Is Elon Draining the Swamp on Government Spending or Is He the Swamp?

[Harrisfan]

2 minutes ago, scottiejohn said:

Are you saying that he NEVER collected any data re shopping habits etc?

Every website collects data. Your phone collects data. Air Asia and Singapore Airlines collect data.

 

If this worries you don't use any device. 

[scottiejohn]

2 minutes ago, Harrisfan said:

Every website collects data. Your phone collects data. Air Asia and Singapore Airlines collect data.

Then why imply that he did not?

Typical of your one-sided misleading posts!

[Walker88]

1 hour ago, dinsdale said:

Fantastic and extremely knowledgeable comment. Being that you demonstrate such a commanding grasp of political analysis you should be able to explain this map to us all. 

How about explaining what these numbers mean. 312 and 226.

I can explain it.

 

The areas in Blue represent 62% of US GDP. The areas in Red are a mere 38% of US GDP, and the areas most slurping at the Federal trough. The Blue areas carry the parasitic Red areas, as their inhabitants produce 9.25 times per capita the GDP output of inhabitants in the Red areas.

 

Your numbers 312 and 226 are a reflection of Republican gerrymandering.

 

The most glorious part of "American Democracy" is that the State of California has two Senators, while its population is greater than the combined population of ND, SD, IA, AL, AK, NV, WV, KS, TN, KY, UT, AR, NE, ID, MT, and OK, each of which have two Senators, the folks who get to approve Cabinet positions and judges. Funny those are all Red States, too. California is the world's 5th largest economy, but its Senators have less say than Senators from States who could almost fit all voters into the LA Coliseum.

 

Absurdly, Wyoming has two Senators, but has a smaller population than Columbus, OH, a city ruled by a mayor whose name everyone outside of Columbus would have to Google.

[jvs]

14 hours ago, RSD1 said:

Here’s a summary of just some of Elon Musk’s major U.S. government contracts related to SpaceX, highlighting the financial ties between Musk and the military-industrial complex:

 

• National Security Space Launch (NSSL): $316 million+ (U.S. Space Force)

• Human Landing System (Moon Lander): $2.89 billion (NASA)

• Spy Satellite Network: $1.8 billion (National Reconnaissance Office)

• Rocket Cargo Program: $102 million (U.S. Space Force)

 

These contracts illustrate the deep and incestuous financial entanglement between Musk’s ventures and U.S. government funding.

He got a lot more then that,Tesla got billions!

 

[dinsdale]

3 minutes ago, Walker88 said:

I can explain it.

 

The areas in Blue represent 62% of US GDP. The areas in Red are a mere 38% of US GDP, and the areas most slurping at the Federal trough. The Blue areas carry the parasitic Red areas, as their inhabitants produce 9.25 times per capita the GDP output of inhabitants in the Red areas.

 

Your numbers 312 and 226 are a reflection of Republican gerrymandering.

 

The most glorious part of "American Democracy" is that the State of California has two Senators, while its population is greater than the combined population of ND, SD, IA, AL, AK, NV, WV, KS, TN, KY, UT, AR, NE, ID, MT, and OK, each of which have two Senators, the folks who get to approve Cabinet positions and judges. Funny those are all Red States, too. California is the world's 5th largest economy, but its Senators have less say than Senators from States who could almost fit all voters into the LA Coliseum.

 

Absurdly, Wyoming has two Senators, but has a smaller population than Columbus, OH, a city ruled by a mayor whose name everyone outside of Columbus would have to Google.

Interesting analysis. Now tell me. How many states changed from blue to red and who won the election?

[Harrisfan]

15 minutes ago, scottiejohn said:

Then why imply that he did not?

Typical of your one-sided misleading posts!

Read again. They made money from goods and services being supplied not data collection. Data collection would enhance profits by 5 or 10% though. Signing up to loyalty schemes will save you 10 to 25% though. So the paranoid pay higher prices.

[jvs]

14 hours ago, Harrisfan said:

If only liberals could say something intelligent. It may never happen. 3 weeks in office non stop whingeing.

 

Wait 6 months then see how things are going.

Yes let's just wait and see what happens.

I stocked up on pop corn already!

 

[metisdead]

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[metisdead]

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[frank83628]

16 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I don't know where your "Yet you're screaming bloody murder when DOGE gets in" comes from.

 

It seems Musk is shutting down and taking over. Is that the proper way to do things?

If he buys a company and fires 80% of the people, that is his decision and his consequences - see Twitter.

 

But the government has lots of long-time contracts and obligations. Obviously, they should be revived and if necessary canceled. But just stopping everything from one day to the next is certainly not the way to do government business. 

He bought twitter, got rid of 80% of the libtard activist staff, streamlined the whole company and now doubled it profits.

What exactly is wrong with that?

[tomazbodner]

What DOGE is doing is long overdue. If you look at US debt calculator, which increases every fraction of a second, it's clear this cannot continue. You can't continue to spend beyond your abilities and just keep increasing debt ceiling. Something has to be done about it. This is common sense that everyone of you who is not deeply in debt or homeless should be well aware of. It's just about HOW it is done that raises eyebrows...

[Negita43]

14 hours ago, Harrisfan said:

Musk bought twitter to preserve free speech. He did not buy it to make money.

Didn't he try to back out of the deal? So much for his commitment to free speech

[Harrisfan]

1 minute ago, Negita43 said:

Didn't he try to back out of the deal? So much for his commitment to free speech

Twitter had millions of fake accounts.

[Jim Blue]

37 minutes ago, tomazbodner said:

What DOGE is doing is long  overdue .

Well I thought he was going to DTS ( drain the swamp )  last time so yes it is overdue !

[jvs]

1 hour ago, frank83628 said:

He bought twitter, got rid of 80% of the libtard activist staff, streamlined the whole company and now doubled it profits.

What exactly is wrong with that?

Yes he did really well buying twitter,since he bought it the value has gone done 80%!!!

Win win win!

[jvs]

27 minutes ago, Negita43 said:

Didn't he try to back out of the deal? So much for his commitment to free speech

Yes the court ordered him to honor his bid after he tried to back out.

[OneMoreFarang]

1 hour ago, frank83628 said:

He bought twitter, got rid of 80% of the libtard activist staff, streamlined the whole company and now doubled it profits.

What exactly is wrong with that?

 

He doubled the profits of twitter? 555

[frank83628]

3 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

 

He doubled the profits of twitter? 555

According to a link posted on another thread 

[frank83628]

5 minutes ago, jvs said:

Yes the court ordered him to honor his bid after he tried to back out.

And he tried to back out after twitter would not release real user data

[Watawattana]

20 hours ago, RSD1 said:

The real travesty of government spending in the U.S. is the staggering waste and corruption within overpriced domestic contracts, particularly in the defense industry. Major U.S. defense contractors routinely charge the government absurdly inflated prices, sometimes 100 times the actual cost. A simple bolt that costs $1 to manufacture for a military aircraft might be billed at $100, or more.

 

This isn’t a secret. The government knows it happens but does nothing to stop it. It’s a well-oiled system where big U.S. corporations siphon taxpayer money while making massive political donations to ensure nothing changes. Just another cog in the military industrial complex.

 

In comparison, the U.S. spending on humanitarian aid abroad that everyone has become so focused on now is just a fraction of what gets washed and wasted through corporate overcharging. Cutting foreign aid on humanitarian programs won’t fix the real financial hemorrhaging within the U.S. government, it’s just an easy scapegoat to distract from the real issue.

 

If Elon, the spastic jumping jellybean, truly wants to tackle government overspending and waste, he should focus on the rampant corruption involving major U.S. defense contractors and other large American corporations, including himself and his own greedy business enterprises. His companies have secured massive, overpriced contracts with the government, making him part of the very system siphoning money from the government, which he claims to oppose and appears to be trying to stop.

 

What he’s doing now is mostly a distraction, a red herring being used to shift attention away from the fact that he, too, is profiting unjustly from taxpayer money. If he were serious about fixing the problem, he’d start by exposing and reforming the same corporate greed that benefits him and his own corrupt business enterprises.

I clicked the 'agree' emoji as, well, I agree.  

 

I don't have a crystal ball but would hope that DOGE will get to the bits they have not got to as yet.  It's only been a few weeks.  In corporate-land such cost-cutting activities target what they call 'low hanging fruit' before they attempt the harder stuff.  And that's maybe what they've done so far.  I won't get into the rights and wrongs of what's happened (there are examples of both I think), but from my point of view the balance isn't too far wrong.  

 

I guess there are well-entrenched procurement behaviours in many Government departments, and it'll take time to weed those out.  It'll take a big bulldozer to break some of those doors down, and I'm sure there'll be whining about Musk and his ulterior motives, being protectionist of his own contracts or being anti-left.  Nothing wrong with that, just free speech and personal opinions, sometimes based on fact, sometimes not.

 

But it's results that matter, not necessarily who gets upset on the way in my opinion.  4 years is more than enough to get the rampant procurement mismanagement (or maybe it's corruption) under control.  4 weeks isn't enough, I don't think that's reasonable.  But I hope he is able to get that task done, including allowing an investigation into the contracts that he has.

[illisdean]

He's just doing what Trump asked him to do based on his America First platform and what the 77M voters mandated him to do on Nov 5 2024.

 

 

[illisdean]

1 hour ago, OneMoreFarang said:

 

He doubled the profits of twitter? 555

555....funny....and TRUE . **("nearly doubled")

 

 

 

https://dailycaller.com/2025/02/06/twitter-earnings-predictions-wrong-mock-elon-musk-x-twitter-purchase-acquisition/