alt Hacker News> Also cut essential foreign aid...
Why are my tax dollars going to foreign healthcare, education, and food banks when we could definitely use that here?
> claims about 200+ year olds recieving pensions Elon and a SSA inspector general investigation identified approximately $298 million paid to 24,000 deceased beneficiaries over a period spanning 1998–2019. Some of that money was recovered.
He did nothing. He was an advisor to the president, and his team made reccomendations. Also, there is a GAO that has reviewed all canceled contracts. All of the recipients had the right to protest... unfortunately, most of the NGO's simply had to show up to court to get the contracts back, but they didn't because it was obvious fraud.
And, that grok part? What is all that about? Any AI, can do all of those things? Spending on election interference? So all money donated to political orgs are election interference?
The reasons you seem to hate him, all seem like good things to me?
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> Why are my tax dollars going to foreign healthcare, education, and food banks when we could definitely use that here?
I somewhat agree. You vote for universal healthcare, or against it?
Either way, addressing communicable diseases in far away places also helps keep them from becoming nearby diseases. It's far cheaper to fund some vaccines in a far away land than deal with widespread disease domestically. And in the end, cutting these things did practically nothing for the deficit. It was a rounding error of spending to save so many lives around the world.
And they want to argue they're instituting a "Christian" nation. How about following His red text words?
Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.
> Why are my tax dollars going to foreign healthcare, education, and food banks
Because the US wants to have influence around the world to maintain its empire. Mostly using hard power but also some soft power and this is seen as a relatively cheap way to maintain NGO presence in foreign countries that can be used for both.
> when we could definitely use that here?
Agreed, unfortunately that gets called socialism/communism in the US, which means a large chunk of the population will instantly reject it based on labels alone.
> He did nothing. He was an advisor to the president, and his team made reccomendations.
His team did a lot more than that[1][2][3].
"DOGE has gained access to sensitive data about immigrants and farm workers. [A] whistleblower at the National Labor Relations Board claims that staffers observed spikes in data leaving the agency after DOGE got access to its systems, with destinations unknown."
> And, that grok part? What is all that about? Any AI, can do all of those things?
There's a difference between potentially can do and is basically advertised as doing[4]. You can't easily get Claude to do the equivalent, for example. Note that what Grok did was not limited to adults either. But maybe you're fine with that too. Do you think a regular person would get away with that?
1 - https://www.wired.com/story/doge-is-just-getting-warmed-up-d...
2 - https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/20...
3 - https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/22/us/politics/elon-musk-ema...
4 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grok_sexual_deepfake_scandal
For what it's worth, I don't hate Musk specifically. What I hate is this sense that people with his wealth have that they are entitled to just disregard all rules they don't like because they're just so brilliant. Then you have people in jail for things Musk does 8 times a day.
If all he did was put his money towards some cool projects, (which is what I think his admirers think he limits himself to), then be my guest. It's the idea that he can get high as a kite, have some crackpot idea based off of a X post he just saw, pick up the phone and get a crackpot plan in motion, bypassing any kind of normal process or vetting.
I'd be seriously worried that Musk has all kinds of private info on regular Americans as a result of his DOGE scheme, which likely did the opposite of saving money[5][6].
5 - https://www.cbsnews.com/news/doge-cuts-cost-135-billion-anal...
6 - https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/white-house-begs-hundred...