[hnthrow90348765]

Almost all of it would be related to military contracts and spending

As large as social security is, I'm sure there's some efficiencies to be gained too, but the military industrial complex is THE defacto leader in greed and wastefulness

But these idiots tried to fire people related to the nuclear arsenal and had to go rehire them. You can't tell me they're competent after that big of a screw up.

[cuuupid]

If you look seriously you will find military contracts and spending usually achieves something and is in many cases very difficult to decrease.

It has become somewhat of a pattern for politicians to yell about defense spending, get elected, look under the covers and do an immediate 180 in favor of defense spending.

On the other hand you can cut around 70% of the civil government immediately with no impact on our country. Social Security would not be my first choice though!

> But these idiots tried to fire people related to the nuclear arsenal and had to go rehire them

They did not -- this is simple malicious compliance. This is a really well documented phenomenon and I am hoping this situation draws more public attention to it! Whenever faced with cuts, our govt bureaucracy reacts by cutting something visible to create a PR disaster and force back cuts -- the common saying is "firemen and teachers first" and this is often referred to as "Washington Monument Syndrome."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Monument_syndrome

[rl3]

Blame the victims much?

Except in this case the victims happened to be essential to maintaining the security of the United States' nuclear weapons stockpile.

Surely their evil, bureaucratic bosses just did it for show to score political points though, right?

>Whenever faced with cuts, our govt bureaucracy reacts by cutting something visible to create a PR disaster and force back cuts

Cite one credible source saying this is in fact what happened recently with NNSA and I might believe you.

The preponderance of evidence recently does not support this, what with it being widely reported that ill-suited unqualified personnel have been presiding over these cuts across all agencies, at a scale and speed which is unprecedented.