Hacker News with Generative AI: Government Spending

The US Treasury just shocked Americans with a $258B surplus (yahoo.com)
Budget deficits are something we’ve come to expect from Uncle Sam. After all, without years of overspending, the federal government wouldn’t be sitting on trillions of dollars in debt. But, the latest monthly Treasury statement delivered a rare — and welcome — surprise.
US Economy, Finance, Government Spending, Budget
7 points by harambae 2 days ago | 2 comments
America's nuclear arsenal to cost $946B over next decade (breakingdefense.com)
WASHINGTON — America’s nuclear arsenal will cost $946 billion over the next decade, an estimated total that rose by 25 percent over the last two years, according to a new report [PDF] from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
Military Spending, Nuclear Weapons, Government Spending, United States
60 points by geox 26 days ago | 80 comments
A Scaled Down Look at Spending, Revenue, and What's Being Cut (debtinperspective.com)
The national debt is being used to justify spending cuts - but do these cuts actually reduce it?
National Debt, Government Spending, Economics, Politics
73 points by mifydev 28 days ago | 40 comments
Trump Team Eyes Politically Connected Startup to Overhaul Payments Program (propublica.org)
Four days before Donald Trump’s inauguration, financial technology startup Ramp published a pitch for how to tackle wasteful government spending.
Politics, Startups, Government Spending, Technology
8 points by petethomas 35 days ago | 0 comments
Government Spending Is Out of Control LOL (ritholtz.com)
Calculation: BEA Table 3.1 Line 20 (Current Expenditures) divided by Table 1.1.5 Line 1 (GDP). Alternatively, Item #2 below divided by GDP.
Government Spending, Economics, Finance
10 points by SirLJ 60 days ago | 1 comments
DOGE's Cuts to the IRS Threaten to Cost More Than Doge Will Ever Save (propublica.org)
The Trump administration claims gutting federal agencies will save money, but cutting the IRS means the government collects less taxes. “If you’re interested in the deficit and curbing it, why would you cut back on the revenue side?” one expert asks.
Taxes, Government Spending, Economics, US Politics
38 points by danso 75 days ago | 9 comments
The Big Government Contracts Doge Hasn't Touched (nytimes.com)
Elon Musk and his team of budget cutters have claimed credit for billions of dollars in canceled government contracts. But their initiative, the Department of Government Efficiency, has so far barely touched the biggest sources of contract spending in the federal budget.
Government Spending, Elon Musk, Politics
43 points by aatish 79 days ago | 17 comments
The Trump administration may exclude government spending from GDP (apnews.com)
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Sunday that government spending could be separated from gross domestic product reports in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn.
Politics, Economics, Government Spending, GDP
19 points by layer8 82 days ago | 4 comments
Trump's EV Rollback Could Cost Taxpayers $1B (thedrive.com)
Last week, the Trump administration ordered all electric vehicle chargers at federal buildings to be shut down and all federal government EVs to be sold.
Politics, Environment, Government Spending
61 points by dashundchen 83 days ago | 15 comments
Federal spending is stable over time (lbo-news.com)
Among the leading fantasies of the moment are that federal employment and spending are “out of control,” so drastic action is needed to put things back in order. These are lies. Some people who utter these lies probably know better and some don’t, but they’re still lies.
Government Spending, Politics, Economics, Misinformation
70 points by alpinisme 83 days ago | 103 comments
Bloated Department of Defense spends more money than any other government agency (theintercept.com)
Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency began its cost-cutting efforts by dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development, which spends about $22 billion per year, about 0.3 percent of overall federal spending.
Government Spending, Politics, United States
13 points by sea-gold 84 days ago | 2 comments
Elon Musk Wants Big Bond Market Reward for DOGE Team's Cuts (bloomberg.com)
It was a little after midnight on Feb. 3, and Elon Musk was reveling in the first big trophy from his rapid-fire campaign through Washington to slash government spending. He had just engineered, not even two weeks into President Donald Trump’s new term, the sudden shuttering of the US Agency for International Development.
Elon Musk, Cryptocurrency, Politics, Government Spending
13 points by JumpCrisscross 87 days ago | 4 comments
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
18 points by colinprince 91 days 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
23 points by throw0101a 91 days ago | 14 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
158 points by ceejayoz 92 days ago | 44 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
22 points by hn_acker 93 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
41 points by rurp 94 days ago | 13 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 99 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 100 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 115 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 116 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 121 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 166 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 177 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 192 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 195 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 205 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 213 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 216 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 217 days ago | 1 comments