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DOGE's only public ledger is riddled with mistakes

nytimes.com

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

#821

Post by rco8786 »

cwalv wrote: post #426
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…

> How do you square that with the fact that spending as a percentage of GDP is only slightly elevated compared to the historical average...? Why should it scale linearly with GDP? I can see an argument that it should scale linearly with population (maybe), but if GDP per capita increases, you could also expect better tech/productivity to allow gov spending per capita to decrease. > What do you think should be cut, an…

> Why should it scale linearly with GDP? I can see an argument that it should scale linearly with population (maybe), but if GDP per capita increases, you could also expect better tech/productivity to allow gov spending per capita to decrease.

This isn't the question. The question is about the premise of federal spending being "out of control". By what measure is it out of control?

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

#822

Post by BLKNSLVR »

chmorgan_ wrote: post #569

I'd be interested in whether they are fixing mistakes that are reported to them. If they won't then there is an issue. If they do then maybe this is just another nitpicking attack on DOGE.

I believe Musk and Trump have doubled and even tripled down on the ridiculously implausible $50 million in condoms for Hamas claim.

Correcting mistakes isn't their goal. Maintaining the narrative is their goal, seemingly at any cost.

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

#823

Post by sarchertech »

MisterBastahrd wrote: post #437
qgin wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Number 3 can’t be overstated. Healthcare costs for the exact same care are 2x-3x what they are in Europe. Global health insurance plans usually come in two flavors: 1. Global coverage 2. Global coverage excluding United States (for half the monthly premium of the first plan) The United States in an extreme outlier in terms of cost. This is separate from rationing care. This is separate from even population health (ex…

I went into the hospital for shortness of breath but my main issue was fluid accumulation. I had 3 paracenthesis procedures and was hooked up to a drip of Lasic and a catheter bag for 20 days. I didn't even recognize that I was in the ICU until I got the bill. They charged $194,000. Insurance claims they paid $193,781. Of that, it was $7300 a day for staying in the ICU. My ambulance ride was $2500 for an 11 minute tr…

>palliative care

When you consider that the PE firm that owns her group skimmed half of that off the top, if she met with you for 1.5 hours, she spent at least twice that time thinking about you, ordering meds, completing notes, and answering questions from the rest of the team caring for you, she probably made about $250 an hour or less.

Then consider that she accepted liability for you. Which includes the possibility that if you had a bad outcome your family could sue her for more than the total payout of her malpractice insurance, so she could literally lose her house.

And palliative care requires a fellowship so she has 12 years of total training with probably $200k-$400 in student loans. And she didn’t start making any serious money until her 30s. Then factor in that she’s on call constantly and frequently works terrible hours and she pays thousands a year in certification fees, and continuous education (plus in most cases hundreds of unpaid hours a year training residents and med student, sitting on advisory boards, or other unpaid expected service work).

I think $250 an hour is pretty fair.

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

#824

Post by smegger001 »

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…

Ignore all of that is it even within the president's purgative to cut the spending? As I understand it congress, specifically the House of Representatives, hold the power of the purse and sets that national budget. Congress apportions funding for specific programs to be spent, and its the job of the executive to execute the legislation as specified by the legislative branch. They must spend the money on what they are told to spend it on. Similarly congress created many of these agencies and department Trump/Musk/D.O.G.E. are trying to kill and as such only congress can dissolve them. This is a massive executive overreach. Trump is trying to claim that all congress can do is set a ceiling on spending rather than tell him to actually spend it which is patently ridiculous as then he could just defund anything he disagrees with congress with and de-facto nullify any congressional action.

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

#826

Post by janandonly »

xphos wrote: post #246
Sysreq2 wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I keep harping on this - but two points: 1) Our debt is above GDP and interest is rising faster than GDP growth. Debt is fine when being used as leverage but we are upside down at the moment. 2) We don’t have the ability to issue more debt at the moment. The government has no money. They are using employee pension funds to meet obligations with a promissory note. We have negative cash flow and have run out of the abi…

I feel funny to say it, but I think we have an income problem, not an expense problem. Republicans just spend money and then cut taxes. If people believe we need what we are spending on, we need to tax the difference. It sucks to pay taxes but we need to do it

I read about a guy in Turkmenistan who would as a punishment be taxed 20%, and I thought, living in Western Europe or North America is kind of a financial punishment .

Mind you, taxed 20%, not 20% extra. Source: https://www.jw.org/en/news/region/turkmenistan/Turkmenistan-...

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

#827

Post by croes »

cuuupid wrote: post #620
croes wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine you know you are sick. Doge is the one recommending bloodletting and brushing with burning straw. The issue is rarely that neither side can name the problem but what is claimed to be the reason and therefore the solution.

I will raise you a more direct analogy, let's imagine you have a deep wound in your arm and are actively bleeding out. There are 5 doctors who you have paid to treat you; they came, performed some tests, confirmed you are wounded, but don't know how to patch you up. DOGE comes along and says well, what if we amputate the arm and cauterize it? This will stop the bleeding, but you will lose an arm. That sucks, there is…

DOGE amputates your arms and your legs but you have internal bleedings.

At the end you can’t move but still bleed.

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

#828

Post by brightball »

ted_dunning wrote: post #686
brightball wrote: post #536

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way to attack the problem economically would have involved giving everyone in the USA an HSA that was funded to allow them to directly consume healthcare services with price exposure. It would naturally force competition on price. The ACA that we got instead cemented the separation of people from the price of their service and costs have ballooned even more than that were previously. The economic approach is the…

This is just silly talk. Are you going to shop around different pathology labs when they snip a bit out of your colon during a colonoscopy where you are under general anesthesia? Are you going to be googling for reviews of different neurologists when you get taken to the emergency room with a bad concussion or a stroke? I don't think so. So how is your market-driven medical system going to work? This isn't like picki…

An HSA is essentially attached to high deductible insurance, so major emergencies that would cost over your high deductible would be covered in full.

All of the lower cost, non-emergent services would get the benefit of you shopping around.

You’d also need to be able to select your own insurance provider directly (pretax) rather than being stuck with whoever your employer selected.

In the current situation your employer selects your provider, your medical service providers have to deal with that provider whether they want to or not. You and your medical service provider were both removed from the decision of whether your insurance company was a good choice or not.

The HSA plan puts everyone back in direct contact with their providers and allows market forces to work naturally again.

It’s the only proposal that has a prayer of fixing things.

https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/carson-campaign-pr...

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

#829

Post by brightball »

otterley wrote: post #586
brightball wrote: post #536

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way to attack the problem economically would have involved giving everyone in the USA an HSA that was funded to allow them to directly consume healthcare services with price exposure. It would naturally force competition on price. The ACA that we got instead cemented the separation of people from the price of their service and costs have ballooned even more than that were previously. The economic approach is the…

I think you’d be surprised how little price competition there would be if everyone paid out of pocket. It won’t change insurance premiums; it won’t change the amount of investment (training and certification) needed to become a health care provider; it won’t change the price of advanced medical equipment; and it won’t change the price of patented drugs. Before you conclude that the free market can solve everything, c…

All of those prices exist from negotiations between the insurance companies and not the free market.

Mark Cuban’s cost plus drugs is proving this in pharma right now.

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

#830

Post by zimpenfish »

IAmGraydon wrote: post #557
leandrod wrote: post #509

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So who and which would be? Given SpaceX, Trump could have chosen worse.

I don’t know, maybe not the richest man on earth who also happens to have massive conflicts of interest, calls respected people he disagrees with “retards” and is clearly losing his grip on his sanity. I mean that’s just my dumb take, though. What do you think?

> clearly losing his grip on his sanity.

And sobriety if the CPAC video was anything to go by.

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