Hacker News with Generative AI: Government Spending

How Is the Trump Administration Funding DOGE? (propublica.org)
While Elon Musk and his underlings demand budget cuts and layoffs across the federal government, funding for their agency — the Department of Government Efficiency — has soared to nearly $40 million, ProPublica found in a review of Office of Management and Budget records.

Politics, Cryptocurrency, Government Spending, ProPublica

12 points by colinprince 4 hours ago | 2 comments

Trump official calls Social Security 'wrong' with groundwork for cuts (independent.co.uk)
Donald Trump and Elon Musk are ramping up baseless claims that tens of millions of dead people are collecting Social Security payments, laying the groundwork to cut out “waste” and “fraud” as they look to make dramatic cuts for some of the most expensive programs in the federal budget to pay for astronomical tax cuts for America’s wealthiest households.

Politics, Social Security, Government Spending, Taxes

18 points by throw0101a 5 hours ago | 10 comments

DOGE Said It Cut $232M from Social Security. It Was Only About Half a Mil (theintercept.com)
The “Department of Government Efficiency” claimed to have saved the American taxpayer nearly $232 million by canceling an IT contract for the Social Security Administration.

Politics, Government Spending, Social Security, Misinformation

148 points by ceejayoz 19 hours ago | 39 comments

It's Easy to Save Billions in Taxpayer Funds When Everything Is Made Up (techdirt.com)
Here’s a neat trick for saving taxpayers billions of dollars: just make stuff up!

Government Spending, Misinformation, Satire

21 points by hn_acker 2 days ago | 1 comments

Elon Musk is failing to cut American spending (economist.com)
It all seems to add up to something big. On a daily, sometimes hourly, basis, Elon Musk claims that his team of fiscal commandos has found yet more government fraud, terminated another wasteful contract or even scrapped an entire agency. Mr Musk’s supporters believe that, through tech wizardry and sheer willpower, he is slashing the federal deficit in a way that has eluded politicians for years.

Government Spending, Elon Musk, Politics, Economics

40 points by rurp 3 days ago | 12 comments

US Department of State plans to spend $400M on Tesla armoured vehicles (theguardian.com)
The US Department of State is planning to spend $400m buying new Tesla armoured vehicles, even as the carmaker’s boss, Elon Musk, leads efforts to slash government spending under Donald Trump.

Politics, Government Spending, Electric Vehicles, Tesla, Security

15 points by ethagnawl 8 days ago | 1 comments

Trump administration set to purchase $400M worth of armored Teslas (npr.org)
The Trump administration is expected to purchase $400 million worth of armored Tesla vehicles, according to a new State Department document detailing procurement for fiscal year 2025.

Politics, Government Spending, Electric Vehicles, Tesla, Security

15 points by binarno_sp 8 days ago | 4 comments

Trump is pausing federal loans and grants as his administration reviews spending (apnews.com)
The White House is pausing federal grants and loans starting on Tuesday as President Donald Trump’s administration begins an across-the-board ideological review of its spending.

Politics, Government Spending, Trump Administration

12 points by privong 24 days ago | 2 comments

It's pretty easy to cut $2T from the federal budget (pluralistic.net)
It's pretty easy to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget, actually: Just end all the private-sector profiteering.

Government Spending, Politics, Economics

21 points by keepit 25 days ago | 10 comments

Coordinate Stargate (wordpress.com)
AI is the cloud computing industry’s attempt to keep its aging assets and purchase contracts appearing valuable. They overbuilt and overcommitted on infrastructure. Stargate will buy, at great tax payer expense, these distressed assets at inflated prices and subsequently go bankrupt. The datacenters will then be sold back to cloud computing industry dirt cheap, thus completing the robbery.

Cloud Computing, Artificial Intelligence, Government Spending

4 points by FesterCluck 29 days ago | 1 comments

Taxpayers spend 22% more per patient to support Medicare Advantage (theconversation.com)
Medicare Advantage – the commercial alternative to traditional Medicare – is drawing down federal health care funds, costing taxpayers an extra 22% per enrollee to the tune of US$83 billion a year.

Medicare, Healthcare Costs, Government Spending, Public Policy

95 points by paulpauper 75 days ago | 106 comments

Memo to Musk: Here's $37B in Spending Cuts (ti.org)
Before the election, Elon Musk said he could find $2 trillion in federal spending cuts. After the election, he scaled that back to $0.5 trillion. Now that interest alone on the national debt is exceeding $1 trillion a year, a half-trillion cut isn’t going to be enough. Here are a few ways the federal government could save billions of dollars a year.

Politics, Economics, Government Spending

3 points by xnx 86 days ago | 6 comments

Trump says Elon Musk to lead 'DOGE' office to cut 'wasteful' government spending (theverge.com)
President-elect Donald Trump has appointed Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead what he calls the Department of Government Efficiency — yes, the acronym is DOGE — to “pave the way” for his administration to “dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.”

Politics, Elon Musk, Government Spending, Cryptocurrencies

10 points by thunderbong 101 days ago | 0 comments

Feds spend $2.1M per homeowner in bailout of one of LA's richest burbs (latimes.com)
The federal government plans to give Rancho Palos Verdes $42 million to finance buyouts for the homeowners hardest hit by the ongoing landslides in the Portuguese Bend area, with the properties eventually converted into lower-risk open space.

Government Spending, California, Natural Disasters, Real Estate

8 points by doctorpangloss 104 days ago | 0 comments

Pentagon's commercial satellite internet services program soars to $13B (spacenews.com)
WASHINGTON — The Defense Department is increasing its projected spending on low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite internet services more than tenfold, responding to surging demand from across the military, SpaceNews has learned.

Military, Space, Satellite Internet, Government Spending

5 points by alex_young 114 days ago | 6 comments

3 Years After Allocating $5B for EV Chargers, 17 Stations Completed (nationalreview.com)

Electric Vehicles, Infrastructure, Government Spending, Public Policy

24 points by fortran77 122 days ago | 11 comments

US Interest Burden Hits 28-Year High (bloomberg.com)
The US debt interest-cost burden climbed to the highest since the 1990s in the financial year that’s just ended, escalating the risk that fiscal worries limit the policy options for the next administration in Washington.

US Economy, Finance, Debt, Government Spending

17 points by xqcgrek2 125 days ago | 8 comments

Michael Bloomberg: NASA's Artemis Moon Mission Is a Waste (bloomberg.com)
The Artemis program — years behind schedule and billions over budget — should have taxpayers and presidents demanding answers.

Space Exploration, NASA, Politics, Government Spending

8 points by kristianp 126 days ago | 1 comments

NASA's $100B Moon Mission Is Going Nowhere (bloomberg.com)
The Artemis program — years behind schedule and billions over budget — should have taxpayers and presidents demanding answers.

Space Exploration, Government Spending, NASA, Artemis Program

7 points by JumpCrisscross 127 days ago | 1 comments

As world debt hits $100T, IMF warns deficit must be brought under control (politico.eu)
The debt owed by governments around the world will surpass $100 trillion by year-end and is an increasing threat to the global economy, the International Monetary Fund warned on Tuesday.

Global Economy, International Finance, Debt, IMF, Government Spending

8 points by hhs 128 days ago | 4 comments

California fails to track its homelessness spending or results, a new audit says (calmatters.org)
Exactly how much is California spending to combat homelessness — and is it working?

Homelessness, Government Spending, Audits, California

70 points by wslh 152 days ago | 55 comments

NASA's SLS rocket's Mobile Launcher-2 increase from $383M to $2.7B (twitter.com)

Space Exploration, NASA, Government Spending, Rocketry

73 points by guardiangod 178 days ago | 71 comments

The U.S. Navy's $100M checkbox (2019) (adrian3.com)

Military, Government Spending, Software

291 points by davidbarker 185 days ago | 245 comments

The U.S. Air Force's NGAD Fighter Looks Like a Giant Boondoggle (nationalinterest.org)