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. It is groundbreaking work that
he's doing with his various companies, including Tesla,
SpaceX, The Boring Company, Neurolink, and of course, X.
And before we dive into today's episode, I wanted to share a
quick insight from our shows analytics.
It turns out the 45% of you listening right now are
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But that means that 55% of you are not.
So I'm offering you a deal. I promise to do everything in my
power to keep bringing you the latest and most interesting news
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If you'll do me one favor and hit the subscribe or follow
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Pretty simple and straightforward.
It takes just a second for you, but it makes a huge difference
for the show Elon Musk News. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I am a stand in. This is actually Marcy Captors a
one hour. She's tied up in a hearing and
so I'll try to do my best to lay it out.
She was going to speak for 7 minutes on the issues of the
Trump administration's dismantling of the federal
government and the hiring of, or I guess the acquiescence of Elon
Musk as the principal agent of destruction.
What has happened over the last 17 days is an extraordinary
display of contempt for the American government.
If you think about this in his totality, right off the start,
all funding stopped. What does that mean to the
programs that Americans depend upon?
Healthcare, education, research, infrastructure programs?
For what purpose was that done? Perhaps to set up the next step,
which is the dismantling of extraordinary important programs
for me and for my wife. More than almost 58 years ago,
we participated in the USAID program, which at that time was
just four years old, set up by Kennedy, a vaccination program,
an effort of the United Nations funded by the American
government, USAID to eradicate smallpox.
We spent a month in rural Ethiopia doing vaccinations.
And then as our life moved on, we continued working to provide
the necessary services so that people could survive.
The Food for Peace program, Patty actually ran that when she
was at USDA as an assistant administrator.
The famine camps, we were there. We saw the children that were
dying to starvation and we saw the American grain arrive.
I remember clearly one evening at the famine camp in Ethiopia
in the mid 80s, a woman literally in rags, picking up
individual grains of wheat that had spilled from the bags,
trying to fill a cup so that there would be enough food that
she could take back to her children.
They died that night of starvation.
The richest man in the world invested over $250 million in a
presidential campaign, and he was given the keys to the
American government and the opportunity to destroy things
that he didn't like. USAID not only providing the
necessary food to allow people to continue to live, but also to
thrive. Programs, agricultural programs,
economic development programs around the world, people that
didn't have the opportunity, we're given it the opportunity
by the generosity of the American people.
And so when you have the greatest wealth of any
individual, you seem to think you have the right to destroy
lives. Before you do that, Mr.
Chairman, before our president, give someone the power to do
that. I would ask them, get on your
private jet, get on Air Force One, go to one of the famine
camps in southern Sudan and hold a starving child in your arms.
Look at the extended belly, the vacant stare, not even able to
hold up the head, and know that the American people have
developed an emergency supplemental food program that
can revive that child. And then after you have done
that, come back and decide whether you want to put USAID
into the wood chopper. If you have just a modicum of
humanity and a sense of compassion, you would never,
never, ever take USAID and destroy it.
There are other programs out there, and we'll be talking
about these other programs as my colleagues join us here on the
floor. Education, Labor Department,
giving the richest man in the world the keys to the US
Treasury. What is going on here?
What information has been gathered?
Where did that information go? What will it be used for?
Who owns that information now, the US government or Elon Musk?
Serious questions. My colleagues and I will raise
these questions. I now turn to Mr. Caston, thank
you. Congressman Garamendi.
So last week my colleague Haley Stevens and I introduced the
Taxpayer Data Protection Act. We get to that in a minute.
I woke up this morning to find that apparently this bill has
gotten Mr. Musk's attention. So I would like to read to you
the tweet from that great statesman and special government
employee, Elon Musk. Any given law will do the
opposite of its name. One this guy wants to pass is
called the Taxpayer Protection, which means it's real goal is
giving taxpayers the shaft. What he really cares about is
hiding the biggest scam in human history.
Those are his words. A great statesman.
Elon Musk. I would point out to you that we
attack what we fear. As Teddy Roosevelt said, it's
the man in the ring who matters. So I'd like to give Mr. Musk a
little view from inside this ring.
Couple weeks ago, Elon Musk and his goons hacked into the
Treasury payment system. That is the system that controls
$5 trillion a year of payments. They came in with unsecured
software, unsecured hardware on vetted individuals.
They claim they only had read only access.
It now turns out that they actually had write access as
well. We don't know what information
they extracted from that system, but it may make them targets of
our foreign adversaries. They stole data, could have
stolen data. That affects the privacy of
every single American taxpayer. They also potentially access
data on the payment systems and identities of intelligence
assets that we have overseas, embedded and hostile foreign
governments who are risking their lives to keep America
safe. What this bill does is exactly
what it says it does. Notwithstanding this childish
tweet, it is the Taxpayer Data Protection Act.
I would point out that the only reason Mr. Musk got into the
system is because when he asked Treasury Secretary Besant to let
him into the system, the civil servant and patriot David
Leverick, who was running the system, said no, you cannot do
this. At which point Mr. Besant fired
Mr. Leverick and the theft of data occurred.
So what we did in this bill is said that going forward, the
Treasury Secretary cannot allow anybody to access the Treasury
payment system unless, number one, they have a top secret
current clearance #2 they have no economic conflicts of
interest #3 they are not a special government employee and
#4 they have been employed by the Federal government for at
least one year. That is a problem if you are a
Nazi saluting, economically conflicted special government
employee who is so desperately in need of validation that you
bought a social media company and tweaked its algorithm to
amplify your own tweets and fill your own sense of self worth who
is currently cosplaying as a public servant.
It's not a problem for taxpayers.
It's not a problem for data integrity.
And I understand protecting personal data has never been
Elon Musk's jam. But it is necessary.
And this bill does exactly what it says, which is why he fears
it. Which is why he attacks it.
Let me tell you what I fear. I fear what happens to our
country if his conflicts of interests are allowed to run
roughshod and trample over Americans right to privacy and
all that has ever truly made America great.
We're tacking what we fear as well, and I hope that we can
find 3 Republicans who are committed to the idea that that
is something worth defending. I yield back.
Thank you, Mr. Cast. And I now turn to the honorable
representative from the State of Florida.
Thank you. I thank the gentleman for for
yielding, and thank you to my fellow appropriator and friend
Marcy Kaptur for initiating and host and hosting this special
order hour, and to my friend Mr. Garamendi from California for
standing in for her. Because it is incredibly
disturbing that we must come together to condemn what should
be inherently obvious. Elon Musk was elected by no one,
confirmed by no one, and is accountable to no one.
Yet President Trump allows this conflict riddled billionaire to
rifle through Americans highly sensitive records and attack the
public servants who look out for all of us.
I've never witnessed such utter contempt for the Constitution
and the rule of law. It is clear who is running this
White House. It is Elon Musk whose nonstop
lies would leave human rights groups in Cuba and Venezuela out
to dry and victims of famine and natural disasters left to starve
or die. Donald Trump is allowing Musk to
illegally slash our efforts to counter dictators and protect
democracy. The man with billions on the
line in China, Trump and Musk are gutting agencies that are
investigating Musk's companies. You think that's coincidence?
And all while Donald Trump ignores what he committed to
prioritizing throughout the campaign, making everyday life
more affordable for everyone. Mr. Speaker, this chaos crew in
the White House is rocking the faith of Americans.
It's alienating allies and destabilizing our businesses.
It's trashing our ability to honor our commitments and
fulfill the basic functions of government.
My constituents are angry and afraid, and they should be.
It's understandable. Musk and his minions will gut
any program that doesn't line their own pockets.
These cruel, reckless cuts built on lies and illegal funding
freezes will devastate the children, veterans and seniors
that we Democrats fight for every day.
And worse, all this chaotic Republican RIP off will do is
raise grocery prices and healthcare costs for our
families. While Musk steals your child's
Social Security number, Trump is busy enacting policies that will
raise prices on everything from prescription drugs to affordable
housing. And as Musk digs through your
mom and dad's tax returns, he and Trump are gutting consumer
protections that keep scammers from ripping you off.
And all this is designed for one thing, to pay for more
millionaire and billionaire tax breaks and open the door to gut
Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security.
In fact, the Budget Committee is meeting right now as we speak to
do just that. They all get wealthier and the
lives of working families becomes even more unaffordable.
Mr. Speaker, we are not going to roll over and let this madness
continue. Every dollar illegally stolen
from our federal agencies must be restored.
We must continue to hold Trump and his billionaire friends
accountable. We are going to continue to
protect victims of scams and natural disasters.
Regardless of what Trump or his billionaire puppeteer proposes.
The Musk Trump unchecked raid of taxpayer dollars must end.
We must commit together to reduce people's everyday kitchen
table costs, and Democrats will stand up every single day to
fight to put lowering people's costs at the top of the agenda.
Thank you, and I yield back my time to the gentleman from
California. I thank the gentlelady from
Florida, and I'll now turn to Representative from the State of
Ohio, Mr. Lansman. Thank you very much.
And Mr. Speaker, I rise today to also talk about Elon Musk and to
ask the Speaker and my colleagues to follow the money.
Elon owns six companies, two of which are Tesla and SpaceX.
SpaceX alone has received something like $20 billion in
federal contracts, federal taxpayer dollars.
Tesla, when it was struggling to get off the ground, got a half a
billion dollar loan from the Department of Energy.
This is in addition to the billions that they have received
in tax credits and other supplements from the federal
government. He is not just the world's
richest man, but Elon Musk is trying to become the first
trillionaire in the history of the world.
Now Musk during the 2024 election gives over $200 million
to Trump and Republicans. It's a lot of money.
Trump wins and Elon, just weeks, not months after the election,
generates several $100 billion in new wealth making his way to
that trillion dollar number. He generated all that new wealth
because the markets knew that would Trump, He was going to
have access to even more of our money.
They knew he was going to get billions more in contracts,
billions more in federal subsidies.
And he is well on his way to expedite these efforts.
Trump empowers Musk moments after he's inaugurated.
Musk, an unelected tech billionaire.
He empowers him to take access of our personal data.
All of it. He gives him access to the
federal payment system. He gives them.
He gives him power to purge as many federal workers as he
possibly can, all in the name of waste, fraud and abuse.
Which in the end, it turns out to be somewhat accurate.
By the way, what happened with the data breach and the fact
that he now has access to all of our data is arguably the
greatest data breach in the history of the United States of
America. He has defunded federal
programs, purged public servants and stripped resources away from
government oversight, all while getting richer and richer at the
expense of the rest of us. And today, the State Department
said they plan to spend $400 million of our tax dollars to
purchase Tesla Cyber trucks. Why in the world would the
federal government buy one Tesla cyber truck, let alone $400
million of Tesla cyber trucks? Waste, fraud and abuse everyday.
Elon Musk makes $8 million from government contracts.
That number just went up. In comparison, seniors on Social
Security, they get $65 a day. The question that so many are
asking is how do you fight back against this waste, fraud and
abuse? And there is a playbook, Mr.
Speaker, it's the Constitution of the United States.
An Article 1 does not lay out the powers of the presidency or
the Supreme Court in the judiciary.
Article 1 lays out the powers of the Congress of the United
States. This Congress is responsible for
appropriating funds and oversight.
Of the federal government and holding the president
accountable. The founders envisioned this
moment. They didn't know that it would
come with a billionaire tech donor, but they envisioned this
moment. And with Republicans in control
of both the House and the Senate, they have to step up and
deal with this waste, fraud, and abuse.
With that I yield back. Thank you.
Mr. Lansman. Critical, important issues have
been raised in the last 20 minutes or so about the issues
of conflicts, of interest, of corruption, and of policy
mistakes that the current administration has put in motion
over the last 15-16 days. I want to draw the attention of
the House to this diagram. And this is just a display of
some of the contracts that Elon Musk has with the government.
In total, it's more than $15 billion.
But in each of these, there are some very subtle, very, very
subtle and ominous opportunities for corruption.
I want to point out just one In the Inflation Reduction Act and
in the Infrastructure JOBS Act, there's money for electric
vehicle charging stations. In fact, a substantial amount of
money. It turns out that Tesla has some
20,000 charging stations around the United States and has become
the principal a charging station connection to all electric
vehicles. If we were to shut down, excuse
me, if Elon Musk were to shut down the money for other
companies to build charging stations, he would then have a
monopoly Settle Well, but obvious to those of us who watch
my colleague talked to the issue of the State Department putting
out on its website a very specific $400 million purchase
order of just one vehicle, a Tesla cyber truck.
Corruption, yes. Waste, probably.
And here we are with an unelected individual who has
extraordinary power, in fact, the power of the presidency and
the presidency is misusing the power to shut down organizations
around this country. I would suggest that the
Democrats have a different view of government, have a different
view of purpose. Franklin Roosevelt once said the
test of our progress is not whether we add more to the
abundance of those who have much, is whether we provide
enough for those who have too little.
That test is now before the Congress of the United States.
Hard working families are struggling, dealing with
inflation, yet it appears as though the Trump administration
is going to focus on making the wealthier even more wealthy.
We need to think about this. And in the days ahead, I am
certain that our Democratic colleagues will put forth not
only a vigorous defense of the programs that Americans, and
indeed people around the world depend upon.
And we will do that together with men and women around this
nation who have seen the effect, in many case the tragic effect,
of the shutdown of government and the shutdown of agencies
upon which we all rely. And simultaneously, we will put
forth a positive agenda about what we stand for and how we see
America growing in the future. Mr. Speaker, I noticed the
arrival of the esteemed lady from Ohio who had actually put
together this one hour. It's been a privilege for me to
stand as a substitute. She has now arrived.
And I turned my attention back to Marcy Kaptur and her one
hour. Thank you for the opportunity to
sub for a while while you were tied up in committee.
I know you had good work to do there.
Miss Captor, the floor is yours. I do some of the.
Speakers. Announced policy of January 3rd,
2025. The gentlewoman from Ohio, Miss
Captor, is recognized for the remainder of the hour as the
designee of the Minority Leader. Thank you very much.
Mr. Speaker. May I ask the time remaining?
The gentlewoman has 35 minutes remaining.
All right, thank you. And I want to thank Congressman
Garamendi, such a distinguished member, for substituting for me
while I was in our Budget committee.
And I know what a phenomenal job you do and how deeply you love
our country and how hard you fight for her and for all the
people that you represent, and those include my constituents to
your work is just phenomenal. Thank you for being here today,
Mr. Speaker. I wanted to focus a little on
Elon Musk and put some materials in the record.
He's an unelected billionaire with no federal clearance,
standing or sitting right next to the president of the United
States almost on a daily basis. Mr. Musk is so rich he could buy
my entire Congressional District and have lots leftover.
He spent millions upon millions, more than I and all of our
relatives are worth, to defeat House Democrats for Congress,
myself included. I couldn't come near to match
his money. He did the same to many of my
colleagues in this House, including some with us today.
Can you imagine having enough money to put millions and
millions of dollars up against members of Congress to control
Congress? That is what is going on.
Political victories to billionaires equate to the fall
of our Republic. Presidents Washington and
Lincoln could never have imagined this selling off of our
Republic. Musk has endless money.
He uses it fiercely. Some of us won despite the tidal
wave of his money. Politics shouldn't be about
raising oodles of money. It should be about serving our
people and strengthening our nation for all, not just the
Super rich. You know what?
They have enough. The America we have known is at
risk of becoming owned by a billionaire class.
If and when that happens, our precious freedoms will vanish.
Now, our family and I have been citizens of this country for our
entire lives, three generations totaling over a century and a
half. Grandparents, parents, and us.
Every generation worked very hard here.
It wasn't easy. They fought fiercely for our
nation as veterans in every major war, to defeat dictators,
to preserve liberty for our nation and others.
And then they bequeath that precious gift to us.
We all worked hard to become more educated.
Our family, community and nation are my treasures.
By contrast, Elon Musk holds citizenship in three countries,
South Africa, Canada and then for the last 22 years the USA.
I keep asking myself to which one is he most loyal?
He was born and raised in apartheid South Africa in a very
well to do circumstance. With the fall of that apartheid
regime not so many years ago, after a great human rights
struggle inside South Africa, his father knew that economic
circumstance would change in South Africa.
So he took Elon, then a teenager, to visit over a dozen
countries, including Canada, where Elon's mother still
resides. Elon took a second citizenship
in Canada. He obtained a visa then to
attend College in the United States as a foreign student,
graduating in economics and physics.
He then moved to Silicon Valley for Graduate School, but dropped
out after 2 days. They're still remaining some
questions as to whether he illegally overstayed in our
country on a student visa. Records show he's only been a
citizen of our country for 22 years, having become a citizen
in the year of 2002. Bottom line, why has President
Donald Trump just given a naturalized citizen with two
other citizenships and with no federal clearance and only 22
years of residency in our nation, the keys to the US
Treasury Department's electronic payment systems?
That data records every citizen's private financial
information and every business's private information across our
country must got the position completely without the normal
ethic investigations required of every political appointee to any
president. When I serve President Carter,
the FBII mean our records were checked people all the way back
to grade school. That was not done for this man.
The American people need to know more about exactly how now an
unelected billionaire built his fortune off federal government
contracts. In our Budget committee, a
number was just stated that he holds up to $18 billion of
contracts with the governor of the United States.
That began with a huge $465 million loan from the US
Department of Energy to launch Tesla in California.
Who exactly lobbied in that department for that loan, and
who and why was it accepted? We are told it was paid back.
Frankly, I have never known anyone who has gotten a loan
that large from the government of the United States for his
with his background. For the record, Elon Musk paid
that loan back over time but began increasing the amounts of
his gigantic loan and grant applications to the federal
government, with the largest thus far, we think, being with
NASA. Wouldn't we call this a conflict
of interest, my friends? Would we allow the head of GM or
any other large corporation in our country to sit next to the
President and go into the US Treasury and not say it was a
conflict of interest? Are we all fools and using his
financial leverage to re elect Donald Trump?
Musk should have been vetted by the FBI as is anyone who works
close to the presidency or critical government records.
It appears Musk simply has been leveraging his vast fortune off
government contracts. Is he rummaging through Treasury
files to gain an advantage over competitors or to seek vengeance
in business dealings? Just this year, he ordered the
State Department to buy $400 million worth of his own cyber
trucks. But when scrutiny came, the
purchase order mysteriously disappeared.
The word Tesla from their procurement orders.
How about that? Over the past five years alone,
he has received over 13 billion in government awards to his
company. I ask every member of Congress
here and listening, do you know any other human being who has
ever been allowed this kind of access with such private sector
interests and dipping into the US Treasury time and again
across all these agencies? It is unbelievable,
unbelievable. Conflict of interest equals Elon
Musk. He should not be able to invade
the private records of the American people at the US
Treasury. Yet he has done just that.
Every person hearing my words, your records, your tax records,
your business reports, think about that.
Think about the investments that Treasury makes in order to roll
over our debt. No one listening to this today,
nor any elected official here in Congress, could ever have gained
access to the records of the American people held in
confidence in the US Treasury. And I can tell you how difficult
it is even for a member of Congress to get an appointment
to see the secretary of Treasury.
We've been trying over the last several weeks.
We haven't gotten it yet with Musk.
What a breach of privacy for every American citizen.
One must ask how did he finagle this heist for the princely sum
of $250 million spent on presidential campaigns and
congressional campaigns? I'm sure that number double S.
It literally is more and more like a quid pro quo the more
Elon Musk bankrolled President Trump's re election.
And for this he's given the keys to America's financial Kingdom.
Wow, this is new in American history.
Musk is now using unsecured private servers to Snoop at the
millions of private accounts of the American people and
businesses with which he's in competition.
Where's the business community? Are you afraid of them?
Will you speak up? Wall Street speaking up in a
very interesting way. The markets have been really
rickety these last few days. They're not too comfortable.
They're not dumb. Pay attention.
Musk must be identifying individuals he'd like to upend.
Are they afraid to like members of Congress who are afraid to
speak out because they're afraid Musk will put more money up
against him in the next campaign?
Guess what? He's going to do it anyway.
So speak out whatever he is concocting with his inverted
merry band of minions aged 19 to 26.
They have no security clearances nor experience to work at the US
Treasury Department. Every person in America must
have a concern about this. Your Social Security records,
your health benefits, the profits of your corporation, who
you do business with, it's all there.
Their sole mission, his sole mission is to collect private
confidential information for more self dealing and maybe
threats and tax cuts for the billionaire class.
Does Elon Musk have to file a financial disclosure statement
like all of us? Where is it we have to have
them? Where's his?
It seems his will be kept private.
Musk is ruthless and a self enabler and surely he seeks to
swipe to wipe out his competitors or spy at will on
the privilege information of the American people.
I might ask anyone listening today, why does he have access
to your mom's Social Security records and your grandpa's
Medicare? What does he now know about you
and your family? I appreciate my colleagues
joining us today, and I will now yield to my colleague, OK,
Congressman Hank Johnson from the great state of Georgia.
Thank you so very much for participating.
And I want to thank also Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman
Schultz for also substituting when I was not able to be on the
floor. I yield.
Thank you, Madam. I appreciate you convening us
together for this special order today and for your very
thoughtful comments. And thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Today I rise to voice my alarm about the rapid descent of our
democracy into a dictatorship. While Co President Donald Trump
focuses on expanding his business opportunities globally
while ignoring his campaign promise to lower the cost of
living for ordinary Americans, Co President Elon Musk has taken
a Wrecking Ball to the federal government one agency at a time.
Congress established the agencies that Musk is trying to
delete and it is only Congress under our Constitution, not an
unelected Co president that has the constitutional authority to
abolish a federal agency. We still live in a democracy,
which is government of, by and for the people who have the
right, the precious right, to vote for their leaders.
We tell our constituents to vote.
We tell them their votes and their voices matter, that their
choices shape the future of this country.
But what does that mean when an unelected billionaire can waltz
into our agencies and slash and burn the whole thing to the
ground like a Taliban terrorist? Threatening 2 million federal
employees to resign under false pretenses?
Putting other folks out of work? Stopping payments to small
businesses and nonprofits while illegally putting in purchase
orders for the State Department to spend $400 million in
taxpayer money for Tesla pickup trucks.
This level of corruption is shocking.
Co President Trump and the Republicans in Congress, all of
whom have abrogated their legislative power to the King,
have handed the keys to the nation's treasury to unelected
Co President Elon Musk. Their actions are taking what we
know as corruption to a whole new level.
This is Banana Republic style corruption at its ugliest.
And while the powerful play their games, Donald Trump, Elon
Musk and their billionaire buddies get richer while the
cost of living goes up for everybody else.
Every day my constituents call me worried.
Scared, asking how an unelected billionaire they never voted for
is gutting the very resources they rely on to put food on the
table and a roof over their heads.
They see a man who wants billionaires like himself to pay
nothing while hardworking Americans foot the bill.
They see him kneecapping the Consumer Financial Protection
Bureau, an agency created the shield the people from scams,
fraud and corporate greed. They asked why someone with a
long history of union busting, worker abuse and blatant
disregard for labor laws is being allowed to scuttle the
Department of Labor. And they want to know why a
billionaire businessman from South Africa, who holds no
elective office has been given unchecked access and influence
over their most sensitive personal and financial
information. Their rights and their future.
Let me be clear. I'm committed to ensuring that
President Musk stops this attack on the American people.
House and Senate Democrats will not stand by like my Republican
colleagues are doing while Elon Musk hijacks our government.
We will fight to protect the institutions that serve the
people, not the privileged. That's what we must do to
protect democracy and freedom. We will stand.
We will fight. And with the American people
aroused in peaceful, nonviolent protests across the country, Mr.
Speaker, we will win. This country belongs to the
people, not to the billionaires. Thank you and I yield back.
Thank you very much, Congressman Johnson.
And we'd now like to yield time remaining to Congressman Tim
Kennedy, phenomenal new member from the great state of New
York, Buffalo. Thank you.
Let me begin by thanking Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur for
her leadership on this important issue.
Mr. Speaker, the US government exists to protect the rights and
well-being of all Americans. People in my district want a
government that works and works to improve the lives of Western
New Yorkers and all Americans. People in my district and others
across the country do not want an unelected billionaire
dismantling our government for parts and raking in profits in
the process. Because that's what's happening.
President Trump has allowed Elon Musk to operate with unchecked
authority, unilaterally and illegally gutting the agencies
that protect everything we hold dear, all without necessary
congressional approval. In my district alone, there are
8500 plus federal employees, including those at the VA
Hospital of Buffalo, the Social Security Administration, the
Niagara Falls Air Reserve Base, and many, many other agencies
who help our communities each and every day.
We can't protect the privacy of millions of Americans if Elon
Musk has access to private taxpayer data, including that of
Social Security recipients, Medicare beneficiaries and
taxpayers. We can't advance life saving
scientific and Cancer Research breakthroughs if Elon Musk
hollows out National Institutes of Health, and we cannot provide
the benefits and services to our military heroes that have earned
and deserve it if Elon Musk drives away federal employees
who serve our veterans. This is to say nothing of Elon
Musk's dizzying list of conflicts of interest.
This is an unelected billionaire who's made those billions in
large part from taxpayer funded government contracts, and this
president has handed him unprecedented power to ring out
hard working families for every penny that they have.
We can't allow an individual who prioritizes profits above all
and cozies up to adversaries like China and Russia to make
decisions for the American people.
We must continue to fight for the rights and well-being of
hard working families and put people over billionaire profit.
Our constituents deserve nothing less.
I yield back. I don't believe that we have any
additional speakers. One more is coming.
OK, An additional speaker is coming.
I while we're waiting. Thank you very much.
Mr. Speaker, I just wanted to point to this.
If if there are citizens who are listening, if we look at some of
the government contracts that the Mr. Musk is engaged in, we
are trying to make this as complete as we can.
And so for example, NASA is one of the largest contracts that he
personally has. 11. Look at this number, $11.8
billion with NASA and Can you imagine how many subcontractors
there are on that job? That's just one connection.
But then we look over to the US Department of Defense of
Defense, and that is $3.6 billion.
These are enormous contracts. Companies in my district don't
have that kind. And I have companies that do
contract with the government. They don't have contracts that
size. We look at the Department of
Commerce, $1.9 million, Trump, Mr. Musk has a contract there.
Department of Veterans Affairs, that's an interesting one,
$463,000, not sure what that is for.
Department of State, $440,000. You can do a lot with $440,000.
There's a lot of information at the State Department.
What is that contract for? And then we have a whole series
with at the other agencies. We know it's well over
$1,000,000. We can't even track how much it
is. This is an enormous amount of
money. I don't know, even General
Dynamics and some of our large corporations, I don't think have
this kind of kind of reach. We have no final speaker.
OK, all right. I just want to thank the speaker
and and all those who are listing for their indulgence.
This is a time for the American people to be intrepid and on the
watch and providing information to your members of Congress
about information you may have about what Mr. Musk and all of
his alliances are doing across this country to benefit the
Republic. Thank you so very much and I
yield back. Hey, thank you so much for
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