8] https://www.fema.gov/grants/preparedness/shelter-services-program/fy24-awards/ssp-a https://www.fema.gov/grants/preparedness/shelter-services-pr... [9] https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/2617/text https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/2617...
    - 9dev 2y ago
      Don’t waste your time researching facts for people like this. They will not even take the courtesy of responding, and cannot be bothered to consider an alternative angle to their ideology.
      - nielsbot 2y ago
        very correct and important advice (not being sarcastic)
unclad5968 2y ago
[flagged]
- maxerickson 2y ago
  To make the planet, the world, a better place for Americans. Your apparent lack of tolerance for things that do not directly serve your self interest is short sighted and foolhardy. It's sad that your way of thinking has carried the day in the US.
  - koolba 2y ago
    Theres nothing charitable or noble about donating other people’s money. If you feel these causes are worthy, donate your own money privately.
    - mmooss 2y ago
      The 'other people' agree to it, via the democratic process. It's not stolen money.
    - maxerickson 2y ago
      Promoting US interests isn't "donating". Some of the spending probably does fit that description, but I bet if we had a truth oracle that could actually tell us, it would be a lot less than you think.
    - DrillShopper 2y ago
      I already do
    - LastTrain 2y ago
      All taxes are theft then?
    - aaronharnly 2y ago
      We live in a polity. That polity can be generous, well-regarded, respected, feared, and despised. The admixture of those attitudes affects our polity’s ability to pursue its interests. (I also happen to think that our polity should assist the least fortunate on its own merits, but you may not)
Dig1t 2y ago
[flagged]
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- SpicyLemonZest 2y ago
  Who is Mark Buffington, and why should I trust that his “recent web information” is an accurate and representative sample of spending that DOGE has cut? The official doge.gov site provides no breakdown other than a Twitter stream and an empty savings tab, although they claim on this lovely Valentine's day that "receipts" will be coming "no later than Valentine's day". Big if true!
- lesuorac 2y ago
  > I would love to hear justifications for things like this and how they help US global influence. Largely the justification is the programs don't do what Musk says they do. You've got to understand the source of your information is from habitual liars. The Tesla's autopilot [1] marketing video still starts of with "The person in the driver's seat is only there for legal reasons. He is not doing anything. The car is driving itself". That person in the driver's seat had to take control of the car numerous times include one time where the car drove off the road and struck a fence. These are not people whose word you can take at face value. Anybody can throw together a list but it doesn't make it real. [1]: https://www.tesla.com/autopilot https://www.tesla.com/autopilot
  - Dig1t 2y ago
    You can look them up on the actual government website: https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_72052024FA00001_7200/ https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_72052024FA00001_7... > ACTIVITY TO STRENGTHEN TRANS-LED ORGANIZATIONS TO DELIVER GENDER-AFFIRMING HEALTH CARE This is 2M of my tax dollars that was/is being sent to Guatemala for gender affirming care. Which is sex change operations and hormones.
    - ModernMech 2y ago
slashdev 2y ago
[flagged]
- Swenrekcah 2y ago
  Yes, it does seems reasonable to destroy seven decades of US global influence buildup because there was a twitter clone made in 2010.
  - slashdev 2y ago
    Among regimes toppled, prosecutors fired, presidents and vice presidents impeached, domestic and foreign elections interfered with, and literally a hundred other disgraces. Yes, it’s worth it.
    - Swenrekcah 2y ago
      Oh, you’re worried about corruption and election interference? One day you’ll realise and don’t be too hard on yourself then. You were not the only one.
      - slashdev 2y ago
        If you have a point to make, make it. Don’t just take vague jabs at me.
        deleted 2y ago
        [deleted]
        braebo 2y ago
        Justa hunch, but my guess is that GP is referring to the fact that the Trump administration and Project 2025 is the most blatant and detrimental manifestation of evil and corruption that the modern western world has seen since WW2, they outline their plans to completely destroy all semblance of justice and public protection from the wealthiest country in the world while ensuring that a free and fair democratic election never takes place again (in our lifetimes at least), and it’s somewhat poetic that people were duped by propaganda into giving them the power they needed to bring an end to the United States of America as it has existed since it was founded because they were tired of being taken advantage of by the system as it was. It wasn’t perfect, but it’s going to look like a Utopia after these guys are done with us.
knowitnone 2y ago
yes but they are my pennies
- onemoresoop 2y ago
  Ok, now not only your pennies but your thousands of dollars in taxes will have a lot less oversight and will be vaccumed up by the mega billionares through contracts with the government. Will those contracts benefit you? Thats a good question. You want to go to mars? Or live in a country where workers are freely discarded when sick, whose rights are about to erode completely? Im afraid nothing good will come out of this unless you’re one of the few benefitting directly. The rest of us are not in for a good time.
rapatel0 2y ago
This is the false tool that bureaucrats use to justify there excesses. "this is just pennies...no one is going to notice it? If you look at the budget, everything is "just pennies" yet somehow it's 2T deficit with 7T total expenditures. If you were to drill into the big programs (Medicare, Social Security, Defense, etc) there are thousands of programs nested within those. Like it or not someone will need to do the hard work of going line-by-line and accumulating savings to make the budget make sense. There also needs to be a culture shift in gov't. It's not monopoly money---something obvious no?
- refurb 2y ago
  Exactly. The whole budget is made up of pennies. It’s a lazy talking point to say they don’t matter and what’s even worse is the politicians see no issue with wasting pennies of tax payer money! Any waste should be condemned. And like you said you’ll never balance the budget unless you go line by line. As a tax payer I’d love a balanced budget by getting a punch of pennies and keeping core programs the same versus cutting core programs because “it’s too hard” to look at the pennies.
  - ModernMech 2y ago
    Your “government waste” is another’s crucial government program. Since we don’t have a definition for waste, going through finding it is an ideological exercise. What you’re advocating for is an ideological purge for your team, but you wouldn’t be so excited if you didn’t agree with the ideology.
    - refurb 2y ago
      No. There is plenty of waste in the budget and “nice to have programs”. You only need to look at the list of things being cut. And of course it’s ideological! People vote for a President with certain values and they follow those. It’s how it’s supposed to work.
      - ModernMech 2y ago

by mlazos 2y ago

ikiris 2y ago

[flagged]

Dig1t 2y ago
lol these are my tax dollars! I’m sorry, I have nothing against gay people, but I do not want my tax dollars going to sex change operations in Guatemala. We have people in CA affected by fires, people in Carolina who still need help rebuilding after flooding, people in Hawaii that need to rebuild after their own fires. Did you know that most of FEMAs budget was spent housing migrants who crossed the border illegally instead of helping Americans affected by hurricanes? The current situation is one where bureaucrats and NGOs enrich themselves off the back of taxpayers and the problems that actually need solving in our own country go completely unsolved. We voted to cut all of this garbage, if they can’t spend it wisely then just pay down the national debt, which is at crisis levels BTW, or give it back to the taxpayers.
- MarcelOlsz 2y ago
  Hard to take anyone seriously who rambles about anything other than corporate welfare and income inequality. Anything to distract from class. Now you're sitting there typing up diatribes about sex change operations in Guatemala.
- 1659447091 2y ago
  > these are my tax dollars! These are not "Your" tax dollars. Some of them are other peoples tax dollars that do want this. So do as my father had and claim that "your" taxes mean you "own" least 1 E4 and a couple of E-2/3's in the military--or whatever your preferred interest is and let the other American tax dollars pay for the things they want. Because You, personally, did not fund the entire US budget. It is not all "your" taxes.
  - Dig1t 2y ago
    > Some of them are other peoples tax dollars that do want this. Well then those people can take their money and donate it directly to the causes they care about. They do not need to use my tax money for it. Yes actually some of this money WAS mine. I paid into this system (actually I was forced to under threat of violence), and I do not want my money being spent on this. I would rather keep my own money or have it used on paying down the national debt. All money spent by the government is ultimately taxation, if it doesn’t come directly from taxpayers it comes from us in the form of inflation. i.e. printing more money than there is value in the economy.
    - ModernMech 2y ago
      I also pay into the the system, and I want to spend my tax dollars on all the things you don't want to. Moreover, I want to defund all the services which benefit you personally. Where does that leave us as a society?
      - saagarjha 2y ago
        It leaves us in the libertarian utopia which the commenter above you clearly desires to live in.
      - oigursh 2y ago
        I'd like my tax to pay for some oxygen for that other person, since they have clearly been deprived of it for a while.
    - 1659447091 2y ago
- Galatians4_16 2y ago
  > lol these are my tax dollars! No, those dollars have been extorted from you fair and square. You have no control over who gets the spoils.
  - buhfur 2y ago
    True. But I can vote for someone who ensure my tax dollars are going where I want them to go.
    - nielsbot 2y ago
      fine. they should do it legally, not fascistically
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
- zelon88 2y ago
  > I have nothing against gay people, You don't get to dictate that to other people after going on a rant specifically about gay people. I mean you can, but nobody's gonna buy it. You need to realize that perception is reality, and the perception here is you are very narrow minded. More concerned with taking condoms away from gay people than you are with saving your own country from a 20 year old gang of fascists who stole your SSN on a USB stick and stood up a blank WordPress site to brag about it. — $6.3 million for men who have sex with men in South Africa See, you can't paraphrase to add (what you view as) negative connotation and then claim "I have nothing against gay people." The money did not go to South Africa with the earmark "so gay men can have sex with gay men." It went to something you don't see the value in. It went to something you think is unimportant. Like HIV medication, or STD prevention, or treatment, or gasp a $.50 condom that maybe prevented a diesease. The takeaway for you is this; your anti-LGBT bias clearly shows through. You are not as middle-of-the-road as you think you are. Sir, you are brainwashed. This is not about cost. This is about regulating others and preventing lifestyles you disagree with from having access to medical care. You think that by deincentivizing LGBTQ activities you can regulate LGBTQ culture. Good luck. > We voted to cut all of this garbage Yeah, well we both voted for a lot of this garbage that was created by a BYPARTISAN ACT OF CONGRESS. Your orange clown has no right acting like a king in a country that we all built together. Your vote shouldn't be able to erase all of mine. The government was built with checks and balances. Respect them.
  - angelgonzales 2y ago
    [flagged]
    - Brybry 2y ago
      South Africa has the most people infected with HIV by far. [1] It's a bit crazy to me that it's not listed in their key issues as more than 1 in 10 adults (maybe even 1 in 5) in South Africa have HIV. HIV-positive gay men are at a higher risk of transmission for obvious reasons [2] and I can think of a lot of good reasons for the US to want to fight infectious diseases in other countries. I assume the $6.3 million is really $4.3 million here[3], of which $1.9 million was given to 'OUT LGBT WELL-BEING'[4] for 'ENGAGE MEN’S HEALTH: COMPREHENSIVE HEALTH SERVICES FOR MSM IN SOUTH AFRICA ACTIVITY'. If you look at the health services they provide in [4] it's testing/screening for HIV, it's HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis, etc. In 2021 they had two mobile health teams providing those services to gay men. [5][page 14] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIV_adult_prevalence_rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIV_adult_prevalence_rate [2] https://hivinfo.nih.gov/understanding-hiv/fact-sheets/hiv-and-gay-and-bisexual-men https://hivinfo.nih.gov/understanding-hiv/fact-sheets/hiv-an... [3] https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_72067423FA00008_7200 https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_72067423FA00008_7... [4] https://web.archive.org/web/20240715043923/https://out.org.za/ https://web.archive.org/web/20240715043923/https://out.org.z... [5] https://out.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/OUT_Annual_Report_2021_final_web.pdf https://out.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/OUT_Annual_Rep...
- cellwebb 2y ago
  > We have people in CA affected by fires, people in Carolina who still need help rebuilding after flooding, people in Hawaii that need to rebuild after their own fires. Trump wants to end all federal disaster relief.
  - braebo 2y ago
    And he literally dumped billions of gallons of water from their reservoirs[1] that they needed to fight future fires. To nobody’s benefit, mind you, and at a great expense. [1](https://stocktonia.org/news/california-water/2025/02/01/trumps-emergency-order-dumps-water-out-of-san-joaquin-valley-reservoirs/ https://stocktonia.org/news/california-water/2025/02/01/trum...)
- Brybry 2y ago
  I don't know if there's any evidence that your tax dollars went to sex change operations in Guatemala. $350k (out of $2 million) was given to ASOCIACION LAMBDA. Yes, gender affirming care is mentioned in the description but that could mean almost anything. [1] If you look at what they promote it's mostly about gender equality and protecting people from violence. Workshops, safe spaces, collecting statistics, some HIV testing stuff. [2][3][4][5] I'm not saying it's impossible but I haven't seen any evidence and the people making the claims are known chronic liars. And most of FEMA's budget was not spent on housing illegal migrants. Disaster relief funding is separate and much larger than Shelter and Services Program funding[6][7][8], as ordered by Congress in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023. [9] [1] https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_72052024FA00001_7200/ https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_72052024FA00001_7... [2] https://www.asociacion-lambda.org/ https://www.asociacion-lambda.org/ [3] https://www.instagram.com/asoclambda/ https://www.instagram.com/asoclambda/ [4] https://www.unaids.org/en/resources/presscentre/featurestories/2023/june/20230627_guatemala-LGBTIQ-migrants https://www.unaids.org/en/resources/presscentre/featurestori... [5] https://gt.usembassy.gov/2023-human-rights-report-guatemala/ https://gt.usembassy.gov/2023-human-rights-report-guatemala/ [6] https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/false-claims-fema-disaster-funds-migrants-pushed-trump-rcna173955 https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/false-claims-f... [7] https://apnews.com/article/fema-migrants-nyc-funding-luxury-hotels-doge-c7d2c0b029bc653293a478b4bf5d59b1 https://apnews.com/article/fema-migrants-nyc-funding-luxury-... [8] https://www.fema.gov/grants/preparedness/shelter-services-program/fy24-awards/ssp-a https://www.fema.gov/grants/preparedness/shelter-services-pr... [9] https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/2617/text https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/2617...
  - 9dev 2y ago
    Don’t waste your time researching facts for people like this. They will not even take the courtesy of responding, and cannot be bothered to consider an alternative angle to their ideology.
    - nielsbot 2y ago
      very correct and important advice (not being sarcastic)

unclad5968 2y ago

[flagged]

maxerickson 2y ago
To make the planet, the world, a better place for Americans. Your apparent lack of tolerance for things that do not directly serve your self interest is short sighted and foolhardy. It's sad that your way of thinking has carried the day in the US.
- koolba 2y ago
  Theres nothing charitable or noble about donating other people’s money. If you feel these causes are worthy, donate your own money privately.
  - mmooss 2y ago
    The 'other people' agree to it, via the democratic process. It's not stolen money.
  - maxerickson 2y ago
    Promoting US interests isn't "donating". Some of the spending probably does fit that description, but I bet if we had a truth oracle that could actually tell us, it would be a lot less than you think.
  - DrillShopper 2y ago
    I already do
  - LastTrain 2y ago
    All taxes are theft then?
  - aaronharnly 2y ago
    We live in a polity. That polity can be generous, well-regarded, respected, feared, and despised. The admixture of those attitudes affects our polity’s ability to pursue its interests. (I also happen to think that our polity should assist the least fortunate on its own merits, but you may not)

Dig1t 2y ago

[flagged]

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
SpicyLemonZest 2y ago
Who is Mark Buffington, and why should I trust that his “recent web information” is an accurate and representative sample of spending that DOGE has cut? The official doge.gov site provides no breakdown other than a Twitter stream and an empty savings tab, although they claim on this lovely Valentine's day that "receipts" will be coming "no later than Valentine's day". Big if true!
lesuorac 2y ago
> I would love to hear justifications for things like this and how they help US global influence. Largely the justification is the programs don't do what Musk says they do. You've got to understand the source of your information is from habitual liars. The Tesla's autopilot [1] marketing video still starts of with "The person in the driver's seat is only there for legal reasons. He is not doing anything. The car is driving itself". That person in the driver's seat had to take control of the car numerous times include one time where the car drove off the road and struck a fence. These are not people whose word you can take at face value. Anybody can throw together a list but it doesn't make it real. [1]: https://www.tesla.com/autopilot https://www.tesla.com/autopilot
- Dig1t 2y ago
  You can look them up on the actual government website: https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_72052024FA00001_7200/ https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_72052024FA00001_7... > ACTIVITY TO STRENGTHEN TRANS-LED ORGANIZATIONS TO DELIVER GENDER-AFFIRMING HEALTH CARE This is 2M of my tax dollars that was/is being sent to Guatemala for gender affirming care. Which is sex change operations and hormones.
  - ModernMech 2y ago

slashdev 2y ago

[flagged]

Swenrekcah 2y ago
Yes, it does seems reasonable to destroy seven decades of US global influence buildup because there was a twitter clone made in 2010.
- slashdev 2y ago
  Among regimes toppled, prosecutors fired, presidents and vice presidents impeached, domestic and foreign elections interfered with, and literally a hundred other disgraces. Yes, it’s worth it.
  - Swenrekcah 2y ago
    Oh, you’re worried about corruption and election interference? One day you’ll realise and don’t be too hard on yourself then. You were not the only one.
    - slashdev 2y ago
      If you have a point to make, make it. Don’t just take vague jabs at me.
      - deleted 2y ago
        [deleted]
      - braebo 2y ago
        Justa hunch, but my guess is that GP is referring to the fact that the Trump administration and Project 2025 is the most blatant and detrimental manifestation of evil and corruption that the modern western world has seen since WW2, they outline their plans to completely destroy all semblance of justice and public protection from the wealthiest country in the world while ensuring that a free and fair democratic election never takes place again (in our lifetimes at least), and it’s somewhat poetic that people were duped by propaganda into giving them the power they needed to bring an end to the United States of America as it has existed since it was founded because they were tired of being taken advantage of by the system as it was. It wasn’t perfect, but it’s going to look like a Utopia after these guys are done with us.

knowitnone 2y ago

yes but they are my pennies

onemoresoop 2y ago
Ok, now not only your pennies but your thousands of dollars in taxes will have a lot less oversight and will be vaccumed up by the mega billionares through contracts with the government. Will those contracts benefit you? Thats a good question. You want to go to mars? Or live in a country where workers are freely discarded when sick, whose rights are about to erode completely? Im afraid nothing good will come out of this unless you’re one of the few benefitting directly. The rest of us are not in for a good time.

rapatel0 2y ago

This is the false tool that bureaucrats use to justify there excesses. "this is just pennies...no one is going to notice it? If you look at the budget, everything is "just pennies" yet somehow it's 2T deficit with 7T total expenditures. If you were to drill into the big programs (Medicare, Social Security, Defense, etc) there are thousands of programs nested within those. Like it or not someone will need to do the hard work of going line-by-line and accumulating savings to make the budget make sense. There also needs to be a culture shift in gov't. It's not monopoly money---something obvious no?

refurb 2y ago
Exactly. The whole budget is made up of pennies. It’s a lazy talking point to say they don’t matter and what’s even worse is the politicians see no issue with wasting pennies of tax payer money! Any waste should be condemned. And like you said you’ll never balance the budget unless you go line by line. As a tax payer I’d love a balanced budget by getting a punch of pennies and keeping core programs the same versus cutting core programs because “it’s too hard” to look at the pennies.
- ModernMech 2y ago
  Your “government waste” is another’s crucial government program. Since we don’t have a definition for waste, going through finding it is an ideological exercise. What you’re advocating for is an ideological purge for your team, but you wouldn’t be so excited if you didn’t agree with the ideology.
  - refurb 2y ago
    No. There is plenty of waste in the budget and “nice to have programs”. You only need to look at the list of things being cut. And of course it’s ideological! People vote for a President with certain values and they follow those. It’s how it’s supposed to work.
    - ModernMech 2y ago