Hunt $ in question?

[MADMAX]

Numbers lie
And liars number

[Stein]

Auditors just tell you what they see, it's not their fault if the department doesn't pass.  You can have a total failure of a company that passes audits, it merely says they followed accounting rules and the financials are accurate. 

Here's the second paragraph from the Dept. of Education's audit for 2024 performed by KPMG:

We do not express an opinion on the accompanying consolidated financial statement of the Department.
Because of the significance of the matter described in the Basis for Disclaimer of Opinion section of our report,
we have not been able to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence to provide a basis for an audit opinion on
the consolidated financial statement.

They did have a bunch of findings for what they were given (at least one material weakness and about 18 others) and if you go back several years, it's mostly the same stuff year after year.  Apparently the departments are required to be audited but nothing happens if they have substantial findings.  Do that in a public company and the CEO and CFO are going to have a really bad day if they can't produce audited financials year after year.

One thing they could immediately do is require the Secretary of the department to sign off on the financials like CEOs have to.  Funny business and you go to jail.  Right now there doesn't seem to be much, if any repercussion. 

Without good books, I'm not sure how anyone could be expected to make substantial improvements.

[Bucks2Ducks]

C'mon people, there absolutely no way that the best businessman that's ever ran a business would do anything to hurt the common folk. It's ridiculous to believe that he'd hand over the reins of the federal government to a South African emigrant that may not have the best interest of the citizens of this country, in mind.
 He wouldn't give massive tax breaks to multi-billionaires and make cuts to assistance programs that the working citizens of this country have been paying into for years. It's unfathomable that he would cut programs that harm our veterans and fellow citizens that have put there lives on the line for this country.
 The citizens of this great country need to relax, live their lives with eye's closed, and "believe" that the president has their backs and will do everything in his power to make America great again.

So who should be auditing the government? I would choose the most successful businessman in the Country, which is what Trump did. And what he ran on the whole time, and won in a landslide victory. The

Kind of good to remember he won, but had less than 50% of the popular vote. Not exactly a landslide when you consider that more than half the population voted against him.

He had the second highest popular vote in history. First Reb to win the pop vote in 20 years. 31 of 50 states, and all 7 of the swing states. Sorry Kamala lost bud

[Bucks2Ducks]

Well now that you've asked, I would have to assume it shouldn't be a non-elected South African emigrant, the non-elected being the important point. That individual has no business digging around in our government. Think about only the conflict of interest issues that arise. Our president owes this emigrant his freedom in the tune of 290 million dollars worth. Next, depending on your definition of a successful businessman, our president is so far removed from the most successful businessman he's not even on the first page. Actually, go spend some time looking up the number of companies your man has started and then bankrupted, usually leaving someone else holding the bag.

Well I was talking about Elon being the most successful businessman, not Trump.  You also realize Elon had the highest security clearances before all this right, and owned PayPal where he had everyone's information. You can say he was non-elected if you want, but this is literally what Trump ran on.

[Stein]

Trump didn't win the popular vote, he got less than 50%.

The notion that because Elon isn't elected he shouldn't be around is likewise a head scratcher.  Only congress and the president are elected.  Cabinet members aren't, chairman of joint chiefs isn't, FBI director isn't, CIA director isn't, FED president isn't, nobody making any of those decisions are elected. 

The reverse argument would be that the only option is to send a couple 80+ year old senators into the Department of Education to look around and they couldn't bring any staff because those staff aren't elected.

[hughjorgan]

Trump didn't win the popular vote, he got less than 50%.

The notion that because Elon isn't elected he shouldn't be around is likewise a head scratcher.  Only congress and the president are elected.  Cabinet members aren't, chairman of joint chiefs isn't, FBI director isn't, CIA director isn't, FED president isn't, nobody making any of those decisions are elected. 

The reverse argument would be that the only option is to send a couple 80+ year old senators into the Department of Education to look around and they couldn't bring any staff because those staff aren't elected.

Trump got 77 million votes to Harris’ 74 million. The math is quite simple he won the popular vote this time. There is no arguing that.

[trophyhunt]

Trump didn't win the popular vote, he got less than 50%.

The notion that because Elon isn't elected he shouldn't be around is likewise a head scratcher.  Only congress and the president are elected.  Cabinet members aren't, chairman of joint chiefs isn't, FBI director isn't, CIA director isn't, FED president isn't, nobody making any of those decisions are elected. 

The reverse argument would be that the only option is to send a couple 80+ year old senators into the Department of Education to look around and they couldn't bring any staff because those staff aren't elected.

Not sure where you are getting your number from Stein, MSNBC?   Trump won the popular vote, almost everyone knows that, old news. 

[Stein]

I'm wrong, I misspoke, meant majority.  He did get more votes this time.

[hdshot]

I'm wrong, I misspoke, meant majority.  He did get more votes this time.

The funny thing is Gen X was the only generation to vote for trump. But the other generations didn’t go as heavy dem presidential in 2024.  Off topic but public lands facing more budget cuts or possibly the chopping block is like taking bad medicine because the only thing that happens is no good even if nothing happens.

That land swap in Montana sounded bad for public access getting cut off for one side.  The ultra wealthy have no problem with time being able to enforce in a New York second.

[Stein]

Election results are really interesting, I was digging through them and learned a bunch of things I didn't know.  I didn't know George Washington got 100% of the electoral and popular vote for both of his terms.

Regan won 98% of the electoral vote but only 59% of the popular vote which is less of a percentage than Nixon got - Nixon also won by the most total popular votes, nearly 18 million.

Really crazy stuff happened in the 1800's that makes whatever happens today look incredibly tame.

Way off topic....sorry OP.

I do really, really hope they don't sell off public land as that's one of the few things that can't be undone, it's gone forever.

[chukardogs]

Considering the tax breaks the rich have gotten over the last several years, selling our public lands off to the highest bidder to pay off the national debt should be considered treason and the officials involved should be treated accordingly. What a crock!
The president won the popular vote with 49.8 percent of the vote to his opponent's 47.3 percent of the vote with a 1.5 percent margin. No doubt about it. I can't imagine anyone calling that a landslide but one mans landslide is another mans solid ground.
 It totally makes sense that Musk would have a security clearance with his companies being involved with the military and our national security, yet when asked, the press secretary wouldn't answer the question leading some to assume the answer may be no. Really, the public doesn't deserve to know that the person making decisions on people's livelihood and digging around in everyone personal data, has had even a basic background check? Those individuals, whether they know it or not, work for the American people. They may take their orders from the president but they work for the citizens of this country. You can look up and see exactly how much the president is getting paid. Anyone look up how much his boy is making in his new logging endeavor?
 I'll for sure give you chainsaw man has been a much better businessman than the president. That's a given. I was totally flummoxed with the idea that the president could be considered the best businessman ever. My bad!
 I guess I misspoke on the elected part, it was early. My problem with Musk and his minions digging into the data of 330 million Americans, is his and the presidents blatant conflict of interest and the fact that there's no oversight. Humans can't be trusted and have to have oversight. Sad but glaringly true. The damage that could be caused by just one of the knuckleheads digging around in people's personnel data, possibly selling it, is concerning.
 Most should be aware that Musk put up 290 million dollars to help get the president elected. I'm sorry, if my wife found out I spent 290 million without being able to show something for it, I'd better not come home until I could. Not that I have 290 million dollars but that isn't the point. Isn't there someone that the president doesn't owe his very freedom to that can look into fraud waste and abuse? That was my point that I obviously didn't do a good job of portraying. There's a reason why our government has layers of bureaucracy. Without it, someone is going to do something nefarious. 

[chukardogs]

Yeah, yeah, I know the treason part would be total out of context, but damn!

[Angry Perch]

So who should be auditing the government? I would choose the most successful businessman in the Country, which is what Trump did. And what he ran on the whole time, and won in a landslide victory. The US dollar is at the edge of collapse, interest on our debt is more than the Defense budget... there is some serious issues that need to be fixed immediately. The
 problem is there should be an annual audit, not one every 30 years

I would chose an auditor (or rather large team or probably even a couple independent teams in the case of auditing the USG), it's what they do and who every other entity requiring auditing uses.  Musk and his techs have no idea how to perform an audit and nothing they are doing even vaguely resembles an audit.  They may be cutting programs and staff which may or may not be a good idea, but they aren't doing an audit.

Good old fashioned auditor teams got us into this predicament;  I don't see them getting us out of it.

Professionals built the Titanic.   Amateurs built Noah's ark.

Apples and Fairy Tales.

[85yota]

So who should be auditing the government? I would choose the most successful businessman in the Country, which is what Trump did. And what he ran on the whole time, and won in a landslide victory. The US dollar is at the edge of collapse, interest on our debt is more than the Defense budget... there is some serious issues that need to be fixed immediately. The
 problem is there should be an annual audit, not one every 30 years

I would chose an auditor (or rather large team or probably even a couple independent teams in the case of auditing the USG), it's what they do and who every other entity requiring auditing uses.  Musk and his techs have no idea how to perform an audit and nothing they are doing even vaguely resembles an audit.  They may be cutting programs and staff which may or may not be a good idea, but they aren't doing an audit.

Good old fashioned auditor teams got us into this predicament;  I don't see them getting us out of it.

Professionals built the Titanic.   Amateurs built Noah's ark.

Apples and Fairy Tales.

Can you give me an example of when the federal gov has actually ever been audited? I'm probably responding to multiple posts here, but when has a 3rd party ever came in and audited the system, and given recommendations on public tac payer funded programs. EVERYONE should watch his fox interview with the dodge team a few days ago. I would love to know when this type of audit has ever taken place, with the business leaders it involved helping, all for free and as transparent as possible.. musk has said so many times we will make mistakes, and the mistakes will be corrected,. Like someone posted before, trump literally ran on the idea that he would have elon and his team help with finding gov waste. And he won, and his honoring his promise. I'm surprised people are confused with this.

[MADMAX]

It’s not the process
It’s the players
The left hates em