It's pretty easy to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget, actually -- Cory Doctorow [View all]

[erronis]

https://pluralistic.net/2025/01/27/beltway-bandits/#henhouse-foxes

If Elon Musk wants to cut $2t from the US federal budget, there's a pretty straightforward way to get there – just eliminate all the beltway bandits who overcharge Uncle Sucker for everything from pharmaceuticals to roadworks to (of course) rockets, and then make the rich pay their taxes.

There is a ton of federal bloat, but it's not coming from useless programs or overpaid federal employees. As David Dayen writes in a long, fact-filled feature in The American Prospect, the bloat comes from the private sector's greedy suckling at the government teat:

https://prospect.org/economy/2025-01-27-we-found-the-2-trillion-elon-musk-doge/

The federal workforce used to be huge. In 1960, federal employees were 4.3% of all US workers; today, it's 1.4%. Zeroing out the entire federal payroll would save $271b/year (while beaching the US economy!), a mere 4% of the federal budget.

...

Lots more places to improve the budget:

Increase the number of auditors that can ferret out fraud in the contracts.

Stop fighting with SEC and other regulatory agencies that are trying to fight corruption.

Don't give subsidies for satellite-based communications when fiber-optic is ten-million times faster.

Don't attack projects such as high-speed rail (which compete with his swastikars.)

Go after Medicare Advantage fraud and mismanagement.

Continue the effort to rein in pharma prices.

... Many others.