President Elon Musk
He probably deserves his own thread at this point, discuss accordingly
Did any financially literate person actually believe that DEI policies were a big driver of the federal deficit?
Total government expenditures in 2024 were approximately $6.75T, with the following items accounting for close to 90% of overall budget:
--Healthcare--$1.7T -- This includes ACA, Medicare, Medicaid, etc.
--Social Security -- $1.5T
--Interest expense -- $882B
--National defense -- $872B
--Benefits for veterans and retired federal employees -- $526B
--Other safety net programs -- $476B
If you
IF the primary/only reason for cutting DEI/USAID was claimed to be deficit reduction you would have a point.
But Musk and everyone else is clearly telling you the primary reason to cut DEI , USAID and so on is to give less cash in the hands of leftists, and any saving you generate with that is just extra gravy.
You guys keep talking as if 72 bln in international aid was small, because it is compared to the deficit. But if even 5% of it gets recycled back as money in leftist hands that can be used for domestic politics, that's already more than the political donations for a full electoral cycle (!!!!!).
All DEI departments have a second job which is to be the democratic party main activists during elections (!!!!!!). Especially DEI departments in public employment.
The US government has been funding democratic political activism with make believe jobs and programs in DEI, and with fake "international aid" bullshit projects. And that's a cancer that has to be fully removed.
Maybe our budget isn't that bloated and it provides more services than people give the government credit for.
I am pretty sure per money spent in healthcare by the public, no country in the world gets as shitty a service as yours.
You spend more in medicaid per person IN THE USA than Italy spends in public healthcare for everyone. Yes we spend less than 2k / eur/ person in total in public money for healthcare.
You spend 2k per american just for medicaid.
And our health parameters are all (far) better than yours
lol how does
rating from who knows where equal 'radical left' again?
😃
Awww, it's trying to think. That's cute.
PB proves that The Economist is "radical left" by citing an AI-driven media rater that describes The Economist as "leaning left" (an opinion that is far from universal fwiw).
Checkmate. PB wins again.
Maybe our budget isn't that bloated and it provides more services than people give the government credit for.
Or maybe you need more competent people than Trump and Musk and more time than a month to make meaningful and lasting changes to one of the largest organizations in human history. It’s similar to a lot of stuff in Trumps first term. Like it’s not that hard to make bold announcements and hold made for TV events like meeting with Kim Jong Un or signing the Abraham Accords. But to actually improve these regions takes a ton of work and Trump and his acolytes have never shown the skill, determination or work ethic to get anything meaningful done ever.
The Economist is painfully even-handed in my experience, but haven't read it in a while. It's usually a very solid source for facts.
But you know, I try and read a spectrum of print on an occasional basis, helps to keep an eye on friend and foe alike.
The Economist is painfully even-handed in my experience, but haven't read it in a while. It's usually a very solid source for facts.
But you know, I try and read a spectrum of print on an occasional basis, helps to keep an eye on friend and foe alike.
It is.
Detailed Report
Bias Rating: LEAST BIASED (0.4)
Factual Reporting: HIGH (0.8)
Country: United Kingdom
MBFC’s Country Freedom Rank: MOSTLY FREE
Media Type: Magazine
Traffic/Popularity: High Traffic
MBFC Credibility Rating: HIGH CREDIBILITY
To be fair, Italy probably doesn't have a 96oz Super Gulp available for 69 cents on every corner, and the biggest bag of Doritos for sale in your grocery stores would be laughed out of the room at an American snack food convention. What is this, a snack for ants?!
Everyone always shits on American health outcomes per dollar spent without acknowledging the literal mountains garbage that we all consume on a daily basis.
I say that as someone who had (has) a body by Frito-Lay and an undeniable issue with portion control. We just straight up fat, yo. That's an extremely expensive bad habit to maintain.
I haven't consumed any liquid calories beyond milk for more than a decade, but I'd just cut and slide an entire frozen pizza right onto a plate without giving it a second thought, and boxes of cereal were good for maybe 3 servings, not the 15+ the box claims. I lost more than the equivalent of an entire average Italian man when I made the choice at my heaviest to go Keto and behave myself.
Our entitlement population also abuses the piss out of the system. Ask literally any healthcare worker how many times they see someone who either has nothing wrong with them, or could've handled their issue with a couple of Advil and a glass of water at home. The countries with universal healthcare have long enough waiting lists for everyone that people generally know not to bother wasting time for trivial things. In America, people head to the Emergency Room, knowing full well they'll be seen and treated for free without any need for payment, which makes the bills for everyone else go up. It's a two-tiered system.
It doesn't help that our healthcare system is for-profit, but that's the least of America's problems.
Terrible attempt at a dunk. Most Americans are getting a big fat bill when they roll up to the ER with a case of the sniffles. This is not the case when you're on the public dole and there simply aren't any copays or deductibles.
Why make an appointment with your primary or go to an urgent care clinic when you can just show up at the hospital and waste ER resources with no accountability? That hospital will gladly bill the government 25x what your GP would have.
To be fair, Italy probably doesn't have a 96oz Super Gulp available for 69 cents on every corner, and the biggest bag of Doritos for sale in your grocery stores would be laughed out of the room at an American snack food convention. What is this, a snack for ants?!
Everyone always shits on American health outcomes per dollar spent without acknowledging the literal mountains garbage that we all consume on a daily basis.
I say that as someone who had (has) a body by Frito-Lay and an undeniable issue
Uh, last year my daughter had an ambulance ride and trip to the ER (it was nothing serious and her dumb friend should not have called the ambulance) and it cost almost $6000 and that's after insurance paying for about half of it.
What I guess you mean is that ERs will treat people and bill them instead of making them pay up front.
eta: I guess that is what you meant.
"Why make an appointment with your primary or go to an urgent care clinic when you can just show up at the hospital and waste ER resources with no accountability? That hospital will gladly bill the government 25x what your GP would have."
No one wants to go to the ER when they have another option. ERs are horrible and involve hours of waiting unless you are at death's door.
The health care system in the USA is horrible. Atrocious. It's the worst of all possibilities. It's so bad that it's better to travel to places like Mexico where you can just pay a reasonable bill or places like France, where they often treat even non-French citizens very inexpensively.
I would post Mike's speech about half-measures, but the problem isn't that it's a half-measure, it's that it's an intentional give-away to health insurance companies.
Terrible attempt at a dunk. Most Americans are getting a big fat bill when they roll up to the ER with a case of the sniffles. This is not the case when you're on the public dole and there simply aren't any copays or deductibles.
Why make an appointment with your primary or go to an urgent care clinic when you can just show up at the hospital and waste ER resources with no accountability? That hospital will gladly bill the government 25x what your GP would have.
Yeah, who doesn't love spending their free time going to ERs and clinics for absolutely no reason? This is definitely a real thing that happens in real life.
Uh, last year my daughter had an ambulance ride and trip to the ER (it was nothing serious and her dumb friend should not have called the ambulance) and it cost almost $6000 and that's after insurance paying for about half of it.
What I guess you mean is that ERs will treat people and bill them instead of making them pay up front.
eta: I guess that is what you meant.
"Why make an appointment with your primary or go to an urgent care clinic when you can just show up at the hospital and waste ER res
I meant exactly what I said. The entitlement population will take that free ambulance ride to the ER, get treated for their runny nose, and not pay a dime.
I'd have to be missing my entire leg to justify an ambulance ride to the ER vs driving myself, specifically because I don't want to get that $6000 ambulance bill. I'm never going to the Emergency Room unless it's a literal emergency, because I don't want to be stuck with the $500 copay and 20% coinsurance plus whatever else out-of-network nonsense they'll try to bill me for, when I could just pay a $20 copay and 0% coinsurance by seeing my primary care provider.
When you're on Medicaid, the ER is just where you go. No appointment needed, and they'll treat you the same day. You might have to wait 6 hours because people with actual emergencies are handled first, but you don't have anything else to do with your life, so just get comfy and scroll on your phone while you wait.
Terrible attempt at a dunk. Most Americans are getting a big fat bill when they roll up to the ER with a case of the sniffles. This is not the case when you're on the public dole and there simply aren't any copays or deductibles.
Why make an appointment with your primary or go to an urgent care clinic when you can just show up at the hospital and waste ER resources with no accountability? That hospital will gladly bill the government 25x what your GP would have.
Who are these public insurance ER abusers you’re talking about?
No private insurance covers an actual ER visit anywhere close to fully, as you acknowledge.
Medicare has mandatory co-pays for everything, in part to prevent the abuse that you are talking about. It also has strict annual limits, which is one of the only things that the payment system will actually automatically stop if it you exceed it. One of the biggest repeated scams with Medicare is providers advertising their junk to people free, billing the whole rate, and waiving the copay.
Medicaid is generally no cost to the people on it - cause it’s supposed to be for Poors and minors. But the reimbursement rate for Medicaid is way below market to the point that a lot of providers just don’t take it at all (although I think ERs specifically may have too in some states).
The ER cost inflations are almost all coming from uninsured people who don’t HAVE a primary care doctor at all and don’t really have other options besides rolling to the ER.
Is covering those people a good use of public money or the greatest evil ever perpetrated on the American taxpayer? Depends on what channel you watch I guess.
Edit - look up how much of the fed budget is for Medicaid as opposed to Medicare. It’s night and day.
Yeah, who doesn't love spending their free time going to ERs and clinics for absolutely no reason? This is definitely a real thing that happens in real life.
in the mid 2000's, according to the Western Journal of Emergency Medicine, more than 1 in 10 visitors to the ER had no business being there. I won't bother looking for more recent numbers, but I'd bet that number is higher today.
in the mid 2000's, according to the Western Journal of Emergency Medicine, more than 1 in 10 visitors to the ER had no business being there. I won't bother looking for more recent numbers, but I'd bet that number is higher today.
More than 1 in 10 seems amazingly low to me. I've taken my kid to the ER before when I shouldn't have...in hindsight...but it was a close call.
"when I could just pay a $20 copay and 0% coinsurance by seeing my primary care provider."
It takes weeks to get that appointment. If you want to see a doctor because you are sick, but it's not an emergency...at least our provider (Kaiser) has urgent care. Appointments are for check-ups or tests or chronic conditions.
I have an extended family member who works for the Department of the Interior. His comment: "I'm a little worried about how many dam operators we are firing."
I meant exactly what I said. The entitlement population will take that free ambulance ride to the ER, get treated for their runny nose, and not pay a dime.
I'd have to be missing my entire leg to justify an ambulance ride to the ER vs driving myself, specifically because I don't want to get that $6000 ambulance bill. I'm never going to the Emergency Room unless it's a literal emergency, because I don't want to be stuck with the $500 copay and 20% coinsurance plus whatever else out-of-network no
I like how you never go to the ER, yet know exactly who is in the ER waiting to be seen.
Also, lol at blaming America for your choice to eat like shiit and not exercise.
I guess I'm a special snowflake then, because I'm able to make appointments for my rare visits to the doctor without a significant lead time, and if it's urgent, I can simply go to the urgent care clinic and pay an $80 copay instead of the $20 one. Only one time did the urgent care suggest we go to the ER for imaging, and we wound up with a $5,000 bill.
My 3 kids are grown, but we never had issues getting them care in a timely fashion, either.
If you're going to the doctor so often for urgent problems as to run into consistent scheduling issues, you gotta cut back on the Doritos and sugar water.
He's making all of this **** up extemporaneously from half-remembered Fox News segments. The US healthcare system objectively underperforms the rest of the developed world, so MAGA chuds need to engage in flights of fancy and believe that people are spending their weekends going to ER rooms just for funsies.
I like how you never go to the ER, yet know exactly who is in the ER waiting to be seen.
Also, lol at blaming America for your choice to eat like shiit and not exercise.
I have several extended family members who work in the local hospital system, including an ER nurse, and many many moons ago, I spent 18 months as a debt collector for what is now the Ascension hospital network in Milwaukee. Most calls were chasing very small balances connected to ER visits, and I'll admit my experience with those people left me jaded and definitely affected my attitude toward people on the public dole going forward. No doubt about it.
I have several extended family members who work in the local hospital system, including an ER nurse, and many many moons ago, I spent 18 months as a debt collector for what is now the Ascension hospital network in Milwaukee. Most calls were chasing very small balances connected to ER visits, and I'll admit my experience with those people left me jaded and definitely affected my attitude toward people on the public dole going forward. No doubt about it.
Look, you’re not wrong that it happens and happens a good amount.
But I think your opinion of the scale of the issue is not accurate, especially with regards to how much of the federal budget this affects. And I’d disagree that the motivation for most people who do this is not personal convenience but lack of any other alternative.
Elon Musk's DOGE Website Being 'Hacked' Sparks Mockery
At 6:30 a.m. ET on Friday, the website's homepage contained a box seen by Newsweek with "This is a joke of a .gov site" written in large letters, while screenshots show the text previously read "THESE 'EXPERTS' LEFT THEIR DATABASE OPEN – roro."
I guess I'm a special snowflake then, because I'm able to make appointments for my rare visits to the doctor without a significant lead time, and if it's urgent, I can simply go to the urgent care clinic and pay an $80 copay instead of the $20 one. Only one time did the urgent care suggest we go to the ER for imaging, and we wound up with a $5,000 bill.
My 3 kids are grown, but we never had issues getting them care in a timely fashion, either.
If you're going to the doctor so often for urgent p
I've been to the doctor exactly 3 times in the last 25 years for myself - two checkups and a colonoscopy. I'm talking about stuff with my children. And we've had lots of trouble. There's almost no care for young relatively healthy people that isn't in the ER or urgent care. Appointments are what we take our parents to.
