Chelsea Clinton got $84 Million from USAID?!?!

[Hawkeye21 2,393]

1 minute ago, The Girlfriend said:

But it won’t. It’s going to fund the tax breaks for the wealthy.

Maybe

[TrailGuy 554]

2 minutes ago, Hawkeye21 said:

How much will it save overall?  That's what matters.

Why does he need $7M a week?  If we're talking about fraud and abuse, start there.

[Mike Honcho 5,251]

41 minutes ago, Hardcore troubadour said:

Chelsea Clinton running anything. Ooof. 

Gotta love HT, he pushes his chips all-in with nothing---loses, and then just sits at the table like he won with 4 aces. 

[Hawkeye21 2,393]

3 minutes ago, TrailGuy said:

Why does he need $7M a week?  If we're talking about fraud and abuse, start there.

I think he should be transparent about it.  Everything we're spending tax dollars on should be transparent.

[TrailGuy 554]

2 minutes ago, Hawkeye21 said:

I think he should be transparent about it.  Everything we're spending tax dollars on should be transparent.

Agreed.

Do you think secretly starting this work over a weekend, moving in sofa beds so you don't have to leave, forcing others out, no oversight all while spending $7M on who knows what is transparency?

Me neither.

[Hawkeye21 2,393]

Just now, TrailGuy said:

Agreed.

Do you think secretly starting this work over a weekend, moving in sofa beds so you don't have to leave, forcing others out, no oversight all while spending $7M on who knows what is transparency?

Me neither.

I'm willing to let certain things slide if we can accomplishing gutting most of our wasteful government.

[MLCKAA 565]

15 minutes ago, The Girlfriend said:

But it won’t. It’s going to fund the tax breaks for the wealthy.

Do we have specifics yet on what the tax breaks are for the wealthy?

[RLLD 4,194]

4 minutes ago, Hawkeye21 said:

I'm willing to let certain things slide if we can accomplishing gutting most of our wasteful government.

Agree.    The corruption will not die quietly.  And the screaming coming from political circles is confirmation we are looking at the right things. 

[TrailGuy 554]

4 minutes ago, Hawkeye21 said:

I'm willing to let certain things slide if we can accomplishing gutting most of our wasteful government.

I would argue that most of our wasteful government doesn't lie in the 1% of spending.

[Hawkeye21 2,393]

2 minutes ago, TrailGuy said:

I would argue that most of our wasteful government doesn't lie in the 1% of spending.

You know this is just part of it, right?

[TrailGuy 554]

2 minutes ago, Hawkeye21 said:

You know this is just part of it, right?

Yes it's a very small piece.  Is Elon going into the defense department?  Medicare and Medicaid? I'm sure there is lots of fraud here.

[Hawkeye21 2,393]

1 minute ago, TrailGuy said:

Yes it's a very small piece.  Is Elon going into the defense department?  Medicare and Medicaid? I'm sure there is lots of fraud here.

I hope so

[MLCKAA 565]

32 minutes ago, TrailGuy said:

Yes it's a very small piece.  Is Elon going into the defense department?  Medicare and Medicaid? I'm sure there is lots of fraud here.

Shouldn’t we all want waste, fraud and misuse addressed everywhere?  I think that’s something we could all agree on.  I’m in favor of putting everything under the microscope.

When a family is failing and approaching bankruptcy and they decide to start budgeting, the small things matter.  The wife can’t say “My Starbucks is a small part of our spending” and the husband can’t say “My sports betting is a small part of our spending” as if it isn’t all a part of the problem.

[TrailGuy 554]

28 minutes ago, MLCKAA said:

Shouldn’t we all want waste, fraud and misuse addressed everywhere?  I think that’s something we could all agree on.  I’m in favor of putting everything under the microscope.

When a family is failing and approaching bankruptcy and they decide to start budgeting, the small things matter.  The wife can’t say “My Starbucks is a small part of our spending” and the husband can’t say “My sports betting is a small part of our spending” as if it isn’t all a part of the problem.

Using your family analogy, if they're going bankrupt because they can't afford their $4k/mo mortgage, going after the $10/mo starbucks and $20/gambling isn't going to do it.

[Fnord 2,187]

1 hour ago, Alias Detective said:

100% agree.  Eliminating pork would be a net positive then.  I think the DOGE is on the right track if it can remain nonpolitical.

But it has never been nonpolitical with DOGE, since it isn't a real agency. It was created out of thin air to serve political needs. Nobody would be against a nonpartisan third party audit.

[Engorgeous George 2,283]

17 minutes ago, Fnord said:

But it has never been nonpolitical with DOGE, since it isn't a real agency. It was created out of thin air to serve political needs. Nobody would be against a nonpartisan third party audit.

If the concern is that Musk is politically far right (a premise with which I agree) and that he is only uncovering or highlighting abuses from the left (a premise I neither accept nor reject) and you seek a mythical non-partisan person or agency to audit, which being mythical does not exist, may I suggest an alternative?  I suggest the left engage their richest, tech saviest, partisan billionaire or trillionaire if we get there (which will happen soon) to ferret out republican initiated budget abuses and fraud and theft.  Bring those to our attention.  If the administration does not go after them with equal zeal then we can have the discussion about the weaponization of government.  If they do go after those abuses with equal zeal, well who knows, maybe between teh two sides ruthlessly holding the other to account we might get a balanced budget and less graft. 

[Engorgeous George 2,283]

If we could pronounce DOGE like "doggy" we could call Musk the tail which wages the doggy.

[The Girlfriend 209]

2 hours ago, The Girlfriend said:

Again, why does this need to be done illegally and without oversight? Anyone?

Anyone?

This is money that has already been budgeted and approved by Congress. They do NOT have the power to do this. Congress controls the power of the purse. Yes, there will be lawsuits and most likely this will not go in their favor, but by then the damage will have already been done.

If they really were on the up and up, a bipartisan committee would have been the proper way to deal with this.

[TheNewGirl 1,456]

2 hours ago, TrailGuy said:

I would argue that most of our wasteful government doesn't lie in the 1% of spending.

Where do you think the wasteful spending is? 

[Hardcore troubadour 15,257]

Hey patriots, keep in mind that the ones flipping out about the good work that Elons autists are doing are the same backward mouth breathers that told us just a few weeks ago that not having water in a reservoir was no big deal in order to fight the fire next to it. Pay no mind. 

[nobody 2,651]

2 hours ago, TrailGuy said:

I would argue that most of our wasteful government doesn't lie in the 1% of spending.

You guys always say this, and then we never start looking at anything.  Gotta start somewhere, and this is the low hanging fruit.

[avoiding injuries 1,558]

3 minutes ago, Hardcore troubadour said:

Hey patriots, keep in mind that the ones flipping out about the good work that Elons autists are doing are the same backward mouth breathers that told us just a few weeks ago that not having water in a reservoir was no big deal in order to fight the fire next to it. Pay no mind. 

They’re also the same people that supported 87,000 ADDITIONAL IRS agents to audit us!!

[TrailGuy 554]

14 minutes ago, TheNewGirl said:

Where do you think the wasteful spending is? 

Department of Defense, Medicaire/Medicaid.

The single most wasteful program this decade was the PPP program under Trump.  Almost a trillion dollar giveaway to rich people and scam artists.

[TrailGuy 554]

3 minutes ago, nobody said:

You guys always say this, and then we never start looking at anything.  Gotta start somewhere, and this is the low hanging fruit.

The low hanging fruit is the department of defense.  With one EO we can stop the contractors overcharging the government and save tens of billions.  Any contractor caught overcharging is replaced.  You probably don't even need to audit that.

Sifting through aid organizations looking for $44k in news subscriptions is not low hanging fruit. 

[TrailGuy 554]

6 minutes ago, avoiding injuries said:

They’re also the same people that supported 87,000 ADDITIONAL IRS agents to audit us!!

Those 87k agents would have caught cheaters and lowered everyone's taxes.

Anyone that talks about eliminating fraud should shut up about hiring IRS agents to find... FRAUD. 

[nobody 2,651]

You guys ever try to change something at work?  This conversation reminds me of that.  

It's always a bunch of made up reasons why something won't work.  All because they just don't won't it done.  Because when you want to pull in that direction you talk about ways to help make it happen.

Why on earth would anybody be against not wasting\stealing money?  And from the looks of some of these line items coming out, we're clearly either bribing people or people are stealing it.  Why aren't we all cheering this?  Even if it's a drop in the bucket, it can be the pilot for something more impactful.

Even if the president doesn't have the authority to pull funding, we should be able to trigger a review and get the funding held and reallocated.  

It's just amazing to me that because OMB is involved we don't want to do something that is so obviously moving in the right direction.

[avoiding injuries 1,558]

You guys aren’t going to believe this, but I found out why Squizzy is opposed to all this happening.
$280,000 allocated to support “diverse birdwatchers”.  

https://x.com/libsoftiktok/status/1887564950526148627?s=46

[EternalShinyAndChrome 4,026]

1 minute ago, nobody said:

You guys ever try to change something at work?  This conversation reminds me of that.  

It's always a bunch of made up reasons why something won't work.  All because they just don't won't it done.  Because when you won't to pull in that direction you talk about ways to help make it happen.

Why on earth would anybody be against not wasting\stealing money?  And from the looks of some of these line items coming out, we're clearly either bribing people or people are stealing it.  Why aren't we all cheering this?  Even if it's a drop in the bucket, it can be the pilot for something more impactful.

Even if the president doesn't have the authority to pull funding, we should be able to trigger a review and get the funding held and reallocated.  

It's just amazing to me that because OMB is involved we don't want to do something that is so obviously moving in the right direction.

It seems the liberals here are against removing government waste.  It's a shame because you're absolutely right that this should be a topic we can all agree on, but some have got their marching orders from up top and were told to oppose this.  Sad.

[TrailGuy 554]

1 minute ago, nobody said:

You guys ever try to change something at work?  This conversation reminds me of that.  

It's always a bunch of made up reasons why something won't work.  All because they just don't won't it done.  Because when you won't to pull in that direction you talk about ways to help make it happen.

Why on earth would anybody be against not wasting\stealing money?  And from the looks of some of these line items coming out, we're clearly either bribing people or people are stealing it.  Why aren't we all cheering this?  Even if it's a drop in the bucket, it can be the pilot for something more impactful.

Even if the president doesn't have the authority to pull funding, we should be able to trigger a review and get the funding held and reallocated.  

It's just amazing to me that because OMB is involved we don't want to do something that is so obviously moving in the right direction.

 Guy who misses the point and just likes to hear himself talk 

Finding waste fraud and abuse = Good.

Illegally stealing data to do so = Bad.

Making up lies to justify said theft = Bad.

Turning the anti corruption political = Bad.

If Trump created a new independent agency that legally audited all federal agencies, he would have my blessing along with almost all Americans.

Instead he let a drug addict foreign national do whatever he wants with zero oversight who has since stolen data and illegally updated payment system code who has then spread a bunch of lies to you all to justify it.

[The Girlfriend 209]

2 minutes ago, TrailGuy said:

 Guy who misses the point and just likes to hear himself talk 

Finding waste fraud and abuse = Good.

Illegally stealing data to do so = Bad.

Making up lies to justify said theft = Bad.

Turning the anti corruption political = Bad.

If Trump created a new independent agency that legally audited all federal agencies, he would have my blessing along with almost all Americans.

Instead he let a drug addict foreign national do whatever he wants with zero oversight who has since stolen data and illegally updated payment system code who has then spread a bunch of lies to you all to justify it.

 I swear they don’t even read anything anyone says and just jump to illogical conclusions.

[nobody 2,651]

These guys want to create a committee to talk about getting work done instead of applauding the guy who rolled up his sleeves and is just getting work done.

This some corporate middle manager sh¡t if I've ever seen it.

[TrailGuy 554]

1 minute ago, The Girlfriend said:

 I swear they don’t even read anything anyone says and just jump to illogical conclusions.

Could you imagine if Musk rigged the election as suggested by Trump that he did, just so he could steal all this data and hijack the US payment system?

That would be quite the story.

[nobody 2,651]

8 minutes ago, TrailGuy said:

 Guy who misses the point and just likes to hear himself talk 

Finding waste fraud and abuse = Good.

Illegally stealing data to do so = Bad.

Making up lies to justify said theft = Bad.

Turning the anti corruption political = Bad.

If Trump created a new independent agency that legally audited all federal agencies, he would have my blessing along with almost all Americans.

Instead he let a drug addict foreign national do whatever he wants with zero oversight who has since stolen data and illegally updated payment system code who has then spread a bunch of lies to you all to justify it.

Okay, man.  Let's start at the top since everything below it flows from that. What data was stolen?

[League Champion 1,909]

4 hours ago, TrailGuy said:

All that has come out is lies.  

Really??? It's all real

[TrailGuy 554]

2 minutes ago, nobody said:

Okay, man.  Let's start at the top since everything below it flows from that. What data was stolen?

Musk has allegedly according to close sources downloaded treasury data to a private server, including US citizen Name, Address, SSN and tax and payment records.

[nobody 2,651]

16 minutes ago, TrailGuy said:

The low hanging fruit is the department of defense.  With one EO we can stop the contractors overcharging the government and save tens of billions.  Any contractor caught overcharging is replaced.  You probably don't even need to audit that.

Sifting through aid organizations looking for $44k in news subscriptions is not low hanging fruit. 

That would also be against the law.  Not only is that money already allocated, the overcharging in many cases comes from specific laws that need to be followed, ironically, to keep people from committing fraud.

But that's a good idea.  We should do that.  DCMA already audits defense contractors.  So that data is there.  And Elon basically set the model of how to do this stuff with SpaceX.  I toured their facilities.  If a government stipulated process doesn't make sense, they just don't follow it.  He should definitely force the big DoD contractors to do that.

[The Girlfriend 209]

3 minutes ago, nobody said:

That would also be against the law. Not only is that money already allocated, the overcharging in many cases comes from specific laws that need to be followed, ironically, to keep people from committing fraud.

But that's a good idea.  We should do that.  DCMA already audits defense contractors.  So that data is there.  And Elon basically set the model of how to do this stuff with SpaceX.  I toured their facilities.  If a government stipulated process doesn't make sense, they just don't follow it.  He should definitely force the big DoD contractors to do that.

[nobody 2,651]

2 minutes ago, TrailGuy said:

Musk has allegedly according to close sources downloaded treasury data to a private server, including US citizen Name, Address, SSN and tax and payment records.

Are you talking about this?

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/musks-doge-agents-access-sensitive-opm-personnel-data-washington-post-reports-2025-02-06/

If so, if that data is considered to be either Confidential, Secret or Top Secret.  Trump could grant Elon and his team appropriate clearances, and given that they need the data to do their job, they have demonstrable need-to-know and therefore should have access to the data.

Now if he downloaded data that is classified to a private server Hillary style, that is a violation and he would be subject to an investigation and the data would need to be contained, the server likely wiped, and any other servers, or hard drives would need to be wiped, but that in general would be a slap on the wrist type thing.

[nobody 2,651]

Just now, The Girlfriend said:

I said let's do it.

[The Girlfriend 209]

2 minutes ago, nobody said:

I said let's do it.

You are advocating breaking the law? I’m not a huge fan of the slippery slope argument but this feel like a worthy example.