Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Elon Musk Podcast.
I'm your host, Will Walden, and if you're new here, this is a
show all about Elon Musk and his groundbreaking work that he's
doing with his various companies, including Tesla,
SpaceX, The Boring Company, Neurolink, and of course, X.
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It takes just a second for you, but it makes a huge difference
for the show. Senator.
From Rhode Island. Thank you, Mr. President.
On day one, President Trump lit the fuse on Elon Musk's plan to
hollow out the federal government by changing the name
of an obscure technical office within the White House, the US
Digital Services USDS, and called it DOGE without
congressional authorization and giving it extraordinary reach
into the operations of the federal agencies.
Since then, we have heard report after report about how Mr. Musk
and DOGE have rammed their way into agencies not to make smart
decisions, not to improve efficiency, not to eliminate
waste, fraud and abuse, but to disrupt, denigrate and
demoralize. And along the way, DOGE has made
incredible blunders, such as firing and then scrambling to
rehire employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration.
Let me repeat that. Mister Musk and his minions
fired the people who keep nuclear weapons safe.
And then someone realized. Fortunately, when the few days
they had to come back. And here's another example.
Musk and his hackers made CIA send an unclassified e-mail with
the names of its recent hires. Boy, if I was in the Russian
Security Service, I'd love to get a list, which they did, of
everyone who's going into the CIA.
They also cut staff from the Federal Aviation Administration,
the National Weather Service, who prevent and warn every
American of travel and weather dangers.
And it goes beyond that agricultural interest to listen
daily to the reports, the accurate reports of the Weather
Service so they can plan their crops, they can plan everything.
And that's being withered away. And I think the ultimate goal is
to privatize it, which is not the rest way to go.
These actions don't just reflect incredible incompetence.
They are dangerous. They undermine national security
and increase risk for American citizens.
In any other setting, blunders like these would be grounds for
firing. But Myth Musk, Indulge operate
with arrogance, impunity and 0 transparency.
Millions of Americans are asking, who are these people?
As the ranking member of the Financial Services and General
Government Appropriations Subcommittee, the subcommittee
that ostensibly overseas the budget for the White House, USDS
and DOGE, I'm asking the same question because Congress, like
the American people, is being kept in the dark.
As appropriators, we typically work together on a bipartisan
basis, no matter which party is in the White House, to get
information, to conduct oversight, to ensure that
federal dollars are spent in accordance with the laws passed
by Congress. But now, with our authorization
from Congress, DOGE is recklessly slashing its way
through virtually every federal agency in the Office of
Personnel Management, to Treasury, to HUD, to State, to
USAID, and to the Department of Defense, and more.
It's vital that we understand what DOGE is and isn't.
While Elon Musk tells us and the American people that DOGE is
maximally transparent, it is not.
We build them out, have answers to fundamental questions like
what is the scope of Dozier's work?
How many people work at DOGE and who are they?
Do they also hold jobs outside the federal government?
What are their financial holdings and potential conflicts
of interest? Do they have allegiances to
foreign governments? Will those respond to requests
under the Freedom of Information Act?
What are its plans to reform agencies?
Who is DOGE firing and why? And many, many other questions.
And unfortunately, when DOGE shares information, it is
frequently wrong. As the New York Times reported,
5 of Doge's biggest claims savings were deleted from its
website because they were inaccurate.
This includes a cancelled USAID contract for $650 million which
was counted by DOGE 3 * a cancelled Social Security
contract was erroneously listed as being worth $232 million
instead of the actual $560,000, and a cancelled ICE contract was
listed as saving $8 billion instead of $8 million.
If you're going to name something the Department of
Government Efficiency, don't you owe it to the taxpayers to
actually do a good job on top of having 0 accountability, DOGE
legal authority operate is dubious.
DOGE has essentially taking over the USDS, which was originally
established to help federal agencies more adeptly utilize
technologies serve the American people.
Over the years, USDS helped establish everything from Direct
File, which helps taxpayers file their taxes for free, to direct
mail COVID test to a successful online passport renewal
protocol. DOGE is now using the howled
shell of USDS to illegally undo the American federal government,
moving from agency to agency, cutting congressionally
appropriated funds, spend priorities, and even dismantling
entire agencies. The bottom line is that DOGE is
without congressional authorization and without direct
funding from Congress, is acting to undermine the federal
government and frankly contempt the United States Congress as a
constitutional body who creates the laws.
The President's challenge in the Constitution is to enforce those
laws, not to circumvent the Congress of the United States.
Based on press report, it appears to be those are
populated by a mixture of unelected billionaires, tech
executives, and unvetted inexperienced people, including
an individual who is found to have posted racist tweets.
This gang is being granted access to America's most
sensitive data, like your bank accounts, your Social Security
accounts, and it would seem, a host of classified intelligence.
And how are they using this information?
How are they protecting this information from our enemies?
Is it being shared with outside entities?
Is dope simply being used to give Mr. Musk, his company's and
his billionaire friends an advantage when competing for
government contracts? We simply don't know what this
gang is doing with inside the government.
Every single day that passes without transparency and
congressional access to information about Doziers
funding, staffing and scope of work is a moment too long.
But the current continuing resolution due to expire on
March 14th. We have big decisions to make.
My hope is that these decisions can be made on a bipartisan
basis, informed by the facts. But we cannot responsibly fund
the government if we do not understand how DOGE has
infiltrated it, made it less efficient and less responsive to
taxpayers, and essentially has circumvented the constitutional
responsibilities of the United States Congress.
With that, Mr. President, I yield the floor.
Hey, thank you so much for listening today.
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