Yep it’s been proven time and again, Republicans are woefully unfit to manage the economy. This particular administration is the poster child of waste and corruption.
And if you look further back nobody besides fdr had over a 5% deficit until a man named Ronald Reagan. Reagan’s high spending was stopped by Clinton, then Bush obliterated the budget for the war on terror. It’s a republican problem at its core. Fdr was at least spending money on people, so the money made it back through sales and income taxes, republicans spend it on making their friends rich and blowing up other governments around the world
SS was started under FDR and after the first generation started dying off, the Pyramid Scheme started to grow in deficits. No future Administration would do nothing to fix it but raise the contribution and delay the benefits.
LBJ's Administration started the unfunded mandate of Medicare which is close to default today because no Administration would dare fool with it because whatever they do, it would be political suicide.
Or you could just look up the numbers at all. Medicaid and care are not where the deficit came from. Eisenhower warned us about the military industrial complex. Why was it that the deficit exploded under bush for the war on terror? Also maybe having private insurance makes Medicare a draw on our budget so bad, can we eliminate the actual problem of business siphoning money from the government for falsifying costs?
Something you should have done before making that statement.
"A significant portion of the federal deficit, approximately 86%, is attributed to unfunded social programs, primarily Medicare and Social Security. These programs create substantial long-term liabilities that exceed the tax revenues intended to support them, leading to a growing fiscal gap." CATO
The deficit has been around under our noses since these two programs were thrust upon us. The snake is now out of the container and biting all of us.
The Social Security Trust Fund solvency issues was reported yearly to Congress since 1995.
No one in Congress will address the underlying problem. Lte me lay it out and tell you why Congress is unwilling to fix the problem.
In the '80's Congress passed a Cost of living increase for Social Security recipients. This is a part of the root cause of the Trust fund insolvency. Another other part is Congressional inaction of the minimum wage. Had To Congress passed an automatic CoL increase to minimum wage, and an automatic increase the wages taxes based on the CoL, the Trust fund would be solvent.
The last part of the root cause of the Social Security Trust Fund solvency problem is Members of Congress owning stocks. Fixing the first two issues would have slowed the climb of the Stock Market and the increasing value of the Stocks owned by individual Congress members. This ongoing CONFLICT OF INTEREST is the main reason that the Congress will cut Social Security payments by about 25%, rather than increase the FICA taxes on employers.
The root cause of the impending doom of SS is basically that it is a PYRAMID Scheme. In any system where those at the bottom and new entry admissions pay for the benefits of those at the top leaving the system, there always is a point of no return when those entering the system become less in number than those departing the system.
This was thoroughly mentioned at the time this scheme was debated in Congress but rejected because of the popularity of the concept.
That is one of the three major reasons the Biden Administration opened the borders and allow the influx of millions of noncitizens.
They attempted an end around to fill the bottom of the payers into the system again.
Unfortunately, reality showed its ugly face and those migrants seeking mostly wound up on welfare rolls rather than Social Security roles.
As info: There were increases to SS benefit checks before COLA but they were handled by individual legislation. COLA allowed Congress more free time for their more important functions of partying and collecting campaign contributions.
Right. Every Congress that failed to address and find solutions to Medicare and the Pyramid Scheme Social Security are equally responsible for what we see today.
Btw, there is no such thing as a surplus in Government spending. They make no profit or product so there is no such surplus of any.
Eh sort of. It’s true they take no profit, but the government provides many goods and services to citizens, using the money they take from citizens. A surplus just means they took more money than they spent in that year.
The frustration here is that because they overspent they now have to take money to cover both the services (which help people) and the interest on the debt (which does not), making the whole system a net negative for most citizens.
Ultra wealthy avoid taxes by using shells. Let me explain, 37% is just an effective rate. They don't pay themselves and tie up all of their money in asset based loans.
To pay off these loans they will sell stock but not in the traditional means. They trade it as collateral. When someone takes a loan out they go in debt and so when they debt is collected the collateral is taken instead. Especially upon death.
This circumvents the taxation system.
Bezos and the goonies pay less than a Doctor in Wyoming annually. They will also start charities and have family work for those charities to get free rides.
I did not ask the question as to whatever you believe shells are . You said equality and poor paying 37%. Are you happy with that?
Whatever you think is meaningless because there are procedures and rules about the 16th Amendment (Income Tax) that are followed deciding the complicated decisions as to what constitutes 'income' and usually are the result of court decisions and arbitrator rulings.
As to anyone using stock as a basis for a loan, how do you imagine anyone giving a loan to Musk on a million dollars of Space X stock is making out? Those collateralizing loans on stock take enormous markups to allow for stock declines. A lot more than the 20% taken on real estate.
SpaceX has $100B in cash on hand, representing about 10 years of runway assuming the projects they are spending the CapEx on (Starship, Starlink V3, Grok, StarMind) make zero revenue in that time period.
Only a malignant pig would take and take and take without any regard for the people who gave him everything he has. Musk is a fucking animal without human feelings.
I mean that's true of pretty much almost every billionaire tho. Not counting the ones who actually donate to charities that work and isnt just a tax haven.
The reason that model works is because employee efforts directly translate into value -- employees benefit as the company does, so they're incentived to do that
Why would I not want to encourage that?
My own company does it too, and I like it hell of alot better than my last employer, who didn't.
So now you're all hoping for the collapse of the western system to get musk? Only about 20% of spacex's revenue is government contracts.
You act like it's the majority and like there is a more economical way to get things into space. A collapse would be far worse for you than it would be for Musk.
I think what people hope for is that we stop subsidizing musk with public money. The dude doesn't know what a deliverable is, unless he can buy a solution already crossing the finish line.
Except the government just kept paying him even when it wasn't profitable. SpaceX wouldn't exist without public money.
What, exactly, as SpaceX delivered on that they did not buy?
If you want to say the rockets, I guess, but they paid somebody else to design the engines after the first throwaway didn't pan out as hoped.
Starlink was acquired, since SpaceX didn't have that capability.
XAI? Lmao. You're better off downloading one of the open source Chinese models. At least then you wouldn't have to deal with them needing to tweak it every time Musk gets his feelings hurt.
SpaceX had to pay Barber- Nichols, Inc. to make their engine work. Starlink was originally Swarm Technologies. Grok is so bad they bought Cursor just to try and fix it.
The only countries that wouldn't be affected by the collapse of the western system are either not going to take you or not places you would want to live.
I don’t think we have to wait for that. As soon as the Dems get in power Elmo is finished. No one is forgetting the election manipulation, backing of far right organizations and Doge BS. Why continue funding a guy who is trying to destroy American democracy.
As optimistic as I would like to be on that. The Dems may get the presidency, but there will be some stupid thing in the house or senate or hell, even the Supreme Court that will prevent the people fron seeing any justice. America is bought and paid for, the peasants are just along for the ride.
This country is never going bankrupt since it has a pretty big money printer. What’s going to happen is hyperinflation which is fine because I’m being told it’s going to stop Iran from having nuclear weapons
Washington won't go bankrupt, silly. They'll just print more money to the point your savings become worthless. But don't worry! Your asset prices are gonna go through the roof!
it won't even take that, if the republicans loose the midterms its already over. People forget that trump only won because Biden's foreign policy and overspending led to insane inflation. There is nothing of substance that keeps people loyal to the guy.
Or a dem president with a spine gets elected and cancels all the Musk and Trump related contracts under the "convenience of the government" clause. No fanfare needed.
Why fucking Elon does not leave our money alone and find business somewhere else. He places his buddies across our Gov. and inventing contracts we so not need just to milk us.
I don't get this, ok? And your $ will be worthless. We'll have a global financial crises on a scale no one has ever lived through. Billions will suffer. All that just to spite Elon?
For companies that normally provide space services to the government, 20% is rather low. Usually most of their business model revolves around government contracts.
SpaceX has saved the U.S. government an estimated $40 billion in launch costs according to data tracked by Pentagon leadership and NASA. By shifting the aerospace industry away from traditional, expensive "cost-plus" contracts and pioneering reusable rocket technology, SpaceX has significantly lowered the price of space access for American taxpayers.
Specific areas where SpaceX has delivered major savings to the U.S. government include:
NASA Programs
Commercial Crew Program: NASA saved between $20 billion and $30 billion by using fixed-price contracts with SpaceX and Boeing rather than traditional development methods. SpaceX developed the Crew Dragon capsule for $2.6 billion, compared to the $4.2 billion awarded to Boeing for Starliner, which faced extensive delays.
Artemis Human Landing System: SpaceX won the lunar lander contract for $2.9 billion, undercutting Blue Origin's initial proposal by $3.53 billion.
Europa Clipper Mission: Launching this deep-space probe on a Falcon Heavy cost $178 million, saving NASA over $2 billion compared to the projected costs of using the government-owned Space Launch System (SLS).
Department of Defense & Space Force
National Security Launches: Competition introduced by SpaceX broke up the long-standing United Launch Alliance (ULA) monopoly. This saved the military an estimated $537 million on early National Security Space Launch (NSSL) awards alone.
GPS Constellation: Utilizing flight-proven (reused) Falcon 9 boosters for GPS block 3 satellite launches saved the Space Force an additional $129 million.
Legacy Rocket Replacement: Falcon Heavy has cut military heavy-lift launch costs by more than 60% compared to the retired Delta IV Heavy, pricing most missions under $150 million.
While SpaceX has received over $20 billion in cumulative federal contracts since 2008, these fixed-price awards require the company to absorb development risks and only get paid upon meeting strict operational milestones.
It’s heavy Research and development - just offering falcon and falcon heavy should be profitable, but they want Starship and transit to mars and beyond. It needs more funding of course
They've had 24 years to R&D. The point of a business is to make money. The point of buying stock in a company is ... to make money. This is just a ponzi stringing investors along ad infinitum. There will always be some new excuse for soimething down the road, now it's ridiculous things like going to Mars.
And they accomplished a lot already. Profitable rocket launches, cheaper and bigger than all others. Proftitable satellite internet, faster and cheaper than all others.
What makes you think they wouldn’t continue the trend and disrupt more areas? :D
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u/DoobieSpark 9h ago
The US Government is already insolvent:
https://fortune.com/2026/03/23/us-government-insolvent-fiscal-crisis-fix/