Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

DOGE's only public ledger is riddled with mistakes

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

321–330 of 1001 posts

Re: DOGE's only public ledger is riddled with mistakes

#321

Post by nobodyandproud »

sxyuan wrote: post #248

For those who want to have a substantive discussion on the federal budget and believe these cuts are justified, I have a few questions (putting aside questions of constitutionality for this thread): 1. There are claims that federal spending is out of control. How do you square that with the fact that spending as a percentage of GDP is only slightly elevated compared to the historical average going back to at least th…

The private industry fraud and overcharging that targets Medicare, Medicaid, and Defense has been long term problem.

There are also outlier issues like being unvaccinated and unhealthy-lifestyles that tax payers are forced to pay for.

I highly doubt DOGE is actually targeting these types of fraud, however.

Re: DOGE's only public ledger is riddled with mistakes

#322

Post by intended »

leereeves wrote: post #134
turtlesdown11 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Strong points in the face of this inaccurate, politically biased ledger that has revealed zero fraud, corruption or waste.

[flagged]

Was this replaced by a better, more well funded and resourced system? Or was it made worse ?

Re: DOGE's only public ledger is riddled with mistakes

#323

Post by cassepipe »

sxyuan wrote: post #310
generalizations wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't look good for the quality of discussion here if the most substantive response to your questions was flagged & killed: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43143579

I agree. I actually typed up a whole response to that post (which I vehemently disagreed with, but appreciated nonetheless) but by the time I hit submit it was already dead. Vouching wasn't enough to bring it back. I understand the temperature is running hot, but I hope that at least on HN we can strive to have civil discussions about these issues. I say this even though I am personally quite distraught about the cur…

Since it's still accessible to read, I'd be eager to read your response

EDIT: The response was saved from the dead, yay

Re: DOGE's only public ledger is riddled with mistakes

#324

Post by secos »

tptacek wrote: post #309
rayiner wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s quite debatable what the founders intended here. Congress has the power to appropriate funds, it’s not clear as a constitutional matter it has the power to compel the executive to use all the appropriated funds. Even as a legal matter, the impoundment act only requires rescission notification once it’s clear that the executive won’t use all the money appropriated for a “program.” When Congress is appropriating s…

This is tantamount to saying that the executive not only has a line-item veto, but that it's non-overridable. Seems wrong.

This planet money article lays out the arguments for both with lots of interesting links to follow. https://www.npr.org/sections/planet-money/2025/02/18/g-s1-49...

Re: DOGE's only public ledger is riddled with mistakes

#325

Post by cassepipe »

istjohn wrote: post #311
generalizations wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't look good for the quality of discussion here if the most substantive response to your questions was flagged & killed: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43143579

Long doesn't equate to substantive. Edit: I didn't flag it, to be clear.

Sure but parent said "substantive" so since you're implying it's not (but rather just long), I'd like to read why you think it wasn't

Re: DOGE's only public ledger is riddled with mistakes

#326

Post by jimmar »

sxyuan wrote: post #248

For those who want to have a substantive discussion on the federal budget and believe these cuts are justified, I have a few questions (putting aside questions of constitutionality for this thread): 1. There are claims that federal spending is out of control. How do you square that with the fact that spending as a percentage of GDP is only slightly elevated compared to the historical average going back to at least th…

1. US GDP estimated GDP in 2024 is $29 trillion. According to your first source, U.S. Federal Spending was 23% of GDP. If that were reduced to the 2014-2019 average of 20%, that would trim $870 billion from federal spending. That seems like good progress toward avoiding a potential debt crisis.

2. Reduce defense overall and make the process of getting money to the needy more efficient.

3. No comment. Healthcare is mess.

4. Taxes on corporations, like tariffs, are just passed onto consumers. I'm in favor of tax reform, but thinking that taxing corporations is a way to stick it to rich people is shortsighted, IMO.

Re: DOGE's only public ledger is riddled with mistakes

#327

Post by secos »

sbochins wrote: post #195
MisterKent wrote: post #29

Two points that are often missed: 1. Perfectly tracking every dollar is more expensive than having some slack in the system. There's an optimal amount, at least from an overall value perspective. 2. We spend too much, and both sides of the aisle repeatedly blocked attempts to curb spending for literal decades while our debt got higher. That's how someone doing something coming in with a hatchet and no plan to build g…

This is a silly charade. To actually cut the debt, it requires congress. Not just saving a couple millions dollars and posting on twitter about it. We’ll need to cut Medicare, Medicaid, social security, the military, etc. All the popular stuff that was never easy and will never be easy to cut. We’re not spending 2 trillion per year on condoms.

or raise taxes.

Re: DOGE's only public ledger is riddled with mistakes

#328

Post by aranelsurion »

nathanaldensr wrote: post #79
mlnj wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Either that or, you know, we want to keep Hacker News about tech. Lots of us don't want /r/politics here.

I wonder, at the risk of turning HN to a Reddit clone, wouldn't it make sense to at least a have a few simple categories/tags here?

Seems to me most people want to filter HN on "purely tech", "tech-adjacent news" (incl. politics) and "startups/business". Maybe if we had something like 3-5 folders to put content here, everyone would be happier.

Re: DOGE's only public ledger is riddled with mistakes

#329

Post by matthewdgreen »

MisterKent wrote: post #29

Two points that are often missed: 1. Perfectly tracking every dollar is more expensive than having some slack in the system. There's an optimal amount, at least from an overall value perspective. 2. We spend too much, and both sides of the aisle repeatedly blocked attempts to curb spending for literal decades while our debt got higher. That's how someone doing something coming in with a hatchet and no plan to build g…

The people coming in with a hatchet are not planning to reduce spending. They’re planning to use any money saved to fund an enormous tax cut that will primarily benefit the very rich. https://www.courant.com/2025/02/12/congress-budget-tax-cuts/

Re: DOGE's only public ledger is riddled with mistakes

#330

Post by dang »

seivan wrote: post #303
dang wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HN has had NYT articles from the beginning: Spam stock tips work - for spammers - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26 - Oct 2006 You aren't going to get far with this community arguing that we should ban nytimes.com. What you (i.e. anyone who cares about this) should do instead is find more substantive, more interesting, and hopefully more neutral articles analyzing the same things, and submit them to HN instead.…

[flagged]

You guys are much too tendentious about this and it weakens your case. The reason nytimes.com isn't banned on HN is because it produces threads like these, which are obviously good HN material:

Can you lose your native tongue? (2024) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43093360 - Feb 2025 (171 comments)

The legacy of lies in Alzheimer's science - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42910829 - Feb 2025 (210 comments)

Japan's original decluttering guru (no, not that one) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42742396 - Jan 2025 (63 comments)

How saffron became an American cash crop - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42582352 - Jan 2025 (61 comments)

Dungeons and Dragons rolls the dice with new rules about identity - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42549425 - Dec 2024 (182 comments)

Insects rely on sounds made by vegetation to guide reproduction - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42353066 - Dec 2024 (188 comments)

Yes, it ‘looks like a duck,’ but carriers like the new USPS mail truck - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42249545 - Nov 2024 (144 comments)

The Rise of Malört, an Unexpected Midwest princess - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42194355 - Nov 2024 (146 comments)

A 132-Year-Old Message in a Bottle in a Scottish Lighthouse - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42179850 - Nov 2024 (55 comments)

A Chopin waltz unearthed after nearly 200 years - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41961866 - Oct 2024 (130 comments)

Yes, NYT is tendentious on certain topics in its own right, and in some of those cases, it would be good if HN had more neutral reports to discuss. But if users don't submit them, what can we do?

Post reply on HN