OMB freezes all disbursements / USAID shutdown / GOP begs for exceptions for their states

Sorry. I put out the incorrect number just now. These things fluctuate a great deal. I was looking at a couple different websites and doing the math between them. I was about 40 billion off.

www.forbes.com

Musk Net Worth Falls $12 Billion As Tesla Stock Reels From Tariffs

Musk, who last year said “things that inhibit freedom of exchange or distort the market are not good,” became $12 billion poorer Monday.
www.forbes.com www.forbes.com

FORBES VALUATION​

With a net worth of $410 billion, Musk is more than $150 billion richer than he was on Election Day and about $160 billion wealthier than the next-closest billionaire, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
 
sringwal said:
Sorry. I put out the incorrect number just now. These things fluctuate a great deal. I was looking at a couple different websites and doing the math between them. I was about 40 billion off.

www.forbes.com

Musk Net Worth Falls $12 Billion As Tesla Stock Reels From Tariffs

Musk, who last year said “things that inhibit freedom of exchange or distort the market are not good,” became $12 billion poorer Monday.
www.forbes.com www.forbes.com

FORBES VALUATION​

With a net worth of $410 billion, Musk is more than $150 billion richer than he was on Election Day and about $160 billion wealthier than the next-closest billionaire, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
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40 billion not a big deal with Musk
 
rodoheel said:
Let me be clear, I have no problem if Trump wants to advocate and push Congress to change USAID's funding priorities to stop funding things that it calls "DEI" (even though their description of that is hilariously broad). The problem is in (1) the President taking power over funding that is not his to take, and (2) trying to demonize and destroy USAID in its entirety on the basis of spurious claims that it is a criminal organization that is engaged in fraud and criminal activity. When the only "evidence" is a small minority of small grants that were used for things the Trump administration is now crusading against.

As for Congress: the solution to that is for Congress to do more and/or do better. Not to have Trump continue to justify a dramatic expansion of executive power - including the power to impound money, which he absolutely does not have - on the basis of clearly spurious claims about USAID being some nefarious anti-American organization.
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I generally agree with what you are saying and I hope the courts put a stop to this if Trump truly does not have the authority to do what he's doing. I'm not looking to scrap USAID but, in general, I'm at the point where I'd rather over scrap and then re-add as necessary and hopefully in an appropriate manner.
 
gtyellowjacket said:
I hear your opinion and I respect it, but I have no problem holding someone accountable for pushing a political agenda with tax dollar funds meant for foreign aid. I'd much rather see that money spent on helping the less fortunate or put back towards the debt. Agree to disagree I suppose.
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1. Tax dollar spent on foreign aid is a minuscule part of the budget and some of the best money we spend as far as bang for the buck.

2. You know this is a political witch hunt based on where they're looking. If trump and musk really wanted to find waste fraud and abuse that would make a difference, they should look at the Department of Defense.

3. Who is gonna go after the wasteful spending with the US government contracts with spacex and starlink?
 
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ZenMode said:
I'm at the point where I'd rather over scrap and then re-add as necessary and hopefully in an appropriate manner.
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First of all, this is the kind of thing that’s easy to say when you don’t benefit (or don’t think you benefit) from government expenditures.

Second, why? What do you think is so dire that it requires such a drastic approach? I mean do you seriously want to scrap all sorts of health and safety regulations then just say “oopsie” if people die or get sick as a result?
 
sringwal said:
Sorry. I put out the incorrect number just now. These things fluctuate a great deal. I was looking at a couple different websites and doing the math between them. I was about 40 billion off.

www.forbes.com

Musk Net Worth Falls $12 Billion As Tesla Stock Reels From Tariffs

Musk, who last year said “things that inhibit freedom of exchange or distort the market are not good,” became $12 billion poorer Monday.
www.forbes.com www.forbes.com

FORBES VALUATION​

With a net worth of $410 billion, Musk is more than $150 billion richer than he was on Election Day and about $160 billion wealthier than the next-closest billionaire, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
Click to expand...
His net worth has increased more than 50% since election day?
 
ZenMode said:
I hope the courts put a stop to this if Trump truly does not have the authority to do what he's doing.
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What do you mean if? Trump can curtail or change USAID with executive actions alone; however, he cannot unilaterally override a statute by EO. USAID was established by statute as its own agency by Congress in 1998. Since an act of Congress established it as an independent agency, an act of Congress would be necessary to dissolve it.
 
BillOfRights said:
1. Tax dollar spent on foreign aid is a minuscule part of the budget and some of the best money we spend as far as bang for the buck.

2. You know, this is a political witch hunt. Based on where they're looking. If trump and musk really wanted to find waste fraud and abuse that would make a difference, they should look at the Department of Defense.

3. Who is gonna go after the wasteful spending? With the u s government contracts with spacex and starlink?
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Agree that it's small but I wouldn't say $40 billion a year is minuscule. And again, I don't necessarily want to cut the program but I do want to look at the spending choices they're making and determine if we need different ones.

I certainly agree that they are going after the red meat agencies for their base but like you mentioned, if they want to get real numbers in front of people, they're going to have to go after defense. I fully support it but I don't know if they'll do it. I hope they do.

I would disagree that the SpaceX or starlink programs are necessarily wasteful. Those are good companies in spite of Musk. SpaceX especially is the alternative to Boeing or the Russian space program. Russia not an option and Boeing is about double the price.
 
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gtyellowjacket said:
I would say if that person had the opportunity to spend that $100,000 on voting machines or polling places, but thought it was a better idea to spend it on a DEI Opera or a transgender comic book, I would question that person's judgment and competence in their job. I wouldn't say that was criminal but I would say that it would require some adverse job actions including possibly firing them.
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Sure, but I was just using a random hypothetical - I'm not saying that's what these particular appropriations were used for. The entire point is that it's silly to criticize these expenditures as somehow being outside the bounds of what the money is for when no one here really knows what that particular money was supposed to be for.
 
ZenMode said:
Well, the fact that you use the term cherry picked implies that you also are inclined to believe that the claims are true. The dollar amount is irrelevant when you're talking about spending taxpayer money.
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You are exhausting.
 
superrific said:
Don't ever have kids, and if you do, please don't ever throw out the bathwater.
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Seriously. USAID does a whole lot more good than whatever meager amounts of money he is talking about compared to what Pubs want to spend money on. And like you said, why stop all the funding?
 
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