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Merged USAID: is it really a bunch of crazy leftists? / Trump Was Absolutely Right to Shut Down USAID

Ziggurat said:
Oh my god! Trump is reducing government spending! The children! Won't someone please think of the children!
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Is he? He just stopped the checks. That doesn't mean the money won't go someplace else. Like ◊◊◊◊◊◊ white trash golf resorts. Or heavily Chinese subsidized electric cars. Or ethnically cleansing Gaza. And if these actions cause more global instability, requiring more intervention from our military, will you be keeping a tab of how much that costs?
 
The Great Zaganza said:
Do you ever go to the doctor?
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Doctors have to actually demonstrate their competence. Moreover, they're held liable when they make mistakes.

The foreign aid "experts" don't have to demonstrate their competence, and are not held liable if they make mistakes.

They are not the same.
 
Ziggurat said:
Oh my god! Trump is reducing government spending! The children! Won't someone please think of the children!
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Assumes facts not in evidence. Show me a full accounting of what the Trump administration spends and where they spend it. And based on the process that you're here championing, you're going to need a group of anonymous teenagers to just start deleting computer files to do it.

Furthermore, if the goal is to reduce government spending and the starting point is an agency that constitutes less than 1% of the total budget, you are throwing your support behind the stupidest way to reduce government spending.
 
johnny karate said:
Assumes facts not in evidence. Show me a full accounting of what the Trump administration spends and where they spend it. And based on the process that you're here championing, you're going to need a group of anonymous teenagers to just start deleting computer files to do it.

Furthermore, if the goal is to reduce government spending and the starting point is an agency that constitutes less than 1% of the total budget, you are throwing your support behind the stupidest way to reduce government spending.
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I believe that The Party will change your mind. They will find even stupider ways to reduce spending.
 
Ziggurat said:
Doctors have to actually demonstrate their competence. Moreover, they're held liable when they make mistakes.

The foreign aid "experts" don't have to demonstrate their competence, and are not held liable if they make mistakes.

They are not the same.
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Since competence and accountability are so important to you, what competence has Musk's team demonstrated and what accountability do they have?
 
johnny karate said:
Since competence and accountability are so important to you, what competence has Musk's team demonstrated and what accountability do they have?
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They're good with numbers, which is what this stage is about. And they're accountable to Trump because he can easily fire them. Not sure why that even matters, though, because I'm not deferring to them out of any claim of expertise.
 
johnny karate said:
Assumes facts not in evidence. Show me a full accounting of what the Trump administration spends and where they spend it.
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Bwhahahaaha!

Those web sites people keep pointing to which document government spending? Yeah, they're still operating.
johnny karate said:
Furthermore, if the goal is to reduce government spending and the starting point is an agency that constitutes less than 1% of the total budget, you are throwing your support behind the stupidest way to reduce government spending.
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It's funny, you're throwing a ◊◊◊◊ fit over this 1%, and your justification is that it's just a drop in the bucket? I don't think that's the win you think it is.

No wonder cutting government spending is so hard. I don't really care where Trump starts, the most important fact is that he started at all.
 
Ziggurat said:
They're good with numbers, which is what this stage is about.
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Engineering is numbers. I'm an engineer and therefore good with numbers. Finance is numbers. Would you like me to manage your retirement portfolio because I'm "good with numbers?" Or might there be other kinds of expertise required? Musk ran Twitter into the ground, so I don't really consider him an expert in business finance.

Ziggurat said:
And they're accountable to Trump because he can easily fire them.
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Which he shows no sign of doing. And he shows no sign of imposing any sort of meaningful oversight. Apparently Trump just believes what Musk tells him.

Ziggurat said:
Not sure why that even matters, though, because I'm not deferring to them out of any claim of expertise.
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"Good with numbers" is a claim to expertise, just irrelevant and/or insufficient expertise. You have to pick a lane. Either you're claiming Musk et al. are competent to meddle in government finance or you're claiming no special expertise is needed to do that.
 
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Ziggurat said:
Bwhahahaaha!

Those web sites people keep pointing to which document government spending? Yeah, they're still operating.
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The ones you claimed weren't well documented? Those websites?

Ziggurat said:
It's funny, you're throwing a ◊◊◊◊ fit over this 1%, and your justification is that it's just a drop in the bucket? I don't think that's the win you think it is.

No wonder cutting government spending is so hard. I don't really care where Trump starts, the most important fact is that he started at all.
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I haven't thrown a ◊◊◊◊ fit nor have I justified anything. I'm pointing out that this a stupid approach to cut government spending, to which your response seems to be I don't care if it's stupid, I like it anyway.
 
johnny karate said:
Evidence for the highlighted?
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Dude. You picked the stupidest hill to die on.
johnny karate said:
And Trump's competence is based on what evidence?
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Once again, I'm not appealing to Trump's competence. What he has is authority, and that authority is granted by his election.
johnny karate said:
Then why are you deferring to them?
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In what sense am I deferring to them? In no sense other than how we all defer to our elected government to actually carry out the job of government, because that's how the system works. But I haven't assumed any particular decision they have made is correct because of some assumed expertise. You're the one doing that, not me.
 
JayUtah said:
Engineering is numbers. I'm an engineer and therefore good with numbers. Finance is numbers. Would you like me to manage your retirement portfolio because I'm "good with numbers?"
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I think you would probably be reasonably competent to audit my retirement portfolio.

Doge isn't being asked to manage USAID.
 
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