Elon Musk is attempting to do to the federal authorities what he did to Twitter: blow it up before he rebuilds it in his own image. However there’s a huge distinction between a social media firm whose price to society is minimal and an array of public businesses that present important providers to thousands and thousands of People.
Musk doesn’t appear to know the distinction. When he and his 20-something minions sweep in to fireplace individuals and halt the operations of an entity like USAID, as an illustration, they don’t seem to be toying with individuals’s skill to put up pithy or poisonous messages on-line, they’re endangering lives amongst ravenous individuals, disrupting important disease-fighting applications and trashing American farmers who promote their merchandise to feeding applications — to not point out they’re giving China an enormous increase within the worldwide competitors to win the hearts and minds of those that dwell in creating nations.
And what’s being completed by Musk’s wrecking ball method? Definitely not any important discount within the nationwide debt. USAID’s finances accounts for lower than 1% of federal spending. The sum of money which may finally be saved by Musk’s rampage by the federal forms could be dwarfed by the billions President Donald Trump has proposed in tax cuts for the rich.
So, why is Musk doing what he’s doing? Is it a quest to crush the “deep state,” that fabricated boogeyman of the far proper? Is it the massively outsized ego of the world’s richest man who instantly has a really massive, new toy to smash? Or is it ignorance?
All three are actually at work, however the third could also be most important as a result of that ignorance is shared by the president and most people on his staff. Having made the federal authorities a goal of vitriol for therefore lengthy, now that they’ve their fingers on the reins of energy, this band of rightist radicals appears to not know what the federal authorities really does. That turned apparent when Trump issued his govt order calling a halt to federal grants. The order provoked such an uproar from everywhere in the nation that Trump shortly rescinded the mandate a day after it was introduced.
If the halt had gone into impact, it might have crippled a bunch of applications, together with funding for well being grants from the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention, help to homeless shelters, monetary help for faculty college students and cash to maintain the nation’s vitality provide. Trump had no concept what he was doing, simply as Musk appears oblivious to the results of his actions.
The blitzkrieg assault on the federal authorities being performed by Musk and Trump is a usurpation of the constitutional order. It’s the ego-driven, authoritarian expression of two males who envision themselves as geniuses and saviors unconstrained by the rule of regulation. However moderately than being a piece of genius, the Musk/Trump destruction spree is merciless, harmful and completely ignorant.
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