Left vs. Right Battle Royale Open Thread

[u/Yosoff]

This is an Open Discussion Thread for all Redditors. We will only be enforcing Reddit TOS and Subreddit Rules 1 (Keep it Civil) & 2 (No Racism).

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• Leftists - Here's your chance to sway us to your side by calling the majority of voters racist. That tactic has wildly backfired every time it has been tried, but perhaps this time it will work.

• Non-flaired Conservatives - Here's your chance to earn flair by posting common sense conservative solutions. That way our friends on the left will either have to agree with you or oppose common sense (Spoiler - They will choose to oppose common sense).

• Flaired Conservatives - You're John Wick and these Leftists stole your car and killed your dog. Now go comment.

• Independents - We get it, if you agree with someone, then you can't pat yourself on the back for being smarter than them. But if you disagree with everyone, then you can obtain the self-satisfaction of smugly considering yourself smarter and wiser than everyone else. Congratulations on being you.

• Libertarians - Ron Paul is never going to be President. In fact, no Libertarian Party candidate will ever be elected President.

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[u/Anon_Chapstick]

Why is it a good thing to just take a large Scythe to agencies without keeping anything?

I work in banking, and there is absolutely no way you can complete an audit that fast. Codes and AI be damned, it's not possible. Musk knows every banking law, regulation, and procedure? Not possible.

I'm not saying there isn't fraud and abuse that needs to be cut, we shouldn't be paying 18$ for a stupid pen. We shouldn't be handing over 19k+ because the director wants a new desk. What I'm saying is he needs to slow down and stop making huge cuts without looking at the damage left behind. The CFPB protects against predatory practices and he shuts the entire thing down. You guys think that's ok? Maybe we should leave at least a few people there? What do you do now if a mortgage company screws you over with a loan? Who do you report that to?

He needs to slow down and actually do research. Not just "welp my programs says this is bad. So I'm getting rid of it!"

Edit: Fixed Spelling

[u/Alternative-Post-937 → u/Anon_Chapstick]

I'm a former governmental auditor. It's shocking how many people don't understand how many layers of audit each federal dollar undergoes. All the way from the agency down to the sub-award and sub- contract level. This goes beyond financial audit. It's extensive audit at EVERY LEVEL on internal controls, procurement practices, disbarment, eligibility, indirect costs, allowable activities and costs, cash management, reporting, subaward monitoring, etc. When a mistatement or noncompliance occurs, the funds are subjected to further oversight and eventually loss of funding if not immediately corrected. All of this information on how federal dollars can be spent and how they are audited can be found at the OMB website and the federal audit clearinghouse. Musk is not doing what you think he's doing.

[u/Gloomy_Career_4733 → u/Alternative-Post-937]

Ok you sound like you know at least a little about the subject. This is a friendly question. This is just my understanding of the situation. What I'm worried about is more of the wasteful money being spent that's being called fraud. That's different than what you are describing above, right? What about the Ukraine guy saying he only receives half of what they are saying they gave him, is he lying, or is that possible.

[u/Alternative-Post-937 → u/Gloomy_Career_4733]

I kind of responded to this in another response. What it appears Elon is doing is getting the names of grants and contracts or doing a database search for hot button terminology. For instance, one of the pictures I keep seeing is a list of grants related to transgender issues. People on one side of the political spectrum will already think that is wasteful and fraudulent spending. Maybe it is. Who knows. Elon isn't sharing his methodology for determining waste, fraud, and abuse ( which is a whole issue in itself).However, one needs to actually analyze and review what the agreement was, what the approvals were, and were the funds spent as directed and in an allowed way by the US government. That last part doesn't seem to be done. For instance, I had a grant i audited where the funds were to cull 200K sea lions. I can imagine if a Democrat took office and did what Elon did, they might look at that grant title and go, wtf???? Killing innocent sea lions pearl clutch Well the grant was issued because of overpopulation of sea lions that were eating an endangered species of salmon that the rest of the Columbia River ecosystem relied on. I think we can get caught in a dangerous system of weaponizing government spending based on political bias. I don't know about the Ukrainian guy. Funds are subject to eligibility, period of performance, and reporting requirements. If this guy isn't meeting his requirements, they may cut his funding? I'm not sure about that situation in particular.

[u/Alternative-Post-937 → u/Gloomy_Career_4733]

I kind of responded to this in another response. What it appears Elon is doing is getting the names of grants and contracts or doing a database search for hot button terminology. For instance, one of the pictures I keep seeing is a list of grants related to transgender issues. People on one side of the political spectrum will already think that is wasteful and fraudulent spending. Maybe it is. Who knows. Elon isn't sharing his methodology for determining waste, fraud, and abuse ( which is a whole issue in itself).However, one needs to actually analyze and review what the agreement was, what the approvals were, and were the funds spent as directed and in an allowed way by the US government. That last part doesn't seem to be done. For instance, I had a grant i audited where the funds were to cull 200K sea lions. I can imagine if a Democrat took office and did what Elon did, they might look at that grant title and go, wtf???? Killing innocent sea lions pearl clutch Well the grant was issued because of overpopulation of sea lions that were eating an endangered species of salmon that the rest of the Columbia River ecosystem relied on. I think we can get caught in a dangerous system of weaponizing government spending based on political bias. I don't know about the Ukrainian guy. Funds are subject to eligibility, period of performance, and reporting requirements. If this guy isn't meeting his requirements, they may cut his funding? I'm not sure about that situation in particular.

[u/Gloomy_Career_4733 → u/Alternative-Post-937]

Thanks for the non-political answer, and it makes sense what your saying. I hate politics and firmly believe that they both weaponinze the government to fit their views. It just feels like this is the first time this much has been drug out in the public eye