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lord_shiva 09-Apr-25, 21:13	Gutting Medicaid So Americans enthusiastically voted to destroy Medicaid to provide billionaire tax cuts and desperately needed corporate subsidies. The current bill proposes over $800 billion in cuts, but the desired billionaire tax cuts are in the two to four trillion range. Groper intends a substantial portion of that to be funded by deficits. His gutting of the IRS will reduce revenue from the current 10% shortfall (uncollected amount) to 25%. 10% is on the order of a hundred billion dollars—enough to abolish child poverty in the United States altogether. Screw the children, GOP lawmakers said, bowing to the American voters. So where is the other trillion coming from? DOGE initially thought killing USAID, firing hundreds of thousands of federal workers, and terminating services of benefit to filthy poor folk would net them that, despite pie charts going back fifty years showing that’s not where the money is or ever was. But stealing Social Security—there is money there. Wall Street fat cats have felt that fund righteously belongs to them, and have since Ronald Reagan. Now, the federal government does borrow from the fund, leading idiots like ketamine addict President Musk to declare it a Ponzi scheme. It isn’t, of course. But by declaring the fund riddled with waste and fraud they can justify stealing from it. In an unrelated story four DOGE kids are named in an unsigned contract worth $1.3 million for 18 months of destroying the Department of Labor. Actually three are named, but there are four kids. The value of their labor, which President Musk promised would not be charged to the government, annualizes to over $215,000 per employee per year. Senior civil service salaries top out at $195,000 per year in contrast. So these youngsters are really making bank off the taxpayer dime, contrary to Musk’s promise.
bobspringett 09-Apr-25, 21:38	Shiva This is probably a silly question, but.... Where does the funding to pat DOGE staff come from? If Congress hasn't established the Department in law, then I'm struggling to see how taxpayer money can be used to pay salaries. I had assumed that Musk was paying for all this, in exchange for a few favours in the dark places. Or am I being too naive? Does 'Due Process' mean anything any more?
lord_shiva 10-Apr-25, 13:52	We All Thought President Musk was paying DOGE out of pocket. The assumption was his quarter billion campaign contribution would be rewarded by lucrative federal contracts for SpaceX and Tesla. We do not know 2hat other contracts DOGE was awarded, though I assumed that since they were granted write access to the payments system Musk was free to just take whatever he wanted, and if anyone howled in protest Groper would simply pardon him. This is what Americans wanted, having been informed Biden, Pelosi, and the rest of the DNC was doing the same. When Groper fired the IGs I was convinced it was to eliminate oversight on his renumeration scheme. His 2025 inauguration raised half a billion, but spent less than half what he spent on his 2017 inauguration. Just as in 2017, he pocketed the difference. In 2017 an investigation was launched which ended up going nowhere, not even Whitewater fishing. The beauty back then was he made a hundred times monetizing his office over the presidential salary, including overcharging rooms, drinks, golf carts and greens fees his security detail. Almost three months in to this term and he’s cost the federal treasury close to $20 million in golf outings. I don’t know what fraction of that goes to him personally, but it is WAY beyond the $100,000 paycheck he receives.
lord_shiva 10-Apr-25, 13:59	DOGE At the time of its announcement, DOGE's budget was unknown, and several of the employees were expected to be unpaid volunteers.[117] Little from its budget has been disclosed so far. To cover for DOGE costs until January 29, 2025, $6.75 million had been apportioned to DOGE from the Information Technology Oversight and Reform (ITOR) account that funded the legacy United States Digital Service (USDS).[118] Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) observed that this was "nearly twice the annual salaries and expenses budget of the White House". DOGE also has a Treasury account, separate from ITOR.[119] From January 30 to February 8, DOGE's budget had more than doubled to $14.4 million; filings show that the added $7.7 million was reserved "for anticipated reimbursements from agencies in support of Software Modernization Initiative".[120] After reviewing Office of Management and Budget records, ProPublica discovered that, by February 20, DOGE budget neared $40 million. DOGE's funding has come from other federal agencies in the form of transfer payments allowed by the Economy Act. This form of payment implies that DOGE has been treated like a federal agency by the Trump administration.[6] John Lewis and Daniel Jacobson underline the dilemma: "The Trump administration's view is untenable. USDS is either an agency or it is not. And if USDS, as seems apparent, is doing more than advising the President and is instead wielding independent authority, then it faces a more fundamental challenge to its existence: no statute created USDS or vested it with the power it now appears to wield".[121] DOGE has asked the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to pay for 20 full-time DOGE employees at the highest federal pay grade to modernize its information systems; the terms stipulate that OPM must pay each month in advance, and give DOGE access to its data and systems, as well as provide "operational and technical support". At the current employment rates, this would mean $4.1 million for the work between January 20 and July 4, 2026.[122] Public disclosures forms indicate that at least three DOGE employees are drawing salaries from the General Services Administration (GSA): Jeremy Lewin ($167,000), Kyle Schutt ($195,200), and Nate Cavanaugh ($120,500). According to DOGE's website, the average GSA employee has been at the agency for 13 years and makes $128,565. Lewin just turned 28, same age as Cavanaugh. Schutt is 38, so an old guy.
bobspringett 10-Apr-25, 16:15	Shiva 13:59 In short, these payments are outside what is allowed by law. Even the 'transfer payments' allowed by the Economy Act need to be between properly-established Departments, if my understanding is correct. This looks like misappropriation to me. Such good luck that Trump owns the DoJ at the moment and has 'immunity' in the future. There are so many quasi-legal ways that Musk could be re-imbursed (e.g., buying specially-modified Teslas costing $50,000 each to produce but charged at $% million per unit), but they don't even bother covering their tracks. Total contempt for the taxpayer, Congress and due process!
lord_shiva 11-Apr-25, 00:06	Total Contempt They asked Groper if he had communicated with anyone about the tariffs. He said yes, all his billionaire buddies. When they asked for the names of the people engaged in insider trading, Groper clammed up.
lord_shiva 24-Jun-25, 20:37	They Will Get Over It Quote: If proposals from the Senate Finance Committee become law, “you’ll have hospitals closed, services eliminated and 20,000 jobs eliminated” in Kentucky, warns Nancy Galvagni, president and CEO of the Kentucky Hospital Association. While Republican senators from some states are voicing worries similar to those of Kentucky hospitals, Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell had a different message for Senate Republicans in a closed meeting Tuesday, reports Punchbowl News. “I know a lot of us are hearing from people back home about Medicaid. But they’ll get over it,” McConnell was reported as saying. End quote. Up to 16 million Americans stand to lose their health insurance in the wake of Republican cuts for offsetting bigger beautiful billionaire tax breaks, MAGA.
bobspringett 24-Jun-25, 21:22	Perhaps what is needed... Is a plebiscite. Of course, Trump's Administration won't hold one, because they already know what they want and don't care about anything else. But next time a Non-Trumpist is in the White House, after all these cuts are made (or even id Democrats control one of the Houses in Congress), why not put to the People of each state a simple series of questions... 1. Do you support Federal funds going to hospitals in your state? 2. Do you want more Federal money spent on your state's highways and other infrastructure? 3. Do you want more funding for schools in your state? Promise that any State that answers 'No' will have their wishes respected, and Federal money will not be 'wasted' in these ways. But if a state answers 'Yes', then those wishes will also be respected and more funding will be made available. After all, this is all about state's rights, eh? It doesn't take much imagination to figure out that every state will vote 'YES!!' Wouldn't that be considered a 'mandate'? A similar approach could be taken to a wide range of Federal expenditure. Here in Sydney we have recently seen a series of protests in the Northern Beaches local government area because their local council has sought rate increases to pay for repairs to roads that are starting to fall apart. These are comfortable, wealthy areas that have traditionally elected conservatives to Council, many of them as a training ground for party endorsement to go into Parliament. So they have spent decades 'keeping local taxes low!' rather than become unpopular. But Conservative State administrations who have made grants to these councils for too many years no longer control the State's purse strings. The Labor Party is now in power and has told the locals that they are now expected to pay their own way. Suddenly all these locals who demanded that their own council should be empowered to make decisions on town planning, land regulations, etc are demanding that State Government prevent these same councils from raising local taxes and setting their own budgets. It's amazing how quickly even those on the political Right can become 'Socialist' when it suits them!

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