This story was originally published in Reporting From Alaska.
The world’s richest man claims he can find ways to cut at least $2 trillion from the annual federal budget of more than $6 trillion.
Bring it on, says Sen. Dan Sullivan, who represents a state that is always near the top in federal spending per capita.
Elon Musk, temporarily on good terms with Donald Trump after spending more than $100 million to help him win, warns that “everyone’s taking a haircut here” and there will be “temporary hardship” if he has his way.
Sullivan will not say what haircuts and temporary hardships can be expected in Alaska.
But having Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy identify massive spending cuts is exactly what the nation needs, according to Sullivan, referring to it as “reinventing government.”
“I mean to me that’s probably one of the most brilliant things I’ve seen that’s come out of the announcements from the incoming administration,” Sullivan told Neil Cavuto of Fox News last week.
Musk says he wants “super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting.”
Sign me up, says Sullivan.
“I think I, I want to work very closely with, with ah, with Elon Musk in that department because you know, getting a much more efficient government to me is absolutely essential,” Sullivan told Fox News.
While Sullivan never mentions anything of substance to cut from the federal budget and is always clamoring for more federal spending in Alaska, he does say he wants to target federal employees that he thinks are disloyal.
“I’m somebody who has seen the deep state, it does exist. Career bureaucrats that try to thwart the will of the president. That happens in Alaska all the time with regard to energy. And I think, you know, having those guys involved in terms of reinventing government is just gonna be really, really important.”
Trump says the plan is not for Musk and Ramaswamy to reinvent government, but to eliminate big chunks of it. Ramaswamy wants massive reductions in the number of federal employees and the closure of some departments.
Every program in the federal budget is there because somebody wants it. The super-high IQ experts will discover that soon enough.
“Together, these two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies,” Trump said.
You could cut $2 trillion from federal spending by eliminating Social Security and Medicare. Or you could eliminate Medicaid, defense spending and all welfare programs. There are lots of options. Look at the chart below.
Sullivan doesn’t recognize or confess that there is a giant conflict of interest created by inviting Musk to cut government in ways that would benefit Musk personally, a Trump payback for the $100 million in campaign help.
Musk has billions in federal contracts. Three of his companies are facing nine federal investigations now. He wants a free hand to do whatever he chooses. And he’s bought his way into Trump’s circle.
As Lisa Gilbert, co-president of the watchdog group Public Citizen put it: “Musk not only knows nothing about government efficiency and regulation, his own businesses have regularly run afoul of the very rules he will be in position to attack in his new ‘czar’ position. This is the ultimate corporate corruption.”
“The purpose of government regulations is to protect the American people,” said Gilbert. “We all depend on these regulations to protect our air, water, workers, children’s safety, and so much more. ‘Cutting red tape’ is shorthand for getting rid of the safeguards that protect us in order to benefit corporate interests. Our problem is corporate capture of so much of our public policy, not this lie that corporations are held back by too many rules.”
It’s just brilliant.
Dermot Cole has worked as a newspaper reporter, columnist and author in Alaska for more than 40 years. Support his work here.
