this post was submitted on 07 Dec 2024
397 points (99.7% liked)

politics

19241 readers
2259 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Summary

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, leading Trump’s “Department of Government Efficiency,” are pushing for $2 trillion in federal budget cuts, which could target Social Security and Medicare.

While they claim to streamline government, critics argue billionaires like Musk and Ramaswamy are unaffected by these cuts, which could harm ordinary Americans who depend on these programs.

Despite Trump’s repeated promises to protect Social Security, skepticism remains over whether these cuts will influence Congress, where voter opposition to reducing benefits is strong.

Critics call the department’s influence limited but politically concerning.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 76 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

It's going to happen, but not in as direct a fashion as a budget cut. They will remove it from the Federal budget entirely, by privatizing it. They will sell the privatization as a benefit to the average retiree, by billing it as "removing bloated bureaucracy". They will form a company with all of Trump's broligarchs as owners, and all payments will go through X. This company will magically win the contract to provide this service, without any competitive bid.

None of their promises will be fulfilled, and benefits will be enshittified, just like everything else these people touch. Eventually, the company will go belly-up, but not until after losing all of ~~its~~ our assets in a convenient crypto heist. All the founders will then live suspiciously lavish lifestyles off of their crypto stashes. Eggheads will discover that the owners took the crypto themselves, but President Trump will dismiss that as "fake news" and issue pre-emptive pardons to prevent "Woke FBI agents" from investigating them.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

I'd really like to know what these fucking morons plan to do when they tank the USD.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago

Most of their net worth is in assets, not dollars.

Guess what they do hold in dollars? Debt.

And what happens to debt when the dollar tanks?

[–] [email protected] 33 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

This is the thing I love about all this .... billionaires don't have a nationality and have no allegiance to any nation .... in fact, they believe that nations should have allegiance to them.

I have a friend who likes to talk politics all the time and he keeps repeating like a mantra ... the Americans did this, the Americans did that, America, America ... and I keep correcting him, it's not Americans, it's just a bunch of billionaires directing the show to get what they want.

It's really weird because it's a well known conspiracy, an open secret, a true lie ..... it's not an organized cabal or an evil mastermind ... it's just a bunch of billionaires that want to control everything and everyone so that they can keep making more money. And they really don't care of they are American, British, French, German, Japanese, Chinese, Russian, Indian, Brazilian, or whatever .... all they care about is money and they get to the point in life and wealth that they have so much money that their nationality no longer matters.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

And herein lies the problem. The absolutism of removing any and all responsibility from the American public. Anything to avoid looking in the mirror I suppose.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

They don't have to worry once all the Dogecoin they bought for $0.002 is now worth $69

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 weeks ago

There are two ways crypto goes up in dollar value: the crypto is intrinsically worth more, or the dollar is intrinsically worth less

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Hahahah I think you spelled "when they all fall victim of a pump and dump schemes, again" wrong

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

No, the Broligarchs don't have to worry, because they have enough liquidity that they will be the ones pumping and dumping. It's all the plebes who listen to their podcasts and invest In the "next big thing" that will be holding the bag.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago

Ah yeah, I forgot who we were talking about exactly. You right