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Trump's Second Term

johnny karate said:
You claimed the USAID had no oversight or accountability. Are you backing away from that claim now? Because it sure seems like it.
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That is the immediate brazen lie in question, after all. That theprestige thought that it would even be sane to defend it rather suggests compromised judgement.
 
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JayUtah said:
All I've seen so far is that Musk is capping the indirect costs at 15%. That's draconian, but not wildly so. I don't see where he's capping or cutting direct costs. My company's indirect costs run around 20% of budget, but are a bit higher this year because we're building out two new physical facilities. We're paying architects and construction companies. But the tweet is puzzling. The claim is that 60% of of research grants is being spent on overhead. These appear to be the rate caps. $9B out of $35B appears to be the actual expenditure, and works out to a little more than 25%.
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Actually, the claim is about 26% of NIH funding ($9 billion out of $35 billion) is spent on overhead. If overhead is capped at 15%, that would represent a saving of about $5 billion a year. I presume Musk would like to cut the NIH funding by that amount. Presumably the lost money would be made up for by reducing infrastructure costs rather than cutting the research itself. I'm not in a position to say that's possible.

Of note, in 2022 Americans spent $112 billion on alcoholic beverages, $82 billion on tobacco, and $110 billion on coffee. Given the enormous size of the US economy, $5 billion is a drop in the bucket.

In addition, it will take a lot of $5 billion amounts to get to Trump's target of reducing government expenditures by a trillion dollars a year. That won't happen without really serious cuts.
 
Dr.Sid said:
Uh .. don't US use cents ?
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Here, "cents" and "pennies" are interchangeable, I've never heard of it otherwise, even regionally (when referred to by that word alone). Although the cents symbol has been missing from keyboards for a couple decades now. Even though it says ONE CENT on it, I've always heard it referred to as the Lincoln Penny and never the LIncoln Cent.
 
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As of the close of the day on February 9, my positive/negative score on the Trump administration stands at -94.

9 February 2025
0: Musk tweets that overhead costs ate up 26% of NIH grants ($9B/$35B.) (0 for "insufficient information")
-1: Trump repeats his lie that the US/Canada trade deficit is $200 billion in favour of Canada
-1: Trump sidesteps a question of when Americans will see prices coming down [21]

Footnotes:

21. BAIER: When do you think families would be able to feel prices going down?
TRUMP: I think we're gonna become a rich—look, we're not that rich right now. We owe $36 trillion. That's because we let all these nations take advantage of us.
 
Dr.Sid said:
Uh .. don't US use cents ?
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We do, but we don't have to worry, because trump will sign an EO forcing everyone to price everything with a zero at the end, even after taxes are added---rounding everything up to the nearest zero---and then he'll write another one ending the new minting of nickels.

Or he'll just write one banning the use of cash all together.

Hey, I'm joking, but I wouldn't put anything past that pile of screaming vomit.


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lionking said:
I actually credited you with enough intelligence to know why it’s irrelevant. Perhaps I’m wrong.

Women do not object to competing against other women, even in contact sports. They do object to competing against men, particularly in contact sports. I really thought I would not need to spell it out.
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Ha! Please watch through to the end, that's when my high school classmate (Mankind, aka Mickey Foley) makes an appearance...) :giggle:

Woman vs Man!
 
Blue Mountain said:
Presumably the lost money would be made up for by reducing infrastructure costs rather than cutting the research itself. I'm not in a position to say that's possible.
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I think that's what Musk desires us to think. Whether it's possible to carry out effective cancer research with only 15% indirect costs is something someone would have to decide who has worked in that sector for many years and who has a long memory of normal variations across administrations. That would not be Elon Musk or any of his squeaky-voiced programmers. Musk has a demonstrated inability to know which jobs are critical.

I have no idea why the caps were previously so high.

Blue Mountain said:
Of note, in 2022 Americans spent $112 billion on alcoholic beverages, $82 billion on tobacco, and $110 billion on coffee. Given the enormous size of the US economy, $5 billion is a drop in the bucket.
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It is. And I wonder how much of these "efficiency" cuts would be obviated by applying a 2% tax on wealth.

Blue Mountain said:
In addition, it will take a lot of $5 billion amounts to get to Trump's target of reducing government expenditures by a trillion dollars a year. That won't happen without really serious cuts.
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It will be too late when Americans realize that these cuts they supposedly want will come from vital services.
 
JayUtah said:
It will be too late when Americans realize that these cuts they supposedly want will come from vital services.
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Like FEMA, and on that note, when does the hurricane season start again?

I feel sorry for the innocents caught in the crossfire, but if they voted for the fat clown, they can go to hell right along with him.


ETA: June 1st to November 30th.


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JayUtah said:
I think that's what Musk desires us to think. Whether it's possible to carry out effective cancer research with only 15% indirect costs is something someone would have to decide who has worked in that sector for many years and who has a long memory of normal variations across administrations. That would not be Elon Musk or any of his squeaky-voiced programmers. Musk has a demonstrated inability to know which jobs are critical.
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This is pretty much like trying to still run Space-X successfully but with a 15% cut in rocket building and catching facilities.
 
stanfr said:
Ha! Please watch through to the end, that's when my high school classmate (Mankind, aka Mickey Foley) makes an appearance...) :giggle:

Woman vs Man!
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Whoa!!! Ok, that was brutal, and I know that WWE is mostly fake, but people do still get hurt.

Thank you stanfr!

(RIP Chyna, you were definitely one of the best---man or woman)


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