Yes, its hyperbole to justify drastic cuts. The real enemy is ideological. This is a classic purge disguised as fiscal restraint. Round 2 will be "gosh, I guess

Yes, its hyperbole to justify drastic cuts. The real enemy is ideological. This is a classic purge disguised as fiscal restraint. Round 2 will be "gosh, I guess it was too much, let's hire our cronies to fill the empty jobs". A similar cover story is used to justify executive bonuses and job cuts (" AI efficiency! ") or gut internal guardrails against some opinioms (" free speech!"). It doesn't matter than spending isn't out of control, or AI can't really make people all that much more efficient or that the purported free speech turns into free speech just for the owner's speech. Propaganda has its own grim rules.