Elon Musk - Part One - Back To The Future

Elon Parts Ways With DOGE, But We Need Him More In The Future

We at Neighborhood News are glad Elon Musk has come back to the future.

Elon Musk has now left the Washington, DC buildings, just like Elvis. But he is back in the saddle at Tesla and SpaceX, and we think that’s better for beating the Budget Battle. Just look at the math of cutting government spending versus the economic boost of creating new industries.

Elon Musk’s DOGE claims it found $175 billion worth of cuts to wasteful programs for his four months in Washington, but Congress has failed to enact any of the substantial budget cuts. The verified cuts are closer to $35 billion.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/30/politics/doge-musk-government-savings#:~:text=DOGE%20will%20live%20on%20in,lived%20up%20to%20its%20name.

With the “Big, Beautiful Bill,” Washington spending seems to be going in the other direction. With a nearly two trillion dollar shortfall in the Federal Budget planned for 2026, Elon’s $35 billion in DOGE cuts are just a drop in the bucket. The smallest slice of the Federal pie is Transportation at $137 billion.

There seem to be only two economic choices: create more or spend less. We think Elon is much better focused on creating more rather than fighting the “spending less” battle with all kinds of special interest groups launching hate campaigns on his marquee products, like Tesla EVs.

We are also encouraged to see Elon returning to the helm of X AI. Our Neighborhood News focuses on Musk’s technology to make Citizen Journalists more productive.

We have pushed for the Michigan Launch Initiative, which would lower the costs of launching satellites for Elon Musk by releasing extremely low-cost disposable cube satellites from a space plane that takes off like a regular jet from Michigan’s Oscoda SpacePort.

Our “pennies in, dollars out” approach focuses on reducing Federal spending with new technology rather than trying to gore someone’s ox in Washington.

Why not have a spaceplane that could deliver thousands of internet CubeSats for ubiquitous internet access worldwide rather than a $500 billion “Golden Dome” that does nothing?

Citizen journalists will devise new capabilities with AI that will deliver superior social services over DC bureaucrats who are fixated on round the clock ordering new carpets and wall hangings in Washington.

If we are going to solve our budget crisis, we need to refocus Washington on providing the critical AI infrastructure of server farms and internet connectivity. Doing much more with much less is the only way to proceed, which means new ways of thinking that Elon Musk epitomizes.

A horizontal spaceplane taking off from Michigan’s SpacePort at Oscoda that launches CubeSats into Low-Earth Orbit is a “pennies on the dollar” proposal compared to the US Government's current $6 billion a year spending on satellite launches.

The combination of launch point for the Neighborhood News CubeSats, the size of parachutes, the size of antennae and battery, and propellant has not been finalized as well as the construction material and design of wings.

Quadcopter drone wings deploy on Neighborhood News drones.

Elon Musk’s “Occupy Mars” campaign will cost Trillions, and no payback will be possible in our lifetimes. Neighborhood News’ approach is “Occupy LEO,” which returns breakeven points for investment into months rather than years.

Our Citizen Journalism effort is glad Elon has come back to the future to join us, but we are also focused on making new and improved versions of Elon and his products to enable a better world and save us from the current budget crisis. Let’s occupy LEO with disposable satellites and AI farms that will solve our budget crisis and enhance our personal contributions to the world before we worry about how to digest Mars dust.

Skylon is currently a concept plan only. The engine breathes oxygen to Mach 5, but then relies on supercooling the engine, and Skylon needs liquid oxygen as its fuel supply at speeds greater than Mach 5.

https://spectrum.ieee.org/bae-systems-uk-invest-120-million-in-skylon-space-plane-engine-prototype

We believe Skylon failed because it did not have a business plan to sustain operations while it was working on a super-cooling engine. We believe the $6B a year in UG Government revenue funding stream should be increased tenfold to $60B to develop Internet AI, and we believe the “Golden Dome” should be shelved at a $500 billion ticket price. The $60B figure is easily recoverable in just DOGE savings of $175 billion if Congress enacts these savings.

The 10 Km Neighborhood News Nanosat deployment (artists rendering).