The Daily Populous Friday January 10th, 2025 night edition
Authored by newrepublic.com and submitted by Quirkie

“Do you think the $2 trillion is a realistic number now that you’re looking more closely at it?” Penn asked.

“I think we’ll try for $2 trillion. I think that’s the best-case outcome,” Musk responded. “But I do think that you kind of have to have some overage. I think if we try for $2 trillion, we’ve got a good shot at getting one [trillion].”

This is vindicating for budget specialists who have been deeply skeptical about Musk’s claims from the jump, as cutting $2 trillion from a $6.8 trillion budget is essentially unfeasible.

Hopeful-Homework-255 on January 9th, 2025 at 17:41 UTC »

Trump, Musk, DeSantis, Vance, 'drain the swamp', fiscal responsibility, the price of eggs - it's all just a big con. Always was. Never to be taken seriously by anyone. Trump has just been exceptionally good at creating his populist movement which appealed to the huge number disenfranchised people. It never needed to be real, it just needed to make them feel special and powerful. I think it's necessary to view the situation through that lens to understand it and create roadblocks against it.

Ultimately, I think it's very difficult to fight, because when you tell people the truth you're also telling them they're not as strong and special as they thought they were. I honestly think we're at the place now here we have to stand back, take our hands off, and say "Here's your cake - go eat it". When they realize their cake is just a cardboard box with some coloring on the outside, I think they will realize they've been hoodwinked and we'll see a pendulum swing. Unfortunately, I think there are just too many establishment Democratic party members who are also in the pocket of big business to truly capitalize, but we'll see.

SyntheticSweetener on January 9th, 2025 at 17:11 UTC »

Ah, Elon Musk—visionary, innovator, breaker of promises. Remember the $40k Cybertruck that never materialized, the $25k Tesla that stayed a pipe dream, and the grand pledge to make Twitter a bastion of free speech? Funny how reality seems to lag behind the hype, isn't it?

Long-Tradition6399 on January 9th, 2025 at 17:07 UTC »

oh gee wow .... I'm stunned and surprised. I totally thought he'd be able to clean up the government in no time.

What a damn joke ..... why is this idiot even allowed NEAR the Whitehouse ???