International Politico can't make payroll because DOGE discovered and froze propaganda slush fund. NYT next.....

[avenue94]

I have not. My ultimate point is how many need this access especially with the amount of debt and an ever growing budget? Not enough to justify unless you are a high enough rank to really need it. If we are talking many millions then not necessary. I'm sure you could logically justify many expenditures as both sides always do.... its what the people are talking about with the spending. There may always be a reason but it doesnt necessarily make it vital. Most voters want to cut the excess. If they just leave it up to typical govt to justify all of this nonsense there would be no cuts in any spending in any area.

But not a lot of people have access. We're talking dozens in most cases. Vendors rarely sell licenses by the seat for reports, it's tiered.

Millions is also not a lot in budget terms for an organization of this size. Like I mentioned previously...I sell shitty slide decks to huge tech companies for 10 or 15K. Consultants and analysts start at hundreds of dollars an hour, against budgets that are in the millions or billions.

There are instances where the spending is superfluous, but reports like this are usually money savers in productivity. Would you rather just pay a vendor 30K a year or have your team spend a couple hours every morning scanning news instead of doing more productive work (or hire someone dedicated to that role).

Similarly, I'm not sure you understand how expensive data visualization tools are if you want to make your own dashboards?

 

[koquerelle]

My takeaway is that you are still an idiot NPC and they just put a new chip in your head.

lol
Don't be so mean to him. He's still a Tucker fanboy even though he's seen his true nature with the texts and emails. It's clear he has "issues".

 

[Cajun]

But not a lot of people have access. We're talking dozens in most cases. Vendors rarely sell licenses by the seat for reports, it's tiered.

Millions is also not a lot in budget terms for an organization of this size. Like I mentioned previously...I sell shitty slide decks to huge tech companies for 10 or 15K. Consultants and analysts start at hundreds of dollars an hour, against budgets that are in the millions or billions.

There are instances where the spending is superfluous, but reports like this are usually money savers in productivity. Would you rather just pay a vendor 30K a year or have your team spend a couple hours every morning scanning news instead of doing more productive work (or hire someone dedicated to that role).

Similarly, I'm not sure you understand how expensive data visualization tools are if you want to make your own dashboards?

It's thinking that millions is nothing that helped get us to the place we are. And it's not just in these departments. Everyone knows the crap they put into bills in congress. They likely think the same thing... its just 30M for whatever it is but again... its part of the reason people already hate govt spending.

 

[avenue94]

It's thinking that millions is nothing that helped get us to the place we are. And it's not just in these departments. Everyone knows the crap they put into bills in congress. They likely think the same thing... its just 30M for whatever it is but again... its part of the reason people already hate govt spending.

Politico subscriptions don't come through bills in Congress. The issue here is that this isn't an attempt to reduce government waste, it's transparently an attempt to punish perceived enemies. If DOGE was serious about reducing waste, you wouldn't see such reckless lies and poor planning/execution. You'd also see experts being hired with experience, not dipshits out of college with no knowledge on contracts working for free.

Put it this way: When Google or Chase or a big company wants to analyze its spending, do they start with the breakroom or small potatoes? Do they bring in some kids off the street who are willingly to work for free, or do they go to the Big 4 and pay for expertise?

This is a tangent, but people largely hate government spending because they don't understand it, and the GOP capitalizes on this. Don't get me wrong, there are huge amounts of waste, just like in any big organization. But the fact is most Americans think foreign aid is a quarter or some ridiculous slice of federal spending, when it's so far from that. Doge and Trump are unserious here, as you can see by them proposing tax policies that would cost the government trillions for little gain, and in the meantime they're trying to "save money" by axing contracts worth 50 grand. Do you not see the scam there?

 

[AWilder]

It's thinking that millions is nothing that helped get us to the place we are. And it's not just in these departments. Everyone knows the crap they put into bills in congress. They likely think the same thing... its just 30M for whatever it is but again... its part of the reason people already hate govt spending.

Yes this demonstrates beautifully why some people hate government spending: they are too fucking stupid to understand the words explaining the spending to them.

 

[Cajun]

Politico subscriptions don't come through bills in Congress. The issue here is that this isn't an attempt to reduce government waste, it's transparently an attempt to punish perceived enemies. If DOGE was serious about reducing waste, you wouldn't see such reckless lies and poor planning/execution. You'd also see experts being hired with experience, not dipshits out of college with no knowledge on contracts working for free.

Put it this way: When Google or Chase or a big company wants to analyze its spending, do they start with the breakroom or small potatoes? Do they bring in some kids off the street who are willingly to work for free, or do they go to the Big 4 and pay for expertise?

This is a tangent, but people largely hate government spending because they don't understand it, and the GOP capitalizes on this. Don't get me wrong, there are huge amounts of waste, just like in any big organization. But the fact is most Americans think foreign aid is a quarter or some ridiculous slice of federal spending, when it's so far from that. Doge and Trump are unserious here, as you can see by them proposing tax policies that would cost the government trillions for little gain, and in the meantime they're trying to "save money" by axing contracts worth 50 grand. Do you not see the scam there?

No they don't but it's only been a few weeks. Let's see how far this goes meaning the overall. I can't see how it all unfolds just yet. That will be seen later. All I see is an effort that hasn't been there as of recent. Believe the last time the budget was cut was 2013.

 

[Cajun]

Yes this demonstrates beautifully why some people hate government spending: they are too fucking stupid to understand the words explaining the spending to them.

Not some and many bills are killed by this. To say that there is no fat in these bills... just come on bruh. There is... and the implications that people are too stupid to understand is exactly what brought Trump back into office...

 

[AWilder]

Not some and many bills are killed by this. To say that there is no fat in these bills... just come on bruh. There is... and the implications that people are too stupid to understand is exactly what brought Trump back into office...

It's not a bill. This is a very simple transaction. Government needs data, information, in digestible formats. Politico Pro provides this service, the government pays for this service. There's no "corruption". This isn't a kickback. This isn't for advertising. This isn't for "propaganda". This isn't for favorable coverage. This isn't to influence journalists. It's money exchanged for data necessary to run the government.

 

[avenue94]

No they don't but it's only been a few weeks. Let's see how far this goes meaning the overall. I can't see how it all unfolds just yet. That will be seen later. All I see is an effort that hasn't been there as of recent. Believe the last time the budget was cut was 2013.

It's been a few weeks of incompetent "auditing" from people who don't understand budgets. This isn't a hard concept. If you want to reduce spending, hire people who know their ass from their elbows, pay them, and don't propose policy ideas that would only further explode the debt.

And why would there have been an effort to cut enterprise subscriptions in the past years? That's why this thing is such a sham, it's not about spending -- unless someone just literally doesn't understand how the government operates.

There is... and the implications that people are too stupid to understand is exactly what brought Trump back into office...

Two things can be true. Again, most Americans do not care or don't understand the budget. Period. Just like medicine, or law, or science or many complex things. That's what experts are for.

 

[Cajun]

It's not a bill. This is a very simple transaction. Government needs data, information, in digestible formats. Politico Pro provides this service, the government pays for this service. There's no "corruption". This isn't a kickback. This isn't for advertising. This isn't for "propaganda". This isn't for favorable coverage. This isn't to influence journalists. It's money exchanged for data necessary to run the government.

Wait.... i mentioned both. Didn't realize you were speaking on the one. I didn't say it was corruption... or kickback... you are inserting this part on your own. I said at minimum it's a waste especially under the circumstances at worst corruption. Either way...... if something more comes out of it then ok. Will see I guess. Politico can't even pay their bills without the funding ive read. It was always too much even if it was on the up and up..... but if you can't pay salaries because of so much govt funding... its an issue. And the potential for corruption is there. And look at the spending... it goes from 0-100 in the last few years... why? Maybe people are just more interested inside the fed govt... but it's not nothing and if it was flipped on Trump the questions would be raised.

 

[44nutman]

It's been a few weeks of incompetent "auditing" from people who don't understand budgets. This isn't a hard concept. If you want to reduce spending, hire people who know their ass from their elbows, pay them, and don't propose policy ideas that would only further explode the debt.

And why would there have been an effort to cut enterprise subscriptions in the past years? That's why this thing is such a sham, it's not about spending -- unless someone just literally doesn't understand how the government operates.

Two things can be true. Again, most Americans do not care or don't understand the budget. Period. Just like medicine, or law, or science or many complex things. That's what experts are for.

ARe you saying a teenager who got fired from his last job for divulging company secrets does not understand budgets.

I bet Leon's Teenager Crew have access to the dankest of dank MEMEs.

 

[AWilder]

Wait.... i mentioned both. Didn't realize you were speaking on the one. I didn't say it was corruption... or kickback... you are inserting this part on your own. I said at minimum it's a waste especially under the circumstances at worst corruption. Either way...... if something more comes out of it then ok. Will see I guess. Politico can't even pay their bills without the funding ive read. It was always too much even if it was on the up and up..... but if you can't pay salaries because of so much govt funding... its an issue. And the potential for corruption is there. And look at the spending... it goes from 0-100 in the last few years... why? Maybe people are just more interested inside the fed govt... but it's not nothing and if it was flipped on Trump the questions would be raised.

Buddy, Politico can pay their bills. They aren't going to live or die based on government payment for Politico Pro. You read this from highly partisan right wing dorks who got caught shilling for Russia. There's no reason to stop critically thinking at this point.

 

[Cajun]

Buddy, Politico can pay their bills. They aren't going to live or die based on government payment for Politico Pro. You read this from highly partisan right wing dorks who got caught shilling for Russia. There's no reason to stop critically thinking at this point.

Its employees thinking... not sure if true.

https://www.foxnews.com/media/polit...sks-crackdown-government-spending-played-role

obv this is under the umbrella of the largest European news media (not american). But segregation is typical for companies to keep their books straight. Who knows. Out of all I said this small stuff you decide to pick.

 

[AWilder]

Its employees thinking... not sure if true.

https://www.foxnews.com/media/polit...sks-crackdown-government-spending-played-role

obv this is under the umbrella of the largest European news media (not american). But segregation is typical for companies to keep their books straight. Who knows. Out of all I said this small stuff you decide to pick.

So cancelling these subscriptions are going to make people's jobs harder, less efficient, and less reliable. Congrats

 

[NoSmilez]

I have not. My ultimate point is how many need this access especially with the amount of debt and an ever growing budget? Not enough to justify unless you are a high enough rank to really need it. If we are talking many millions then not necessary. I'm sure you could logically justify many expenditures as both sides always do.... its what the people are talking about with the spending. There may always be a reason but it doesnt necessarily make it vital. Most voters want to cut the excess. If they just leave it up to typical govt to justify all of this nonsense there would be no cuts in any spending in any area.

USAspending.gov

www.usaspending.gov

8 million dollars isn't a huge amount when it comes to national spending. Just look at the scale of government spending. I am all for trimming fat but it is obvious that these cuts are retaliatory in nature. Do you really want our government to be run like this?

In this case they are attacking Politico and legacy media because they have been either impartial or unkind to Elon or Trump's cause. I am curious which service they will replace Politico with. You want teams that work on public policy to have accurate information.

 

[ColemanwastheGOAT]

Please explain to me why the American government and its tax payers have to subsidize a Tesla, company which initially couldn't compete/survive on its own and now that it's doing by far the best of any EV company(at least in US) it is still being subsidized by American taxes.

Because Tesla produces electric vehicles. It's part of the democrats' great 'climate change' grift which has been going on for ages.

 

[ColemanwastheGOAT]

Yes incentivizing car companies to sell more EVs and going green is a net positive. However Musk is receiving billions of tax payer dollars to sell his cars. Not only that but everything he was entitled to expired in 2019. However Musk loves tax payer money so he lobbied to have Biden re-up the rebates for Tesla.

Why didn't Biden say no?

 

[S Class]

MSM is a bunch of fake news. GG DOGE.

 

[DEVILsSON]

Because Tesla produces electric vehicles. It's part of the democrats' great 'climate change' grift which has been going on for ages.

So Musk is all about government efficiency and small government unless it's subsidies or contracts (for some promises to do something at some point in the future TBD) that directly helps/props up his companies.

Why didn't Biden say no?

You are asking me why billionaires like Musk buy politicians via a whole field of lobbyists of both parties and then get their way? Did I claim Biden was the embodiment of Jesus Christ anywhere?

I am sure if you put a gun to Biden's head and it was a 'lucid' day he'd tell you that he probably thinks it's still a net positive to subsidize Tesla to sell more EV cars because it's good for the environment or some bullshit like it.

I am fine the government helping auto manufacturers encourage buildings plants in the US and selling EVs up to a certain number of cars. My issue with Musk is that he's a hypocrite even if some folks don't agree or care that he is. I also think he got more than his fair share already and if anything crushing the competition.

 

[Cajun]

So cancelling these subscriptions are going to make people's jobs harder, less efficient, and less reliable. Congrats

The numbers have skyrocketed in the last several years compared to prior. Apparently they were able to do their job just fine at one point. All of a sudden it's a necessity? Don't believe so.