The emerging kleptocracy
There is no "audit." Musk is a fraud.
Republicans keep asking why Democrats don’t want Elon Musk to cut fraud and waste out of the federal government. They keep referring to Musk’s “audit.” There is no audit and Musk has exposed very little, if any, fraud. The “waste” is just programs he and Trump don’t like. But the Republicans talking about an audit aren’t just mistaken, they are lying. And they know it.
Musk is routinely making false statements about fraud that claim money is spent on culture war issues. He claimed the government spent $50 million on condoms sent to Gaza. He claimed that USAID funded a comic book in Peru that featured transgender superheroes. None of it’s true, yet it combines two of Republicans’ favorite pastimes, bashing minority groups and fantasizing about shrinking government.
Musk has the loudest megaphone with his platform that was once called Twitter. He regularly makes false accusations that are shared and repeated widely. Republicans have taken to heart Goebbels’ saying, “A lie told once remains a lie but a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth.” Social media has made turning a lie into the truth easy, with many of Musk’s biggest lies getting millions of shares.
Elected officials and Republican activists are calling Musk’s action an “audit,” but unilaterally cutting programs has nothing to do with auditing. He is slashing wholesale, not evaluating and eliminating waste. He’s not even looking at the long-term impact of his actions. He’s engaged in a constitutionally dubious act to reduce the size of government without oversight.
Musk has billions of dollars in contracts with the federal government. Trump has sent him into numerous agencies, some that likely have business with him. The conflict of interest is enormous. This isn’t an audit. It’s a scam. While agencies like USAID and the Department of Education get cut, harming millions of people, Musk, Trump, and their allies are about to enrich themselves.
In a healthy democracy, Musk and Trump would have oversight, but Republicans in Congress have rolled over, surrendering their power to Musk and Trump. They’re parroting Musk’s lies and cheering on the greatest grift in American history. They are turning our country into a kleptocracy.
Tom, you have raised important concerns about potential conflicts of interest and the effects of budget cuts on crucial services. It seems that Republicans often behave as if they are shielded from the consequences of their stringent policies. As a result, they tend to overlook the significance of free or reduced-priced meals for underprivileged children in public schools, even though these meals might be the only source of nutrition for some kids. Instead, they prioritize controversial moral issues like abortion, while flaunting their supposed Christian values, which frequently come across as insincere.
It appears that some self-proclaimed Christians may not have fully understood the message in Matthew 7:21-23, where Jesus talks about individuals who outwardly perform religious acts but lack a genuine relationship with Him.
To these pseudo-Christians it is reasonable to expect an underpaid teacher to not only buy snacks for their students but also cover the cost of school supplies that the district should provide. Unlike the wealthy elites, such as Elon Musk and Donald Trump, who never had to face the challenges of attending school on an empty stomach or with inadequate clothing, these kids are struggling.
Both Musk and Trump were born into affluent families and never experienced such hardships.
Is it any wonder that there's some self-dealing with taxpayer funds? Elon Musk selling his so-called bulletproof electric truck to the state department for $40 billion or Donald Trump running a crypto coin operation out of the White House—it is all part of the same strategy. As long as they talk tough and pretend to be doing God's work to "make America great again," the suckers won’t notice the difference. It's all about the graft!
Most of us know this. What do suggest we do about it? You have a credible platform and a loyal audience. I urge you to leverage both to be part of the solution.