Silence of the Lambs . . . Congress
This has been taking shape for a while now. The either-or threat is coming soon enough. The wrong president is in place to contend with this. Otherwise, the president would be demanding Musk stop. Instead, the president is in support of Musk. Just waiting . . .
Where is Congress and the Supreme Court?
How Musk is canceling the U.S. government
– by Robert Reich
I apologize for crowding your inbox for a second time today, but so much is happening that you need to see the overall pattern.
Musk and his associates have not only burrowed into the Treasury’s payments system; they are now burrowing into the Internal Revenue Service and the Social Security Administration.
They are gaining access to the most sensitive personal information about Americans available anywhere, along with computer codes capable of altering that information and those systems. The Muskrats have been able to turn off government funding without Congress’s consent, even in the face of federal court orders to turn the funding back on.
This is blatantly illegal yet Congress remains silent.
Congress is supine because Republicans are in charge, and Musk has also become Trump’s hatchet man — threatening Republican members of Congress if they deviate from Trump.
Iowa’s Republican Senator Joni Ernst was firmly set against Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense until Musk hinted that he’d finance a primary challenger to Ernst, who’s up for reelection next year. Presto: Ernst supported Hegseth.
Indiana’s Republican Senator Todd Young expressed concern about the nomination of Tulsi Gabbard to be director of national intelligence until Musk tweeted against him. A besieged Young spoke with JD Vance, who arranged a call with Musk. Presto: Young announced he would back Gabbard.
Musk warned Republican lawmakers in December that he was compiling a “naughty list” of members who buck Trump’s agenda. He also pledged shortly after Election Day that his political action committee would “play a significant role in primaries” next year.
A Republican senator told The Hill that Musk’s wealth makes primary threats “a bigger deal.”
Musk’s financial and political power have been enough to intimidate even the mainstream media. An advertisement set to run in The Washington Post yesterday calling for Musk to be fired from his role in government was abruptly canceled, according to Common Cause, one of the groups that had ordered the ad. When asked why the Post had pulled the ad, the Post said it was not at liberty to give a reason.
When and if America ever wrests back control of our government, we must remember this: The combination of great wealth and great power — epitomized by Elon Musk — is destroying American democracy.
Oligarchy is the enemy of democracy.
The lambs in Congress are not silent just about Musk. There’s an elephant in the room that just got exposed, and yet Democrats still won’t talk about it: ““…[O]ne of the first meetings I want to have is with President Xi of China and President Putin of Russia, and I want to say let’s cut our military budget in half. And we can do that, and I think we’ll be able to do that,” the President told reporters.
With this statement, President Trump blew up one of the biggest myths of our time, particularly among Republicans, that spending more on the military is essential to keeping us safe. There is a vast and well-funded network of political and industrial interests that depend on maintaining that myth, from the weapons manufacturers to the mainstream media to the think tanks and beyond. Why? Because most of what is called “defense spending” has little to do with defending this country and a lot to do with enriching the politically well-connected.” Can We Really Cut Half of the Military Budget? You Bet! – Antiwar.com
If we’re honest Americans truly concerned about good policy and governance, we are right in criticizing Trump for lots of things, actually most everything…including Musk’s wanton rampage. But we can also acknowledge the elephant in the room–uncontrolled military spending–and recognize that cutting the “defense” budget in half would yield $5 Trillion in cuts over ten years.
Isn’t this an opportune time to cheer Trump on for perhaps his only positive initiative? I bet Democrats could get a lot of support for this one and provide a positive message to balance the negativity.
@John,
LOL! I think it’s quaint that, after all his lies over the decades, you actually believe Trump wants to half the US military budget.
Should he? Sure. Is he serious about this? Absolutely not. Just more clickbait for the rubes.
John:
In what branch of the military did you serve? If anything, most of us know it is serious when we go to war. The president could give a damn about you, us, war, etc. His actions are about himself and a few others who do not wish to pay for anything.
So, do not give me the holier than thou message.
He would like you and the rest of us to believe he knows how to treat other countries and what to expect from them. The Chinese and Russians are laughing at us because of who is representing us in the negotiations.
I would never take Trump seriously about anything. His actions are made up. The actions of a man who has never soiled his hands or done a day’s work.
Joel–What’s wrong with taking Trump at his word and creating the pressure needed to make him keep it?
Given Democrats knee-jerk support for forever wars and ever more defense spending, I expect them to be completely supine…even when a golden opportunity presents itself for responsible budgeting. And why would that be? As Ron Paul explains, most of what is called “defense spending” has a lot to do with enriching the politically well-connected.”
But if you’re not a partisan hack or a politically well-connected influencer funded by Merchants of Death, why not take Trump up on his offer and make him deliver?
John:
Deliver? Make Trump deliver? Trump is a liar right from the beginning to the end. There is no making Trump deliver. Trump’s 40 Biggest Broken Promises
So Trump opens the Overton Window wide on a subject of paramount importance, and you don’t want to do absolutely NOTHING? Wow. The Merchants of Death couldn’t be happier…
John:
Trump does not have a basis for negotiating for us. He does not know. Many people are finding out today what he is going to do which will impact them alone while he rakes in the results.
@John,
LOL! As I said, quaint.
No thinking person believes for a second that (a) Trump can or will deliver and (b) that anyone can make him. This isn’t TV, this is real life.
Joel–you obviously don’t understand the stakes–if “defense” spending doesn’t get cut big time, it dooms Social Security. No time to look a gift horse–Trump’s opening the Overton Window on “defense” spending–in the mouth. Or maybe you don’t care about Social Security?
@John,
You obviously don’t understand reality. Trump won’t cut defense. The GOP Congress won’t cut defense. Trump didn’t open the “Overton Window,” he just tossed out a sound bite for the rubes. That you referred to the title of Glenn Beck book tells me you’re unserious.
We need to defend Social Security, not pretend that Trump cares about Social Security or national defense.
Or maybe you don’t care about Social Security?
Wow! Such negativity…never seize the moment to take advantage of Trump’s own words to promote public discussion of the need to cut “defense” spending. Of course, there are plenty of reasons NOT to do something…particularly if you’re a cold warrior.
“56% of U.S. adults support cutting Pentagon spending, and reinvesting those funds in programs that benefit everyone. That includes pandemic recovery, health care, and jobs. This is compared to just 32% of adults who oppose spending cuts, less than one-third of the U.S. adult population (11% don’t know).”
https://afsc.org/news/most-us-adults-support-pentagon-spending-cuts
It’s time to take advantage of what Trump said to force Congress to support cuts to defense spending and fully fund Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, etc.
It’s guns vs. butter, folks.
@JohnH, Your heart’s in the right place. Whatever the Republicans cut, be it foreign aid or defense, will not be reallocated to the things you mention. It will go to more tax cuts for the wealthy.
@John,
LOL!!
I support cutting Pentagon spending, too. But I don’t believe in fairy tales, and that’s what Trump was talking. The GOP Congress won’t respond to fairy tales. They know Trump was just doing his usual schtick to control the news cycle, and that the rubes would fall for it. I’m not fooled. YMMV.
To cut 50% out of defense the president should present a new National Defense Strategy (NDS). That would say: instead of an order of battle foe 2.5 major theater wars. Let’s resource 1.25 major wars. We all know the 1 major war is over Taiwan, and the .25 is Iran….
From the NDS which is a command in chief role> He then drafts a national defense authorization act (NDAA) to “raise” (constitution “raise” limited to 2 years for army/AF) 1.25 worth of forces, i.e. instead of 11 carrier battlegroups we do 6, etc.
Trump intention will be seen in the next NDS!
The minus one major theater was exposed at Munich ast week.
If you haven’t been paying attention, the extreme right wing, backed by a shadowy group of billionaires, has taken over the Republican party by threatening the primary any candidate who doesn’t toe the line. This has been going on for at least THIRTY years and out in the open. There are no Republicans who haven’t bought in, and Trump has just been their most effective instrument since he can appeal to a lot of Republicans who will still back him even as he sells them down the river.
I agree that the Democrats haven’t been doing all that much, but there is only so much they can do. They can introduce legislation, make speeches and hope that the courts might rein in some of the excesses, but the courts, and especially the Supreme Court, have been packed for a while now.
Personally, I’m expecting a depression. Republicans always tank the economy, but this trifecta seems eager to make prior Republican induced recessions look like boom times. Unfortunately, we’ve seen that plutocrats are more than happy to leave the nation in a depression for decades as it pleases them. I’m old, so I don’t expect to see much of a counterstrike in my lifetime.
Kaleberg:
Yes, the Republicans are meaningless to citizens. They talk a big story about being for the common person; but, the results are not there and will never be there from this batch of Republicans.
You are correct about an economic correction. I suspect another 2008 resulting from the government giving this group. Too much leeway and belief was given then and the same is true of what the politicians are proposing now. We are in trouble.