Yes. I’d like to know more about the Veterans Affairs numbers. Seems like a lot of money for no real application of the funds. Don’t get me wrong, more is better, but where is the accountability? When will @DOGE get to the VA books? Remember that the VA can’t practically do Zero Based Budgeting. No one knows how many veterans will seek benefits or claim disability from year to year. Example: I am 62, retired from 22 years of service in 2008, with zero disability claims. But last year (2024) I filed a claim for several different conditions I am claiming are service related. To date, none have been approved. Set aside the frustration and humiliation associated with this convoluted, wasteful and demeaning process for a moment and then focus on the budgeting implications of the end game here. No one knows, year to year, how many veterans will claim services or disability. No one knows which or how many claims for what ailments will be approved. What we do know is that the system is so broken and frustrating and ineffective that 22 veterans commit suicide EVERY DAY. Let that sink in. The infrastructure is suffering so badly from deferred maintenance that many facilities pose health and safety risks. At my local VA (Northport, Long Island, NY), $21 million was appropriated for three year capital projects in 2018. Many are still not completed in 2025. Front hospital parking lot and valet, pick-up/drop-off area is unfinished and unusable, creating a nightmare parking and access situation - for going on SEVEN YEARS. The site looks abandoned, with finished curbs but no asphalt. Wooden concrete forms still in place as if the contractor simply walked off the job. Gaping excavation holes here and there around the buildings have existed for years. “Temporary” ground level HVAC equipment, designed for brief, emergency use, in place for going on SEVEN YEARS. The facilities are 100 years old and have seen some renovations and improvements here and there, but much of it is in disrepair. Customer service and computer infrastructure are touch and go. It was estimated in 2018 that to replace everything would cost $1 billion. The budgeting for VA only scratches the surface of what’s wrong. It needs a do over. Elon, what would your reaction be if you learned 22 Tesla owners were committing suicide EVERY DAY? And the reason was they couldn’t cope with the problems with your car? What would you think? What would you do? Do that for the VA. Sincerely, Montgomery J. Granger Major, US Army, Retired @realDonaldTrump @POTUS @JDVance @VP @SecDef @PeteHegseth @RepDougCollins @RepLaLota @epaleezeldin @JesseKellyDC @laralogan @breeadail @JoeTalkShow

the American right hasn't accomplished anything in so long that simply not funding their political enemies via taxation feels like some huge achievement

All of these things failed.

So I get into it with a friend on another platform who keeps spewing the same propaganda as if anyone who voted for Trump lost their minds and rely on him like God to make our lives better. He also accused me of being willing to sidestep democracy to get the things I want. I may have lost a friend, because my correction was as follows: “You folks and your propaganda are nauseating. You think it’s about making my life better? It’s all about me? You know what I wanted out of Trump? The same damn thing I wanted out of Obama, Biden, Bush, Big Bush and and Clinton. Those those things are the following - Transparency - A secure border - Honesty - Common sense leadership - Doing exactly what you campaigned on - A strong military - An end to political indoctrination in our schools - Respect for personal freedom - And someone who would think about America first before giving everything to the world while his own people are in suffer. Not one of them came through. Each one of them failed. Most didn’t even try. They just faked it well enough that you are still pining for them. But guess who did come through? As flawed as he is as a person, it was freaking Trump. A man I was never a fan of personally but respect because he does the hell what he says he’s going to do. That’s what I voted for. Not some polished ass politician who pretends to be an angel but is doing the devils work as we are distracted by their platitudes and symbolic gestures that get us absolutely no where. No one is side stepping democracy, genius. By the way, we don’t live in a democracy. We live in a constitutional republic. But let’s go with your twisted idea of democracy. Was it democracy when Biden coerced Big Tech into silencing millions of Americans for their opinions and thoughts? Was it democracy when that old con man lied to you and told you he didn’t know about his sons dealing and that the laptop didn’t exist? Because for many that may have changed their vote in the 2020 election if they knew then candidate Biden was compromised. Was it democracy when he got 51 intelligence agents who we are supposed to trust, to go along with the lie and call in Russian disinformation? Was it democracy to force people to choose between feeding their damn family and a damn shot in the arm that is causing damage to a lot of people? Was it democracy when Biden flew In hundreds of thousands of migrants in the middle of the night without telling us and also opening the borders? Did we the American people have a say in that? No the fvck we didn’t. Was it democracy when if we question elections or vaccines that we get silenced and are forced to self sensor just to survive? It that’s your democracy? You can keep that shit bro, respectfully. Trump is no God or saint but it’s a damn shame it took a flawed man to do what right by the American people. He’s showing you how corrupt your government truly is and I’m here for it. No regrets whatsoever.”

“The tension reverberating through historic Capitol Hill reflects uncertainty hanging over the Washington, D.C., metro area—including Northern Virginia and suburban Maryland—that is home to about 400,000 of the roughly two million civilian federal workers nationwide. Reading the sour vibe, some Washington bars are now offering specials for laid-off government personnel.” @WSJ With many friends and acquaintances in the federal government I understand the unease or complete dislocation tens of thousands of federal employees are feeling. I attend church with many of them, know many of them who work very hard and do excellent work. The federal government is, however, spending trillions of dollars every year that it simply doesn’t have. All the money it does have comes from taxpayers who have struggled for years. During Covid I had to fire a good portion of my staff because we lost almost all revenue, and would have had to fire more until PPP came along. In previous private sector jobs I had to do the same thing when recessions whacked the land use and development business. When you are out of money in the private sector, people lose jobs or companies close. These sorts of painful crises occur every day in the private sector. DOGE is infusing the federal government with urgency when it comes to budget and efficiency. My last job for President Reagan was as a way-too-young Acting Director of @USOPM. Before that I had been confirmed as the Deputy Director and before that was the agency’s General Counsel. The lawyers at OPM are superb professionals as are many of the career staff. Federal employees have many protections but the assumption of life time tenure is wrong. Earned benefits cannot be stripped and Congress has a big say about agencies, but thorough audits of agencies and layoffs (“RIFs”) during times of massive oceans of red ink should not surprise people. The federal government is out of money. That said, there should be little glee in the pain of right-sizing the massive administrative state. Even when firings are connected to the unprecedented weaponization of the federal government against President Trump it should be “more in sorrow than in anger.” A few hundred ideologues across senior positions in career slots do need to exit. What was done to President Trump in and out of office cannot be allowed to happen again.

America has roughly 60K homeless Veterans living on the streets of America, some with their families. They go to shelters for warmth or a meal, they find love from compassionate Americans who dole them out a few bucks on street corners, but they’re still homeless. Yet, this past year, the Marxist O-Biden administration gave ~$40M per week to the Taliban…That’s over $2B per year!!! Think for one second what that money could do to take care of our homeless VETERANS? I’d much rather spend this amount of money on those willing to sacrifice for our country than those who hate us and want us destroyed. @elonmusk @realDonaldTrump @PeteHegseth @JDVance