Summary

Elon Musk, co-head of the Department of Government Efficiency under Donald Trump’s advisory team, revised his claim of finding $2 trillion in federal budget cuts to a “best-case outcome” of $1 trillion.

Musk’s earlier target, dismissed as unrealistic by experts, had included the entire discretionary budget of $1.7 trillion.

While Musk and co-lead Vivek Ramaswamy plan to recommend cuts, specifics remain unclear.

Experts warn savings may require targeting mandatory programs like Medicaid, potentially causing hardships.

  • makyo@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Anyone who actually believed they would find $2 trillion was an idiot, the rest of us knew they’d just cut the things they hate, bump the subsidies that favor them and their friends, and call it a day.

    • Cypher@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Your comment will age poorly when Trump’s tarrifs lead to a collapsing economy and he prints money like mad to solve it, resulting in hyper-inflation letting President Musk keep his election promise.

      • wjrii@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        Not even there. DoD is ~$840B and DHS another sixty. Not even one trillion in the entire US security apparatus, but they were going to so easily find twice that. It was always pure nonsense.

    • bitchkat@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      I expect them to privatize and then somehow claim they cut the budget because they are paying a private company instead of running whole departments themselves (govt)