I spent some time working for a large government agency. There were a lot of very nice, but dumb people working there who always followed orders, never questioned why things were done a certain way and were happy to collect a pay check every 2 weeks. Disruptors and non-conformists are either shown the door or re-assigned. Anyone who has been in the service will recognize this.

BTW, there is absolutely no, I repeat no, incentive in government to save money. My experience was pretty extensive and the common mantra was if we don’t spend all of our budget this year, we won’t be able to ask for more next year.

As a taxpayer, I applaud getting a fresh viewpoint to question why things are done a certain way from smart outsiders with no fear of offending a 30-year career bureaucrat supervisor who likes things the way they are.

 

Buck I think a lot of us in the thread are kind of talking past eachother.

I don’t think that any of us, liberal or conservative, are “pro-government waste”.

Anyone at a legacy airline, as a W2 earner in the top tax bracket, shoulders a huge percentage of the federal tax burden (as an aggregate).

Everyone wants to cut down on waste. Nobody likes the government wasting our tax dollars.

I think the issue is essentially, is it ok for Elon Musk to single-handedly just chop this stuff with minimal government oversight? He’s also throwing out all these numbers regarding how much has been saved by his approach? how real are they? Does it matter?

The main issue, to me, is that this is congresses entire job. Article 1 of the constitution. You either believe in the constitution or you don’t. We need to hold our congressional representatives accountable for creating, funding and holding accountable all these 3 letter agencies.

what do you think? I get that it *feels* good to see someone finally coming in with the chainsaw to chop up this massive behemoth of a bureaucracy, but do you have any reservations on the why/how/what?

 

I think that's an oversimplification. Musk appeared to be doing things semi-autonomously for the first few weeks. Because while we elect a President in November and wait to inaugurate him in January we also wait until inauguration to start confirming the cabinet. So for several weeks there was only Musk and a bunch of temporary custodians. Now that all the major departments have a real head I see Musk making noise and certainly visiting agencies and rooting around in the payment systems but not making decisions. The HHS personnel changes seem to be coming from RFK for example.

Congressional leadership seems onboard with producing a budget that actually spends less than last year. Let's see what they come up with. I don't particularly like the chaos but I remain cautiously optimistic that some good will come out of it.

I've watched Musk in several long form interviews. I agree that he probably doesn't like the FAA constantly interfering with his rockets but his understanding of the unsustainability of our fiscal situation and his desire to correct it seem genuine. Vilifying him is sophomoric.

 

Well I can’t argue with that….mostly because you didn’t make an actual argument. Maybe it’s easier for you to just dismiss anyone you don’t agree with as “too far gone” than to come up with a well thought out argument.

Elon is doing what has worked for him in the past. He bought twitter and fired the 80% of workers who weren’t doing anything. “Experts” predicted the platform would cease to function, still runs just fine.

You probably haven’t spent any time working for the government, if you had you would know that about 75% of the workers aren’t productive. The other 25% are great, they are the only reason things get done. My only concern is that left to their own devices when cuts come, the 75% will try and vote the 25% off the island, because they make them look bad.

 

Ask yourself if it’s possible that there is waste in government spending AND that Musk’s function in government is careless, destructive, & and an unconstitutional extension of executive power. Is it possible that massive indiscriminate job cuts are not actually weeding out underproductive employees? If we shut off Ebola funding then- haha oopsie- turned it back on, how many other “oopsies” have been made & either not published or not discovered?

You know who has an efficient government? North Korea- whatever the leader says happens then & there. Our government was specifically designed so that the levers of power would be inefficient & hard to operate, yet we applaud the dismantling of those institutional protections.

I’ve said before Ds like to go into debt to give money to the poor, Rs like to do it to take less from the rich. I can admit there is waste in government spending, I only ask that when the corporate tax cuts that are surely in their way create increased deficit spending, you admit that all this dancing around with a chainsaw was just a show.

 

So far, the courts have disagreed with you. But what do they know.

 

The Koch brothers, Walton, Paul Singer, and many other billionaires with ties to the Manhatta Institute have lobbied for lower taxes and increased access to tax loopholes for most of my life. They've done this out in the open which is why I shook my head when I read your statement saying you believe that billionaires don't care about taxes.

As far as the free speach part, Musk has voiced his desire to shut down VOA Voice of America. VOA has been around for more than 80 years and is unbiased, even though Musk claims that they aren't. Musk also went after the Center for Countering Digital Hate, saying that its members should be prosecuted for “their many crimes" There are numerous other examples of him stiffling free speach. He wants free speach for himself. Not everyone. Just because he said "free speach is the bedrock of Democracy" when he bought Twitter doesn't mean everyone should believe it. His actions have said otherwise.

 

Back to the thread topic....Delta has one of "those" too.

Just like everything.... to some she is a heroine to others a true villian.

But the publicity doesn't embolden confidence in air travel

Delta Threatens to Sue Ex-Pilot

 

See my comments on the system intentionally running slowly. Unlike EM, the courts don’t just break stuff & pick up the pieces later. The President is allowed to hire advisors, so no court is going to say Elon can’t give him advice. But there are many ongoing court challenges yielding mixed early results. There will of course be appeals, refilings, etc. & a lot of this will eventually make it to the SC.

I’ll grant you I don’t have a lot of faith in the SC’s will against an authoritarian president & a spend-happy billionaire given past rulings & CT’s public price tag of an all-expenses yachting vacation.

 

When jack Dorsey owned twitter was it a better platform for free speech than now?
VOA unbiased? I suppose NPR isn't biased either? If they are such wonderful bastions of free speech then why do they need to be subsidized? Should they not be able to survive on their own?