Latest / Elon Musk Podcast / Jack Reed Details Incredible Incompetence Of Elon Musk And His DOGE Minions

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Jack Reed Details Incredible Incompetence Of Elon Musk And His DOGE Minions · Elon Musk Podcast

• 0:05
  Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Elon Musk Podcast.
• 0:08
  I'm your host, Will Walden, and if you're new here, this is a
• 0:11
  show all about Elon Musk and his groundbreaking work that he's
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  doing with his various companies, including Tesla,
• 0:16
  SpaceX, The Boring Company, Neurolink, and of course, X.
• 0:21
  And before we dive into today's episode, I wanted to share a
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  quick insight from our shows analytics.
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  It turns out the 45% of you listening right now are
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  subscribed to the show and thank you for that.
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  But that means that 55% of you are not.
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  power to keep bringing you the latest and most interesting news
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  button on your podcast platform right now, that's it.
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  Pretty simple and straightforward.
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  It takes just a second for you, but it makes a huge difference
• 1:00
  for the show. Senator.
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  From Rhode Island. Thank you, Mr. President.
• 1:05
  On day one, President Trump lit the fuse on Elon Musk's plan to
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  hollow out the federal government by changing the name
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  of an obscure technical office within the White House, the US
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  Digital Services USDS, and called it DOGE without
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  congressional authorization and giving it extraordinary reach
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  into the operations of the federal agencies.
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  Since then, we have heard report after report about how Mr. Musk
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  and DOGE have rammed their way into agencies not to make smart
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  decisions, not to improve efficiency, not to eliminate
• 1:52
  waste, fraud and abuse, but to disrupt, denigrate and
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  demoralize. And along the way, DOGE has made
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  incredible blunders, such as firing and then scrambling to
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  rehire employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration.
• 2:12
  Let me repeat that. Mister Musk and his minions
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  fired the people who keep nuclear weapons safe.
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  And then someone realized. Fortunately, when the few days
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  they had to come back. And here's another example.
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  Musk and his hackers made CIA send an unclassified e-mail with
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  the names of its recent hires. Boy, if I was in the Russian
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  Security Service, I'd love to get a list, which they did, of
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  everyone who's going into the CIA.
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  They also cut staff from the Federal Aviation Administration,
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  the National Weather Service, who prevent and warn every
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  American of travel and weather dangers.
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  And it goes beyond that agricultural interest to listen
• 3:04
  daily to the reports, the accurate reports of the Weather
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  Service so they can plan their crops, they can plan everything.
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  And that's being withered away. And I think the ultimate goal is
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  to privatize it, which is not the rest way to go.
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  These actions don't just reflect incredible incompetence.
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  They are dangerous. They undermine national security
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  and increase risk for American citizens.
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  In any other setting, blunders like these would be grounds for
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  firing. But Myth Musk, Indulge operate
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  with arrogance, impunity and 0 transparency.
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  Millions of Americans are asking, who are these people?
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  As the ranking member of the Financial Services and General
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  Government Appropriations Subcommittee, the subcommittee
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  that ostensibly overseas the budget for the White House, USDS
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  and DOGE, I'm asking the same question because Congress, like
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  the American people, is being kept in the dark.
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  As appropriators, we typically work together on a bipartisan
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  basis, no matter which party is in the White House, to get
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  information, to conduct oversight, to ensure that
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  federal dollars are spent in accordance with the laws passed
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  by Congress. But now, with our authorization
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  from Congress, DOGE is recklessly slashing its way
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  through virtually every federal agency in the Office of
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  Personnel Management, to Treasury, to HUD, to State, to
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  USAID, and to the Department of Defense, and more.
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  It's vital that we understand what DOGE is and isn't.
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  While Elon Musk tells us and the American people that DOGE is
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  maximally transparent, it is not.
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  We build them out, have answers to fundamental questions like
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  what is the scope of Dozier's work?
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  How many people work at DOGE and who are they?
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  Do they also hold jobs outside the federal government?
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  What are their financial holdings and potential conflicts
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  of interest? Do they have allegiances to
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  foreign governments? Will those respond to requests
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  under the Freedom of Information Act?
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  What are its plans to reform agencies?
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  Who is DOGE firing and why? And many, many other questions.
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  And unfortunately, when DOGE shares information, it is
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  frequently wrong. As the New York Times reported,
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  5 of Doge's biggest claims savings were deleted from its
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  website because they were inaccurate.
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  This includes a cancelled USAID contract for $650 million which
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  was counted by DOGE 3 * a cancelled Social Security
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  contract was erroneously listed as being worth $232 million
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  instead of the actual $560,000, and a cancelled ICE contract was
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  listed as saving $8 billion instead of $8 million.
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  If you're going to name something the Department of
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  Government Efficiency, don't you owe it to the taxpayers to
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  actually do a good job on top of having 0 accountability, DOGE
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  legal authority operate is dubious.
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  DOGE has essentially taking over the USDS, which was originally
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  established to help federal agencies more adeptly utilize
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  technologies serve the American people.
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  Over the years, USDS helped establish everything from Direct
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  File, which helps taxpayers file their taxes for free, to direct
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  mail COVID test to a successful online passport renewal
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  protocol. DOGE is now using the howled
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  shell of USDS to illegally undo the American federal government,
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  moving from agency to agency, cutting congressionally
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  appropriated funds, spend priorities, and even dismantling
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  entire agencies. The bottom line is that DOGE is
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  without congressional authorization and without direct
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  funding from Congress, is acting to undermine the federal
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  government and frankly contempt the United States Congress as a
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  constitutional body who creates the laws.
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  The President's challenge in the Constitution is to enforce those
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  laws, not to circumvent the Congress of the United States.
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  Based on press report, it appears to be those are
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  populated by a mixture of unelected billionaires, tech
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  executives, and unvetted inexperienced people, including
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  an individual who is found to have posted racist tweets.
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  This gang is being granted access to America's most
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  sensitive data, like your bank accounts, your Social Security
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  accounts, and it would seem, a host of classified intelligence.
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  And how are they using this information?
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  How are they protecting this information from our enemies?
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  Is it being shared with outside entities?
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  Is dope simply being used to give Mr. Musk, his company's and
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  his billionaire friends an advantage when competing for
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  government contracts? We simply don't know what this
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  gang is doing with inside the government.
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  Every single day that passes without transparency and
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  congressional access to information about Doziers
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  funding, staffing and scope of work is a moment too long.
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  But the current continuing resolution due to expire on
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  March 14th. We have big decisions to make.
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  My hope is that these decisions can be made on a bipartisan
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  basis, informed by the facts. But we cannot responsibly fund
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  the government if we do not understand how DOGE has
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  infiltrated it, made it less efficient and less responsive to
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  taxpayers, and essentially has circumvented the constitutional
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  responsibilities of the United States Congress.
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  With that, Mr. President, I yield the floor.
• 10:44
  Hey, thank you so much for listening today.
• 10:46
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• 10:48
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• 11:12
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