[retinaros]

If you believe Musk wont reach it you are dreaming. Just cutting all funding to all those NGO and those foreign news institutions will do it. In many countries a big chunk of governments workers are bs jobs and are just there to maintain an aging machine look like its working while helping reducing unemployment rate by financing useless jobs.

[michaelbuckbee]

In the game Civilization, there are different ways to achieve victory, one of which is a Cultural Victory.

A lot of the foreign aid the US does is kind of like this, where we're attempting to shift other countries to our way of life through a mix of direct aid, loans, news, and other methods.

There's a real long term ROI on these things where it's inarguably to the US' benefit that other countries want to speak English, use USD, operate businesses similarly to how we do, etc.

[CharlieDigital]

There are a few interesting channels on YT of Africans singing Chinese folk and pop songs. Quite fascinating and a sign of how China has been able to spread influence in Africa through investment. (Of course none of it a free ride)

[ZeroGravitas]

There a great documentary called Empire of Dust from 2011 that follows Chinese engineers building roads in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

https://m.imdb.com/title/tt2148945/

When it gets mentioned online it mostly seems to be racists suggesting Africans are inferior, partly based on the Chinese engineer's frustration with local customs and graft and labour market.

But I found it quite humanising of both the African and Chinese people featured. The director is Belgian, which controlled the region up until independence 50 years before filming.

[retinaros]

I totally agree with you. Except id pin it much less positively than you. The goal is not to help “allies” but to make sure they don’t outcompete us. This is what the money was for. Just like any superpower did (you know the russian interference you all hated)

[pjc50]

It's extremely ironic that Musk is the one defunding all the US covert influence programs, which leftists have been complaining about for decades.

[retinaros]

Exactly my point. The only explanation possible is that left and right wing only serve one purpose: make sure the empire remains

[actionfromafar]

Without themselves knowing it, or something? I don't get it. At this pace, the empire will crumble pretty soon.

[ben_w]

Behold, your budget: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/2023_US_...

You can't cut $2T without cutting at least some "mandatory" spending or your interest payments, because the total of absolutely all your "discretionary" spending comes to a total of $1.7T.

Your "discretionary" spending includes your entire active military. Not the retired military, that's "mandatory" spending, but all your active military.

Your non-military "discretionary" spending is $0.9T, less than half of what people are talking about cutting.

[beowulfey]

He is going to cost way more in damage dealt than he will save. The goal is not to save money and only fools would think that it is.

[scarface_74]

That still doesn’t make the math add up. Is saving .68% in federal spending a win especially with the proposed budget causing more deficit spending?

[retinaros]

You remove the workers not to save on salary but to save on budget you will allocate to a department. Its like any company. The smaller the dept the smaller the budget and influence.

[scarface_74]

The math still doesn’t add up.

https://www.federalbudgetinpictures.com/where-does-all-the-m...

If you got rid of every department that DOGE is targeting completely, you still only save 8%