this post was submitted on 03 Feb 2025
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Summary

Elon Musk claims his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is shutting down payments to federal contractors, including a Lutheran charity, asserting it is eliminating corruption.

This suggests DOGE has access to Treasury’s payment systems, though officials have not confirmed the extent.

Senator Ron Wyden warned that DOGE may interfere with Social Security, Medicare, and government contracts.

Musk also called USAID “a criminal organization” that should “die,” amid DOGE’s growing influence over federal financial operations.

top 49 comments
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[–] [email protected] 5 points 47 minutes ago

Musk is himself a giant government contractor via Space X and Starlink. Odds are he's just trying to clear the board to funnel the money to his businesses. Especially when it comes to defense money!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 hour ago
[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

How is anyone permitting any of these people to have authority?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 hour ago

Trump's government is basically pay-to-play and Elon paid the most so he gets to do whatever he wants.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

Does anyone know what the story is behind this charity he's mentioning?

Edit: looks like they feed and provide shelter for asylum seekers, and obviously he's against that.

[–] [email protected] 42 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

Great way to get sued for breach of contract. This administration is going to be tied up in court for the next four years

[–] [email protected] 4 points 35 minutes ago

Do you really think this is going to play out in a court? They don't care about the law and are actively plowing through them at will.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 4 hours ago

Unfortunately, when all this stuff is resolved, it's still the government that's on the hook, not Musk personally. Although the new admin should probably just impound all of his and Trump's assets to pay for the fallout, but obviously Democrats would never do anything this based.

[–] [email protected] 87 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

Oh please start halting payments to government contractors. This guy starts holding payments to Lockheed Martin and Raytheon he's going to wind up real Dead real quick

[–] [email protected] 49 points 6 hours ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (1 children)

How much can a hitman really cost?!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 minute ago

A bag of crack and a handgun

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 hours ago

With the way things are going, I fully expect them to make a beneficial deal that includes Elon because fuck everything

[–] [email protected] 39 points 7 hours ago

A lot of our day to day military operations run on contractors. This seems like a good way to get more helicopters falling out of the sky.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 6 hours ago

Hey military industrial complex! Please coup this administration all ready.

[–] [email protected] 207 points 9 hours ago (6 children)

At what point do we declare this a coup? This isn't what even the most diehard conservatives out there voted for, I don't understand how this isn't considered a hostile takeover.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 hours ago (2 children)

It’s stressing me out to no end. I think the average person doesn’t even know this is currently happening.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 30 minutes ago

It's being censored.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 hour ago

I don't follow politics. I voted for trump because it was badass when he said fight fight fight. Elon's a genius, I'm sure he's gonna make it better.

These are real takes I've heard out there in the world.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 6 hours ago (3 children)

When this happens in a developing country we laugh at their politics.

When it happens in America, no one bats an eye

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Americans still think their country is somehow different even though it's still a developing country in many respects.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 hours ago

Not just country nations, reminder the regions with the strongest identities are either the oldest, important, or Mormon. We are very much kn the same state the late western Roman empire was in, where they had African Romance, Brithonic Romance, and Gaulic Romance we have Californian, Texan, and Northestern the east coast tracks to eastern Mediterranean.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 hours ago

USA is the new banana republic.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 hours ago

Oh no I am absolutely laughing at America

[–] [email protected] 64 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

This isn’t even what the most diehard conservatives out there voted for

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 hours ago

Hungarian here, whose face got eaten by the leopards.

Political illiteracy is a serious problem, and so is the access to information. They actually thought the crime rates were up, because the very few news outlets they're exposed to likes to uplift a few cases with scary headlines, often making anniversary reports on some crimes. They actually thought, that the opposition was "too far-left", because pundits told them so, and they learned in school the real nazis did evil things for the sole sake of evil, thus people that say they want to eliminate crime, and have crime statistics must not be far-right.

This is not for to excuse their behavior, but to explain it. Maybe can even lead to an end of this cycle.

[–] [email protected] 43 points 7 hours ago

Fucking yes.

All conservatives at the tables with all these nazis asking who voted in all the nazis.

At this point your party has folded. Keep saying "but not meeeee, I'm a real conservative!" All you want.

[–] [email protected] 107 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

They're in too deep to admit how badly they obviously fucked up. Shit is gonna have to actually reach the ugly bitter end, leaving them no other possible explanation to try to hide behind. In the meantime, this must be what it felt like for the citizens of Rome as it burned.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

It is not until it affects them on a personal level they make that realization. That is how far the empathy of the average conservative voter reaches.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 hour ago

Well, in essence and at its purest level the difference in thinking between Leftwing and Rightwing is the difference between "I want people to have a better life" and "I want to have a better life".

All the political complexity above that comes from the different possible ways to achieve either end and from how one end partly overlaps with the other (i.e. for many a general improvement of people's lifes gets translated into a personal improvement).

So yeah, conservatives are just "What's in it for me" types who believe in a different method to maximize their personal upside than the Fascists. In fact many American-style Liberals (the political version of "Liberal" in the US, not to be confused with those who believe in the actual Liberal Ideology) are also rightwingers who believe in yet another method for personal upside improvement.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 9 hours ago

And here I am, too damn poor to afford a fiddle...

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 hours ago

This is exactly what they voted for and they'll fucking do it again.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 7 hours ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 54 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (1 children)

Lawsuit submitted

Lower court determines whether to stay the action while case is handled

Changes are unrecoverable since department can't pay staff managing the payments

Law enforcement given warrant to force stay

Law enforcement chooses not to enforce because they have no motivation

Payments never restored

Case goes to supreme court

Law interpreted in favor of the administration because clearly no means yes, it's obvious

Congress doesn't respond due to right wing majority

Checks and balances are dead.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 6 hours ago

Legal authority stopped mattering the FIRST time the grifter in chief was selected president.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 hours ago

You still think the law can stop them. Adorable.

[–] [email protected] 104 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

So... SpaceX is one of the contractors not being paid right? Right?

[–] [email protected] 39 points 7 hours ago

L-m-a-o roflmao even

[–] [email protected] 87 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

This is a great way to end up on the military-indistrial complex hitlist

[–] [email protected] 15 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

Can only hope he goes for them and not just the small businesses and academia. Something tells me he'll go for civil facing departments and generally avoid DOD

[–] [email protected] 48 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Raytheon would like to know your latitude and longitude

[–] [email protected] 19 points 7 hours ago

Care package incoming.

[–] [email protected] 65 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

Ah the Trump approach to contractors. And Musk approach to rent.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 9 hours ago

It's just like when Dumpf would stiff his contractors LMAO 🤣

[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 hours ago