Elon’s ‘Daily Proctology Exam’
Musk nailed it: In comments made at the Oval Office last night (as his little son hung out next to him and mimicked his hand gestures), Elon Musk made clear that he intends to not only slash the overgrown federal bureaucracy but also force people in government to actually confront the massive federal deficit.
“If the bureaucracy’s in charge, then what meaning does democracy actually have?” asked Musk. “If the people cannot vote and have their will be decided by their elected representatives in the form of the president and the Senate and the House, then we don’t live in a democracy, we live in a bureaucracy. So it’s incredibly important that we close that feedback loop, we fix that feedback loop, and that the public’s elected representatives—the president, the House, and the Senate—decide what happens, as opposed to a large, unelected bureaucracy. This is not to say that there are not good people who are in the federal bureaucracy, but you can’t have an autonomous federal bureaucracy. You have to have one that’s responsive to the people.”
A moment later, Musk turned his attention to the deficit:
“We’ve got a $2 trillion deficit, and if we don’t do something about this deficit, the country is going bankrupt. It’s really astounding that the interest payments alone on the national debt exceed the Defense Department budget, which is shocking because we spend a lot of money on defense. If that just keeps going, we’re essentially going to bank up the country. What I really would say is it’s not optional for us to reduce the federal expenses. It’s essential. It’s essential for America to remain solvent as a country, and it’s essential for America to have the resources necessary to provide things to its citizens and not simply be servicing vast amounts of debt.”
When asked by reporters about the criticism DOGE and Musk have received, Musk said it feels like a “daily proctology exam.” He touted DOGE’s transparency, trying to skirt criticism of the mechanisms by which DOGE has been operating. “All of our actions are fully public,” Musk told a reporter who asked about conflicts of interest between his business ventures and his role in government. “So if you see anything like, ‘Elon, there may be a conflict there,’ it’s not like people are going to be shy about it. They are going to say it immediately.”
“We post our actions…to the DOGE website,” Musk said at one point. “All of our actions are maximally transparent. I don’t know of a case where an organization has been more transparent than the DOGE organization,” he added. But the DOGE website is a black page that simply says “The people voted for major reform.” Musk does tweet out his actions but has done little to ease people’s worries about unvetted staffers accessing tons of U.S. government da
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