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Comment by slt2021 | Hacker News Reader

slt2021

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"Trimming fat" doesn't even pay for extending TCJA, much less the other tax cuts being promised. DOGE is not about reducing the debt.

My prediction is in 2028, after all the cutting, the deficit will look like nothing had ever been done to it and will in fact be worse. At that time, all the people now who are saying we need a lower deficit, will then be saying the spending is justified and necessary.

The budget plan got released, you're 3 years off because they're already saying the new spending (tax cuts) is justified and necessary.

What Trump and Musk are doing is picking up pennies by gutting public services citizens rely upon instead of plugging the tax system, and addressing the waste in the military and healthcare industries. The way Trump and Musk operate not only makes enemies out of loyal government employees, it will also cost the government more money once it starts losing in court.

I as a taxpayer has no trust in the system if bureacrats never show even an ounce of care about taxpayer’s money.

Mind you Musk is the biggest taxpayer so he is interested that system spends money wisely

You realize how much he makes from the government right? You won’t see him making cuts there. You are a rube if you think he will do anything except things to benefit himself.

He is not getting handouts, he is doing risky uncertain rocket science that even NASA was unable tondo and gets compensated for risk and hard work

You aren't necessarily wrong, but this is almost the definition of privatizing the reward over public risk? The grants his companies received were just that, grants. And without those grants, his companies would have likely failed.

the reward is only obvious today, in the very beginning of SpaceX everyone thought elon was crazy and he had to bet his entire net worth multiple times to overcome early challenges.

I wanted to remind you that NASA and ULA that is fully funded by the government, completely fumbled space tech and had to rely on Russian Roscosmos (running ancient soviet era technology) to get to the space.

if you want to look where the waste is, look no further than NASA, ULA, Boeing and the rest of the military/space industrial complex

This is not addressing the point? That largely there is no financial reward equivalent for the public sector money here. Consider, you claim that NASA completely fumbled. This despite us having massive public reward in terms of space tech such as GPS.

GPS enabled US public corporations like Garmin, TomTom, Google (via google maps), all businesses (via google maps), Apple via iPhone, and contributed enormous economic benefits in terms of jobs, taxes, employment, GDP, etc.

This is exactly how public funding into basic research should benefit the country

Right, that was my point. There were rewards, but they were not a financial rewards. My gut would be that the things that have resulted from NASA and similar government spending far outpace even the wealthiest man in the world's personal value. But it is easier to count dollar values attached to individuals.

And now we run the risk of regulatory capture by someone just clawing all of the things they want into a pile they personally control in what looks an awful lot like the corruption that they are yelling about.

NASA was paying Putin for RD-180 rocket engines and for launching satellites.

I’d rather have american company SpaceX do it

non-sequitur much? Nothing I said indicates I do not want SpaceX to exist. Nor do I really care to say bad things about it. But, you can just as easily say that the investments into it from our government is as vital to its success as any private contributions.

So because he wastes our tax money in a way you think is cool, yet is still useless to society, then it’s okay.

rockets are being launched, satellite constellations are roaming the space, USA civilians and military now have low orbit global Internet capability - where exactly is the waste?

Housing sucks. Healthcare sucks. Quality of life and life expectancy are stagnant or declining.

I don’t care about rockets or more military grift. It is useless to humanity.

Are you aware that they're cutting agencies that make money?

Its not the job of the government to make money off of citizens, so this factor is irrelevant

Taxes begs to differ.

On that note, are you aware that they're planning to give themselves trillions in tax cuts?

this is so funny! if you believe this I have some Enron stock to sell to you, ESPECIALLY the last paragraph…

I am not a decision maker, I am just eating popcorn and enjoying the entertainment.

I would welcome your constructive counter-arguments, though

holler back when these below (and other ACTUAL government waste) is being worked on vs. enjoying current TV show by a celebrity reality TV host for easily-entertained masses doing nothing but parading themselves on TV while enriching themselves while you stare at the screen… :)

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/elon-musks-us-department-de...

Elon Musk’s companies provide service: starlink and spacex that nobody else can provide, at contracts started even before trump was elected in 2016.

Recent contracts were signed by biden admin, so I dont think there is any nefarious collusion, but rather arms length transaction.

You say he is getting rich, I would love some more nuance: is it unfair that he created a company and out-executed everyone including nasa?

Would usa be better off without spacex, relying on Russians to launch satellites???

At least he created thousands jobs, created blns in wealth for his shareholders, made some incredible innovations.

Compare to usaid, whose only achievement was promoting trans surgeries to children

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