Angry protesters from New York to Alaska assail Trump and Musk in ‘Hands Off!’ rallies.

@SunshineGirl
If government agencies are not robbing the taxpayer, how come there is a budget deficit? Taxpayers pay in to the public account. Government agencies take all the money out and put IOU's in the public account. Is this not robbery?

@sree251 How come there is a budget deficit? Because demand for government services outstrips supply, plain and simple. Why should this be the case? Because the private sector increasingly fails to supply the needs of the whole nation.

@SunshineGirl Because not all the demands are real.

@SunshineGirl
DOGE found the cause of budget deficit. It is waste, fraud and corruption in every government agency. Your explanation has no basis in fact.

@nudistsueaz
They are real but ridiculous and wasteful.

@sree251 OK, so there is no poverty or need in America? Everyone who uses social security is a fraudster?

@SunshineGirl
There is poverty in America. The poor get food stamps and other assistance. DOGE discovered government programs feeding non-existent people. Nobody got fed. The public funds siphoned off by this fraudulent programs went to politicians and government bureaucrats.

@sree251 If there is genuine evidence of fraud, this needs to be tested in public in the courts, not in the murky recesses of X.

@SunshineGirl
You make a fair comment. DOGE said that there are 200 year olds drawing social security. There has been no denial from the Commissioner of the SSA. Why isn't he taken to court? He did not commit a crime. He could be fired. He would be if he was in the private sector. To be fair, it was not his fault because he cannot be held responsible for a dead system that has a life of its own. Can DODGE revamp the system? No. DOGE can only point to evidence of system failure and recommend change. It would be like plotting a difference course for a giant tanker. It's too hard; especially, people like you are not supportive and protest against change.

@sree251 Yep, well this is not the private sector, this is the real world in which the rule of law applies and pesky little things like burden of evidence prevent the rich and powerful from doing whatever they like.

@SunshineGirl
You are a fine example of a person with low expectations.

@sree251 On the contrary, I have very high expectations, which is why I resist transitory politicians attempting to sell off our futures to a handful of billionaires.

@SunshineGirl
Our futures? The only future is founded on the dreams of billionaire entrepreneurs. They build our future. The losers are people like you with high expectations but no net worth.

@sree251 You are frighteningly compliant with this dystopian view.

Btw, Musk ceased to be an entrepreneur many years ago. His "dreams" are funded by the American taxpayer.

@SunshineGirl That is a LIE and The TESLA sales that made Musk a billionaire were not purchased by taxpayer dollars.

@Reason10 Between 2018 and 2022, Tesla paid zero federal income tax on profits of $4.4bn, whilst managing to pay its top five executives $2.5bn. It "achieved" this by rolling over losses from previous years, shifting profits to offshore tax havens, and using stock options. Meanwhile, millions of ordinary Americans paid their taxes honestly and patriotically, thus helping to sustain Musk in the lifestyle he has become accustomed to 🍾

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/what-big-companies-paid-or-didnt-in-federal-income/471179

@SunshineGirl
What is generating this perception of yours? Dreams of winners are funded by losers. Is it jealousy?

@SunshineGirl
Your information comes from Sherin Shibu, a business news reporter at Entrepreneur.com.

Tesla didn’t break any laws to achieve this ultra-low tax rate. Instead, it used a mix deductions, and tax credits to erase its federal tax burden.

Full R&D expensing, if passed, could save Tesla an additional $2.4 billion in taxes.

@sree251 And no doubt when Trump has finished dismembering what remains of a progressive taxation system, he will be able to charge the American taxpayer a few billion more.

My comment that you reacted to is about entrepreneurship, risking your own money in pursuit of profit. Musk's most risky ventures are underwritten by billions of dollars of federal contracts and subsidy, while profits on other businesses are propped up by tax write offs. It doesn't matter if they are legal or not. Somebody is paying for them, and it surely isn't Musk.

@SunshineGirl
Conjecture.


SpaceX and Tesla were the riskiest ventures. NASA in its entire history before Elon Musk had never even thought of retrieving their first stage rocket thrusters for re-use. This novel idea alone was funded by venture capitalist money raised by Musk. He and those who stuck their necks out to the tune of hundreds of millions could have lost everything.


You are wrong. Both SpaceX and Tesla were created from start-ups funded by venture capitalists who put their faith in Elon Musk. The federal contracts came rolling in AFTER Musk's ideas were proven to be viable.


At the end of the day, we all are paying for Musk's business creations from electric cars to Starlink satellite technology not to mention the AI applications in the field of medicine to warfare. And it's all legal for what it is worth. Legality is the touchstone of woke value. Morality is something else.