[rationalist]

I think they proved that the waste is not easily defined. I would call fraud, waste, but a computer program isn't likely to discover it without boots on the ground looking to see if the money is actually going where the records indicate.

[TheOtherHobbes]

The richest person in the world, who has had billions from government handouts, decided they were going to audit government spending.

Fraud doesn't even begin to describe it.

[WalterBright]

SpaceX did not receive government subsidies. Government contracts, yes, but those are payments for services delivered, not subsidies or handouts.

[ericjmorey]

Those contracts are direct subsidies. They would not exist in the private market. Government spending subsidizes whatever it spends on.

[WalterBright]

> Those contracts are direct subsidies.

They are not. You are imputing your own meanings into the word "subsidy". If you buy a Coke from a Coke machine, you are not "subsidizing" the machine's vendor.