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All Hail Lord Musk! (Who Now Controls All Our Money) [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-02-01
Taggan Goddard put it this way in his headline: Elon Musk Consolidates His Power
Elon Musk, a private citizen with no official government role, has been handed sweeping, unchecked power over key functions of the U.S. government.
The unelected, unnominated, unconfirmed, unvetted, uninvited richest fascist in the world has just been given the keys to the kingdom. Or the keys to the Treasury, which is the same thing.
Elon Musk’s Team Now Has Full Access to Treasury’s Payments System
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gave representatives of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency full access to the federal payment system late on Friday, according to three people familiar with the change, handing Elon Musk and the team he is leading a powerful tool to monitor and potentially limit government spending. [emphasis added]
It’s interesting that the New York Times allowed “so-called” to stay in the story — though that only makes their pre-election toadying behavior all the more reprehensible. Anyway, they slightly missed the real point in this paragraph:
The system could give the Trump administration another mechanism to attempt to unilaterally restrict disbursement of money approved for specific purposes by Congress, a push that has faced legal roadblocks.
It wasn’t given to the “Trump administration.” It was given to Elon Musk. As Clio2 points out in her diary, Civil servants in 3 agencies RESISTED Musk minions getting at sensitive databases; outcome unclear, Musk’s agents “plugged, or tried to, external hard drives into sensitive, complicated government systems.” That means that not only could they have stolen data, they could just as easily have uploaded software to give them — ie, Musk — full control over the money the federal government pays out, around $6 trillion dollars a year.
This bureau doesn’t decide policy, doesn’t make any decisions about where our tax dollars are supposed to go. It merely carries out the decisions made by Congress and the executive. Musk didn’t change the decision-making process; he short-circuited it.
It’s said that Musk was planning to become the first trillionaire in history within a few years. Looks like he just found a shortcut.
What happens next will be a power struggle between Musk and the other players who want the power Musk just seized. That includes Peter Thiel, Mark Zukerburg, Jeff Bezos, Charlie Koch, not to mention players who have armies to call on: Putin, Xi, and Trump himself. Now add to this mix the various ultra-religious fanatics, both Catholic and Protestant, who have been planning to make the government do their bidding, which is not the same as what Musk wants. (Yes, he wants to push racism, fascism, probably anti-Semitism, but I’ve never of heard of him being particularly interested in priming the millennium or restoring the inquisition.) He just wants to run the world.
And he’s off to a head start. At this point, I’m not looking for popcorn futures; I’m looking for a cave to hide in.
Added: Yesterday, there was some speculation on MSNBC on why Musk wants to get his hands on the payment process: There are several reasons Musk wants to control Treasury payments. None of them are good.
First, accessing the Treasury’s payment system could be a path to freezing government funding, as the administration attempted earlier this week. Musk could halt payments to programs like Medicaid, Meals on Wheels, Head Start and more, maneuvering around the courts. Musk has already directed his engineers to find ways to turn off the flow of money to programs he and President Donald Trump oppose. With the keys to the Treasury’s payment system, he can unilaterally cut off these funds right at the source.
OK, we figured that. But here’s another wrinkle:
Musk could also get his hands on the “Do Not Pay” system that lists individuals or contractors the government has blacklisted, theoretically granting him control over whom the government does business with. Government contracts have been central to Musk’s $400 billion net worth; his companies have signed billions of dollars’ worth of government contracts. He could easily place his rivals on the Do Not Pay list or turn the spigot back on for friends who have been blacklisted.
The article ends on an almost polyanna-ish note:
Americans don’t want an unelected and unaccountable billionaire dictating what working families can and cannot afford. If Musk is going to continue running the government like one of his failed businesses, perhaps someone should force his “resignation” too.
Yeah, you and what army? (Well, Trump does have an army, but will he use it?) Paging Jeff Bezos, ones of Musk’s competitors. . . .
Which reminds me of another reason for Musk’s actions: With $6 trillion of our tax dollars to play with, Musk can build a rocket ship for Mars.
PS: For those complaining that Democrats are not reacting, (1) this just happened, and (2) Sen. Warren has already reacted:
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