Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will quickly lead a new non-governmental agency that President-elect Donald Trump has tasked with stripping billions of {dollars} from the U.S. authorities. And these U.S. oligarchs will probably be explaining their efforts in a brand new podcast, in accordance with a video posted by Ramaswamy late Wednesday.
Musk and Ramaswamy have been named to what they’re calling the Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE), a brand new fee of kinds that will probably be trying to fireplace 1000’s of staff and abolish complete federal businesses. However the two males don’t have any official authority to do these issues. Not less than not but, in accordance with longstanding norms.
“Elon and I, we’re not politicians. We’re businessmen. We’re not getting into as authorities bureaucrats and even workers. We’re exterior volunteers,” Ramaswamy mentioned in a video posted Wednesday to YouTube.
Why would Ramaswamy and Musk work as volunteers? Apparently, it’s as a result of they simply love the nation a lot and has nothing to do with their self-interest. It’s certainly only a coincidence that Musk has made his fortune on the backs of presidency subsidies and contracts. Because the New York Times reported final month, in 2023 alone, Musk’s firms have been promised roughly $3 billion unfold out throughout 100 totally different contracts from 17 federal businesses. Ramaswamy made his fortune in prescribed drugs.
These guys have loads at stake. And that’s why they’re going to launch a podcast to inform everybody about what they’re as much as. It’s all about “transparency,” as Ramaswamy describes it, and certainly isn’t a propaganda push to normalize the wanton destruction they’re about to unleash.
“Elon and I are going to begin a separate monitor of DOGEcasts that designate precisely what we’re doing to the general public to supply transparency,” Ramaswamy mentioned in his new video. “And what’s a once-in-a-generation undertaking? We wish to carry the general public together with us to raise the curtain, to take us behind the scenes of what really that waste, fraud, and abuse in authorities seems to be like.”
Ramaswamy didn’t say when the DOGEcast would begin, insisting they’re, “neck deep proper now in transitioning to the brand new daybreak on January 20.” That new daybreak will probably be extra like a sundown for American democracy from the attitude of half the nation. Trump has promised mass deportations and a full-fledged assault on his political rivals, together with the usage of the navy domestically. The Trump workforce is even planning to go after U.S. generals concerned within the withdrawal from Afghanistan below the pretense that they have been doing one thing treasonous, in accordance with CNN. Gen. Mark Milley, who Trump has beforehand mentioned must be executed for treason, is probably going excessive on that checklist of targets.
Musk and Ramaswamy will face obstacles with DOGE, even when they’ve a fascist chief like Trump on their aspect. Each the main points of their plan and the legality of their “division” are hotly debated, however these extraordinarily rich males are lethal critical once they say they wish to minimize authorities spending at catastrophic ranges. The U.S. oligarchs wrote an op-ed within the Wall Street Journal printed Wednesday attempting to justify their targets. They usually consider something they may try that’s now broadly thought-about unlawful could be upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court docket.
From the Journal:
Skeptics query how a lot federal spending DOGE can tame by way of government motion alone. They level to the 1974 Impoundment Management Act, which stops the president from ceasing expenditures licensed by Congress. Mr. Trump has beforehand urged this statute is unconstitutional, and we consider the present Supreme Court docket would seemingly aspect with him on this query. However even with out counting on that view, DOGE will assist finish federal overspending by taking goal on the $500 billion plus in annual federal expenditures which are unauthorized by Congress or being utilized in ways in which Congress by no means supposed, from $535 million a yr to the Company for Public Broadcasting and $1.5 billion for grants to worldwide organizations to almost $300 million to progressive teams like Deliberate Parenthood.
The op-ed additionally claims that they’re going to make use of superior expertise to make cuts, although it’s not clear what which means. There’s a very good likelihood they’d deploy synthetic intelligence instruments like Musk’s Grok, however we merely don’t know but.
“We don’t need DOGE to exist perpetually,” Ramaswamy mentioned in his new video. “On the contrary, we would like this to finish, and the necessity for it to finish, by July 4th, 2026, which is acceptable. That’s the 250th anniversary of the American Declaration of Independence. And I can consider no higher reward to this nation than a downsized authorities that might make our founding fathers proud. And that’s what we hope to assist play a task in delivering for them.”
We’ll have to attend and see how profitable these oligarchs is likely to be at slashing and burning components of the federal government they don’t discover helpful to themselves. Some persons are hopeful that Trump might tire of Musk, who’s getting a variety of consideration for his bold plans to remake the federal government in his picture. Trump, in fact, hates when different individuals get extra consideration than him. And Musk’s newest Time magazine cover will certainly irk Trump.
How Elon Musk grew to become a kingmaker https://t.co/1JPlCQq1HE pic.twitter.com/83OhT0OgXE
— TIME (@TIME) November 21, 2024
However Musk and Trump each have loads to achieve by working collectively to dismantle the U.S. authorities. And no person can actually predict what’s going to come subsequent. Matt Gaetz simply withdrew his nomination for Lawyer Common on Thursday, which was fairly a shock. So all bets are off for the foreseeable future. For those who assume for sure how this all shakes out, you’re in all probability kidding your self.
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