As DOGE, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy’s “Department of Government Efficiency” gets underway, the two billionaires are looking for federal programs and agencies to cut, as they seek to advance Musk’s espoused goal of trimming $2 trillion from the federal budget. While critics have noted that this goal is—like much of Musk’s rhetoric—hyperbolic to the point of being impossible, that hasn’t stopped the duo from loudly proclaiming a growing list of targets, in an effort to inspire fear and make it look like they’re doing something.
One of their recently espoused targets is California’s long-suffering high-speed rail project. A federally funded effort that Musk has previously taken shots at, the rail project was originally approved by voters during a ballot initiative in 2008. Since then, billions of dollars have been spent and less than a quarter of the proposed rail line has been built. The project is partially funded by federal grants, though Trump—during his first term—temporarily put an end to that. When Biden came into office, he turned the funding spigot back on. Now, presumably, it will be turned off again.
It’s previously been reported that Musk promoted the Hyperloop, a futuristic underground shuttle, in order to cause problems for California’s rail project. Musk talked a lot about the Hyperloop for years but never intended on building it. It was a strategy of diversion that the car magnate reportedly hoped could make “the public and legislators rethink” their investment in the train system. You know, because he’s in the business of selling cars. Last week, Ramaswamy similarly took aim at the project in a post on Musk’s platform, X, calling the rail “a wasteful vanity project” that had wasted “billions in taxpayer cash, with little prospect for completion in the next decade.” He added: “President Trump correctly rescinded ~$1BN in federal funds for this boondoggle in 2019, but Biden reversed that & doubled down. Time to end the waste.”
Ramaswamy’s comments came not long before he and Musk descended on Capitol Hill to meet with lawmakers and discuss their upcoming plans. The two billionaires appeared in D.C. on Thursday for a closed-door session with Republicans, during which they reportedly discussed how DOGE would “revive the principle of limited government.” During that meeting, which involved the new Senate Republican leader John Thune, potential targets for funding cuts were discussed, which apparently included mandatory spending programs like Social Security and Medicare. Indeed, NBC reports that Thune expressed to a journalist that “perhaps mandatory programs are areas that they’re looking to make cuts in, like Social Security, for example.” The news comes after a concerted push by some Republican leaders to demonize those programs.
Another target that Musk discussed was federal subsidies for electric vehicles. In what seems to have been a rather brazen effort to push a policy that would doubtlessly benefit his own EV company Tesla, Musk reportedly told a journalist that he thought the government “should get rid of all credits.” In July, Musk similarly suggested doing away with federal subsidies for EV companies, posting on X: “Take away the subsidies. It will only help Tesla.” He added: “Also, remove subsidies from all industries!”
The whole reason that Musk is in the position that he’s currently in is that he used his immense wealth to help get Trump elected, and new information also came to light Friday on just how much money Musk had spent in that regard. An analysis of recently released Federal Election Commission filings found that the tech magnate had spent over a quarter of a billion dollars—or roughly $277 million—in his effort to get Trump back in the White House. The Washington Post has noted that Musk probably spent more than that, since the “entirety of Musk’s donations this election cycle” may not “be reflected in publicly available documents.”
While much of Musk’s financial contributions went towards America PAC, the political action committee he created, he also donated a large amount to lesser-known groups, including a little-known PAC designed to convince Americans that Trump did not want to take away their abortion rights. That PAC, named “RBG” after Ruth Bader Ginsberg, received as much as $20 million from Musk, the New York Times has reported.
Musk has also made it known that he plans to use much of the infrastructure that was built during the campaign to continue pushing his political agenda in D.C. He has said he wants to keep America PAC active, with plans to use it during, as well as to potentially use it to oust liberal district attorneys across the country. Musk also apparently plans to continue using X (formerly Twitter) to broadcast his and Trump’s agenda to the public.
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