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.

  • dhork@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    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.

      • IninewCrow@lemmy.ca
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        5 days ago

        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.

        • whoisearth@lemmy.ca
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          4 days 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.

      • dhork@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

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

        • errer@lemmy.world
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          5 days ago

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

        • chingadera@lemmy.world
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          5 days ago

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

          • dhork@lemmy.world
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            5 days ago

            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.

      • Steve@startrek.website
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        5 days 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?