Comment by archagon
2 months ago
There are two things rich Republicans hate more than anything in the world: the government spending "their" money on services for ordinary folks, and regulations preventing them from making even more money. This is often dressed up as "libertarianism," but in reality, it's simply worship of money as the ultimate virtue.
What sorts of organizations does DOGE want to defund? The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the IRS, the Department of Education, Planned Parenthood, PBS and NPR: https://www.forbes.com/sites/lindseychoo/2024/11/27/elon-mus.... Nevermind that these make up a tiny portion of the intended 2 trillion in cuts.
Adjacent to this, Republican leadership has clearly signaled that they wish to gut Social Security, Medicaid, and the ACA. Here's Robert Reich reading the tea leaves: https://www.greenevillesun.com/opinion/national_columns/reic...
Oh, I would not be surprised to see Musk "succeed spectacularly" in this endeavor. But that's because money is power, and Musk has more of it than anyone in the country. I mean, he even bought himself a president! It's difficult to lose when you can just keep throwing cash at the problem.
By the way, nobody is ever going to tell you outright that they're "only interested in enriching themselves and their cronies." An intelligent adult should be able to interpret reality based on available evidence. If you wait for someone to throw off their mask and reveal themselves a cackling villain, you will find yourself an easy mark.
That Forbes article is just a Forbes journalist guessing what DOGE might do, based on things they've mentioned in passing.
Of course that doesn't add up to 2 trillion in cuts!
The Reich article is mostly him making up evil things DOGE might do, and then criticizing them for these imagined plans.
Once DOGE has real plans and proposals I'll be happy to mock them if they don't make sense. I agree their goals sound very difficult, but I've learned that there are always smarter people than me out there. Maybe you can at least agree with that last part :)
Can you come up with "non-evil" ways to cut 2 trillion, while you wait?
No, but let me expand on that.
The current deficit is 1.69 trillion (1), so something of that magnitude will have to happen, one way or another.
The "DOGE manifesto"(2) lays out the plans/goals in some detail. Note that it's not mainly budget cuts, and not intended to be complete in year 1.
(1): https://usafacts.org/state-of-the-union/budget/ (2): https://archive.ph/rAD4B
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