Trump / Musk (other than DOGE)

[StrangePackage]

Trump has obviously offered a discount so that it saves money. Winning

I can't tell if you're joking, which is pretty funny, or serious, which is funnier.

 

[ChileG]

What he said above+ knowing that people will quit.

That will certainly solve our budget issues.

 

[aGDevil2k]

And how much will that cut down the $2T they are promising to save?

$50.

 

[gtyellowjacket]

And how much will that cut down the $2T they are promising to save?

I wouldn't think very much unless we were able to cut the number of salaries because less people can get the same amount of work done.

 

[ZenMode]

Yeah, it is that second one. It saves money because people quit (and Musk thinks they are valueless).

Or he just thinks people make choices.

 

[Mulberry Heel]

LOL. And yet a great many of his voters are conservative "Christians" who did indeed vote for him because they think he's some kind of "Christ's champion" who is going to save their declining religious denominations from those awful secular humanist liberals. Apparently whether Trump is a Christian "choirboy" or not depends upon which excuse or defense is needed as of that moment.

 

[Mulberry Heel]

He has his eye on Mt Rushmore again?

I'm wondering if he means we're going to put back up statues and memorials to Confederate leaders and generals and/or other proven racist or otherwise awful characters from our past. Maybe he'll get the NC GOP to put Silent Sam up again - given how in-your-face Trumpers are, they'd probably put it right back where it was.

 

[ZenMode]

That will certainly solve our budget issues.

I don't think anyone believes that will solve the entire budget issue.

 

[hedge]

"The entire budget issue," LOL...

 

[ChileG]

I don't think anyone believes that will solve the entire budget issue.

I don’t think it will even make a dent, but we shall see.

But, hey, if “get rid of 25% of the workforce at random” is the kind of thinking we need to solve the issue, then I can help out as well.

Don’t give Elon Musk any more tax subsidies. I probably just saved the government more money than Elon’s idea and I didn’t need a co-head to come up with that one.

Eliminate Space Force.

How about, reverse the tax breaks Trump installed the first time around? There, the job is over.
But that won’t happen. They are coming with cuts to your social security and Medicare, and then they’ll give themselves tax breaks and our deficit will actually increase. My prediction, anyway. But it remains to be seen.

 

[nycfan]

 

[nycfan]

 

[nycfan]

 

[nycfan]

 

[nycfan]

Couldn’t pull off NC AG (thank goodness) but getting a plum role in the Trump Admin as a consolation prize.

 

[nycfan]

Cleans up the never-ending engagement for Don Jr, who seems to be openly dating other women, I guess?

 

[nycfan]

 

[gtyellowjacket]

The value in having Lithuania and Montenegro and not that we need or want their troops to defend us. The value to US interests is in having as many friendly partners who depend on us as possible. Adept use of "soft power" through things like NATO, foreign aid, etc is hugely beneficial to US foreign policy (something that easily pays back the relatively paltry sums we spend) and is one of the major reasons we have historically succeeded in spreading our influence around the world. Kicking countries out of NATO, on the other hand, will (1) turn happy partners into disgruntled non-partners at best (and ultimately enemies at worst), and (2) send those countries elsewhere to look for partners, protectors, and friendly relationships. It is a really bad, self-defeating idea. Even when leaving aside the strategic implications - that these countries are strategically located next to Russia, one of the major potential foreign antagonists with the possibility to start a global conflagration.

Foreign aid may be a relatively paltry sum but our defense spending is just the opposite. And a fair amount of that defense spending is needed because we are protecting those allies.

So what does that spending get us? Influence for what? Countries we have to defend right next to a large enemy? The juice isn't worth the squeeze.
Folks on here are ridiculing Trump's plan of cutting spending because this or that policy won't make a dent. I agree. But rolling back our defense commitments can most definitely make a dent, and its dismissed because we don't want to lose some not all that useful allies. I think the trade-offs are worth it.

 

[nycfan]

 

[finesse]

Foreign aid may be a relatively paltry sum but our defense spending is just the opposite. And a fair amount of that defense spending is needed because we are protecting those allies.

So what does that spending get us? Influence for what? Countries we have to defend right next to a large enemy? The juice isn't worth the squeeze.
Folks on here are ridiculing Trump's plan of cutting spending because this or that policy won't make a dent. I agree. But rolling back our defense commitments can most definitely make a dent, and its dismissed because we don't want to lose some not all that useful allies. I think the trade-offs are worth it.

Just so you'll have a clue, we only pay about 16% of the cost of NATO which is about the same as Germany.