Latest / Elon Musk Podcast / BREAKIING NEWS - Top Senate Democrats Take aim at Elon Musk and DOGE - Accuse of running shadow government under trump

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BREAKIING NEWS - Top Senate Democrats Take aim at Elon Musk and DOGE - Accuse of running shadow government under trump · Elon Musk Podcast

0:01
Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Elon Musk
0:04
Podcast. This is a show where we discuss
0:07
the critical crossroads, the Shape, SpaceX, Tesla X, The
0:11
Boring Company, and Neurolink. I'm your host, Will Walden.
0:29
Good afternoon, everybody. I'm proud to be joined by
0:33
Senators Murray, Warren, Schatz, and Wyden.
0:37
Now, before our very eyes, an elect on sorry, Before our very
0:43
eyes, an unelected shadow government is conducting a
0:47
hostile takeover of the federal government.
0:50
Last Friday, DOGE forcefully gained access to the Treasury
0:54
Department's payment systems and to the most sensitive
0:58
information of virtually every U.S. citizen.
1:02
Donald Trump basically handed Doge the Social Security data of
1:07
virtually every American citizen.
1:11
Donald Trump. He gave Donald Trump gave Doge
1:14
access to America's personal tax refund data.
1:20
He gave DOGE access to people's Medicare and Medicaid benefits,
1:24
disability payment data. Veteran debt benefit data.
1:28
Worst of all, we don't know what DOGE intends to do with this
1:33
information. If you want to know how an
1:36
unelected shadow government operates, look no further than
1:42
DOGE. Those staffers, whomever they
1:46
are, now have unprecedented access to the most sensitive
1:50
payment data in the entire federal government, with no
1:54
transparency, with no guardrails.
1:58
And guess what? The one independent watchdog who
2:02
could have provided oversight was fired by Donald Trump over a
2:06
week ago. The Treasury Secretary must
2:10
revoke Dosa's access to the Treasury payment system at once.
2:15
If not, Congress must act immediately.
2:20
That is why Leader Jeffries and I are working together on
2:23
legislation which we will introduce to stop unlawful
2:28
meddling in the Treasury Department's payment systems.
2:31
We must protect people's Social Security payments, their
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Medicare payments, tax refunds from any possible tampering by
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DOGE or any other unauthorized entities.
2:45
Let's be very clear. DOGE is not a real government
2:49
agency. It has no authority to make
2:53
spending decisions. It has no authority to shut
2:56
programs down or ignore federal law.
3:00
To give DOGE a chokehold on Treasury payments is
3:04
outlandishly dangerous. It's like putting a tiger into a
3:07
petting zoo and then hoping for the best.
3:12
It's impossible to overstate that this is playing with fire.
3:16
The Bureau of the Fiscal Service, which overseas these
3:21
Treasury Department payments, executes over 1 billion billion
3:26
transactions a year, worth $6 trillion.
3:30
If these payments were ever intentionally or even
3:32
accidentally halted or manipulated, it could paralyze
3:36
our economy. If we're not careful, one
3:40
mistake and people's Social Security benefits could freeze.
3:47
Disability payments, aid to veterans, loans to small
3:50
businesses, they could all be endangered.
3:53
The Treasury Department is already using extraordinary
3:56
measures to ensure we do not default on the debt.
3:59
If Doge's careless meddling caused us to default, it could
4:04
trigger a worldwide financial crisis.
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This all begs an obvious question.
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What is DOGE really want with this data?
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What possible reason is there to give right wing extremists
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people Social Security payments, Medicare payments, and personal
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information? Will Doge try to halt Social
4:25
Security or Medicare or Medicaid payments?
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God forbid. God forbid.
4:30
Will Doge cut funding to programs approved by Congress
4:33
that Donald Trump decides he doesn't like?
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What about Cancer Research, Food banks, school lunches, Veteran's
4:40
aid, literacy program? Small business loans.
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How do we know DOGE won't use its access to the Treasury to
4:48
enrich Donald Trump's billionaire friends?
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What if they go after business competition of Doge's
4:54
leadership? It is laughably naive to look at
4:58
the wealthy billionaires who run DOGE and take them at their word
5:01
that all they care about is efficiency.
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Give me a break. The Treasury Department must
5:07
revoke Doge's access to the Treasury payment system at once.
5:12
We must halt this unlawful and dangerous power grab.
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DOGE has no business anywhere, anywhere near the federal
5:21
government's payment systems nor America's private data.
5:25
Senator Murray. Well, we're two weeks in and it
5:31
is already painfully clear. This is the most corrupt
5:35
administration in our history, and it's putting our economy,
5:40
our government, and our most at risk communities in serious
5:44
jeopardy. In particular, we learned that
5:46
Elon Musk now has access to the Treasury Department's most
5:51
sensitive payment system, hand handling $6 trillion every year
5:57
and managing nearly all federal disbursements.
6:01
It's a system that contains extremely sensitive personal and
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commercial information, and I've been hearing from people across
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my state who are truly alarmed about what Musk and his
6:14
associates having access to this system could mean for their data
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and for funding that they count on.
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Let's not mince words here. And unelected, unaccountable
6:27
billionaire with expansive conflicts of interest, deep ties
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to China, and an indiscreet axe to grind against perceived
6:36
enemies is hijacking our nation's most sensitive
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financial data systems and its checkbook so that he can
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illegally block funds to our constituents based on the
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slightest whim or wildest conspiracy.
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Funds, mind you, that Congress passed on a bipartisan basis.
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Some Republicans are trying to suggest that Musk only has
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viewing access to Treasury's highly sensitive payment system,
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as if that's acceptable either. But why on earth should we
7:11
believe that, particularly when he is saying the exact opposite
7:16
loudly and repeatedly for everyone to see?
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What funds will Elon target next?
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Life saving, medical research? Housing assistance?
7:28
Food banks? We already know he is falsely
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attacking faith-based organizations that help people
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and promising to cut off funds based off conspiracy theories.
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The world's richest man has vowed to cut off funding that
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helps the least among us. Think about that, and next think
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about how many dollars he himself makes from government
7:55
contracts and the Trump administration is handing the
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keys of the Treasury to him. It does not get more blatantly
8:03
corrupt than that. And let me under score just how
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dangerous this is. Because now that Trump has
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handed over Treasury's checkbook, what if Elon decides
8:13
he doesn't like how Ford is getting federal funds to build
8:16
an EV battery plant? What's next?
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All Elon has to do is say, oh, they're woke and he can convince
8:23
Trump to illegally cut off those funds.
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Maybe Elon will decide he doesn't like that Blue Origin
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and not SpaceX gets a contract so he wants to gum up the works
8:34
on their payments. Private corporations and
8:38
competitors take note, and anyone who thinks that surely
8:42
won't happen has not been paying attention.
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Now, make no mistake, Trump and Musk have absolutely 00 legal
8:52
authority to hold up any federal payments that are law, but that
8:56
has not stopped them so far. This country is still reeling
9:01
from the chaos of last week's blanket spending freeze, and
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Trump's illegal EOS to withhold funds are still not yet revoked.
9:11
Trump and Musk have yet to find a law they think applies to
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them. That is not how things work in
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this country. We have a democracy, we have
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checks and we have balances where the president is
9:25
accountable to Congress, where we pass the laws and he
9:29
implements them. But some of my colleagues across
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the aisle seem to be forgetting that our democracy doesn't work
9:36
by magic. We have to hold our do our part
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to hold the president accountable.
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Our job is not to say yes to everything any president does,
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no matter how lawless or harmful.
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Democrats are pushing back with the tools that we have.
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We'll speak out. We will press this
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administration, we will open investigations, and we will
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demand accountability. The one tool we do not have is
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the majority in this Congress. So that means our Republican
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colleagues have to say enough. We need them to join us.
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We need them to stand up to the corruption and lawlessness and
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stand up for the people they represent.
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Ron. Thank you, Senator Murray.
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And I got horse flying all night, so no filibusters from
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me. Our finance investigators got
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confirmation from whistleblowers late Friday that the Treasury
10:35
Secretary had turned the keys over to the Musk Hatchet Squad.
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And here's where we are now. It is clear that unqualified and
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unaccountable people have seized control of the flow of taxpayer
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funds and a trove of extremely sensitive data.
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They are seizing the tools you need for a coup.
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Their first target, I'll be Gate, wasn't anything to do with
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fraud or waste. It was a religious charity for
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poor people. If Donald Trump cared about
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improper payments, he wouldn't have fired the inspectors
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general. Nobody should fall for that bit
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of misdirection now. A few hours ago, Trump claimed
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that Musk only looks at payments and doesn't have the authority
11:27
to shut any down. That's Donald Trump.
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It's pretty clear, folks, that Musk sees it differently.
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As Trump and Musk continue targeting Americans they don't
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like, there's nothing to stop them from cutting off Social
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Security, Medicare, or Medicaid, penalizing cities and states
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that defy Trump's illegal orders.
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And a lot of us care deeply, as our constituents do, about
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privacy. Musk has access to the personal
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information of hundreds of millions of Americans, bank
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accounts, tax data, Social Security numbers, home
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addresses, if people are creeped out.
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And you heard from Senator Murray how folks in the
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Northwest feel about this Elon Musk and his hatchet squad.
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Having your bank accounts, your home address, Social Security
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number. Trust me, folks in the Pacific
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Northwest think that this is way out of bounds for government.
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The Musk hatchet brigade has infiltrated a goldmine of data
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that every foreign spy and every corrupt actor would love to see.
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It is a prescription for nightmares.
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Let's remember that Musk reportedly couldn't get a
12:47
security clearance because of his financial ties to the
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Chinese government and his other foreign connections.
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That's the guy, folks who's now got his hands on the personal
12:58
data of hundreds of millions of Americans and some unknown
13:01
number of businesses and groups. Last point, the Trump
13:06
administration caused chaos in Medicaid and other services that
13:11
are important to Americans last week when they shut down the
13:14
primary payment portals to States and social service
13:17
agencies. These are incompetent people.
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They don't care about the damage they're doing.
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And now they may be in charge of the tightrope walk the Treasury
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has to do to avoid defaulting on out of debt.
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We're one mistake away from economic catastrophe.
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Senator Murray, who we going to next?
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Senator Warren. Thank you.
13:44
Thank you. So I just want to be clear about
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what's going on here. The system to make sure that
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your granddad gets his Social Security check, the system that
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makes sure that your mom's doctor gets Medicare payment to
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cover her medical appointment, and the system that makes sure
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that you get the tax refund that you're owed has been taken over
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by Elon Musk. And every organization, from
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your state government that uses federal money on that bridge
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project to the local Head Start that takes care of little kids
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while their mommies and daddies go to work is now at the mercy
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of Elon Musk. Maybe you get paid, or maybe you
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don't. Because now it appears that all
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of us work for Elon Musk. Elon just grabbed the controls
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of our whole payment system, demanding the power to turn it
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on for his friends or turn it off for anyone he doesn't like.
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One guy deciding who gets paid and who doesn't.
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It is not the law, but it is the reality.
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Now, there's a second problem here.
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It's not just payments from the federal government that are now
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in Elon's control. Elon and his handful of friends
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now have full access to your personal and financial
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information that's in the system.
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Your payment history, your Social Security number, your
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bank account numbers. Elon now has the power to suck
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out all of that information for his own use.
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Now, whether it's to boost his finances or expand his political
15:27
power, it is all up to Elon. And there is a third problem.
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In order for this handful of programmers to gain access to
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our $6 trillion payment system, we don't know what safeguards
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were pulled down. Are the gates wide open now for
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hackers from China, from North Korea, from Iran, from Russia?
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Heck, who knows what Black Hat hackers all around the world are
15:57
finding out about each one of us and copying that information for
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their own criminal uses? Donald Trump and his billionaire
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buddies are determined to take over this government, to make it
16:12
work better for themselves and worse for everyone else.
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And this is just the start. As we gear up for the tax fight,
16:21
it will become even clearer that Trump will open the doors for
16:26
his billionaires and giant corporations to find more ways
16:31
to loot the government at your expense.
16:34
Meanwhile, everyone else pays more for groceries, more for
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housing, more for prescription drugs, and more for healthcare
16:44
When unelected billionaires start ransacking our government
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offices. This is not business as usual.
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Nope, nothing is normal. We are living a nightmare
16:58
created by Donald Trump and Elon Musk, and we need to wake up.
17:04
We need to use every tool we have to fight back.
17:08
And in the Senate, we can start by saying no to dangerous Trump
17:13
nominees like Tulsi Gabbard and Russ Vote.
17:17
That's it for me. Go ahead.
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I just want all of you to imagine yourself a foreign
17:27
correspondent. How would you cover this?
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If this were in South America or Central America or sub-Saharan
17:36
Africa, how would the coverage change?
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If you don't like an agency, if you don't like a spending
17:47
provision, propose a bill. Pass a law that is so
17:54
foundational to the American system of government that I
17:58
don't want to race past this idea that you can wave away a
18:03
federal law because you don't like it.
18:07
And so it is both an outrage and an illegal act.
18:11
But it also gives us some confidence, and the public
18:14
should have some confidence. The law here is absolutely on
18:18
the side of the American people being in control of taxpayer
18:23
funds through the Congress, through the Congress.
18:27
And so they are depending on some sort of sense of swagger
18:32
and inevitability to storm into buildings and take over the
18:37
servers and to run the databases and to relieve people of their
18:43
duties. Like this is some hostile
18:46
takeover of a tech company. This is your government, and you
18:53
can hate parts of it and love parts of it and be neutral about
18:56
other parts of it, but it's still your government.
19:01
And the way a person expresses their views about spending is by
19:06
electing a member of Congress who believes what they believe.
19:11
And so if anyone in the Trump administration wants to modify
19:15
the spending law that was enacted, you got to come back to
19:20
Congress and modify the law that was enacted.
19:26
This is not some minor transgression.
19:28
This is an illegal act. They stormed in the buildings.
19:33
They shut down agencies illegally.
19:35
And sure, first it was USA, but they are now systematically
19:39
going into the Small Business Administration, the Department
19:42
of the Treasury, and they will not stop until they believe they
19:46
have total control over spending.
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And that's not the way the American system of government is
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supposed to work. Thank you.
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I have questions. I know, Senator Schultz, you had
19:57
put a hold on all State Department nominees, but this is
20:01
for all of you. Why not go to the mat?
20:03
You've all these nominees on the floor.
20:05
I know they're coming in and out of executive session on the bus
20:07
to vote. Why not?
20:08
If you're so upset about this, then this is such a damning
20:11
action down there. Make them go through every
20:13
single parliamentary hurdle, go in and out of executive
20:16
sessions, put holds on every single nominee and make this as
20:20
difficult as possible. We are pursuing every action
20:23
that we think we can do. But I will tell you this, we are
20:27
here to pull the fire alarm. We are pulling the fire alarm.
20:32
It is up to Republicans who are the majority in Congress, who
20:36
are passing these nominations, who are sitting silently by
20:40
while Elon Musk goes into departments, into agencies and
20:44
takes your information. It is up to them to decide
20:48
whether they want to get out the fire hoses or sit in the fire.
20:52
And I think we know what they need to do, and we're calling on
20:55
them to do that. Chad, one fact I know because
20:58
you follow the Finance Committee, the filing season has
21:01
just started and we got word that Musk apparently doesn't
21:07
agree with the Treasury Secretary.
21:09
The Treasury Secretary said that he was going to allow direct
21:13
file this new approach that Senator Warren and a whole group
21:17
of us have been after for years because we're the only Western
21:21
industrialized nation that doesn't use this approach.
21:24
And we've got to run this to ground.
21:26
But it's our understanding that Musk is going after that.
21:29
And if that's the case, that will be an immense burden on
21:33
people who've already started to file their taxes.
21:36
This is out of control and simply cries out for some
21:41
accountability. And that's what we're focused
21:44
on. And a bunch of us that are on
21:45
the tax committee and are already working on it.
21:49
Yes. Can you just expand?
21:50
On that a little bit, you are in the minority right now.
21:52
You are finding this. Through.
21:55
Your communication, but what other steps?
21:58
Can you get right now to? Like you say.
22:02
Well, first of all, remember last.
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Oh, here we are a week later. A week ago, the Trump
22:07
administration illegally started impounding money that Congress,
22:12
in a bipartisan fashion, had agreed to put into law.
22:18
Within a few days, we had legal challenges to that in the courts
22:22
and every judge that has seen this to my knowledge, has told
22:27
them that this is illegal and that they need to start the
22:29
payments again. I will ask them aside, tell you
22:32
I spent the day on the phone with a number of my constituents
22:35
who were calling who still don't have access to their funds.
22:38
So we have an administration right now who doesn't believe
22:41
the law applies to them. We will pursue this in the
22:44
courts. We will demand that our
22:46
counterparts in the Republican caucus also call on the
22:50
president to follow the law. And we will again, ask everyone
22:55
out there to let your legislator know, use your voice to let your
23:00
members of Congress know you will not stand for this.
23:03
So that's what changed last week.
23:05
And that's one final thing on the procedural stuff.
23:07
We're just not going to preview. We're we're just not going to
23:10
preview all of our parliamentary moves.
23:13
We have leverage. We don't have extensive
23:15
leverage, but we we're not without tools and we will be
23:18
using them, but we're not going to announce all of what we're up
23:21
to today. March 14th government funding
23:27
deadline is home leverage and if so, how do you?
23:30
Well, I don't, I don't know that it's a point of leverage.
23:32
It's a fact. On March 14th, the government
23:34
shuts down. Between now and then, we have to
23:38
have an agreement, bipartisan that goes through Congress, that
23:42
is passed by the House and by the Senate.
23:45
And what is giving me great pause right right now is what if
23:49
we do all that and come to an agreement?
23:51
And, you know, we like some, we don't like some, but we voted in
23:55
and this administration says that's bunk.
23:57
We don't have to go by that. So the level of trust is at the
24:01
lowest I have ever seen it here in Congress in our ability to
24:05
work together, find a compromise and get it passed.
24:08
It is up to our Republican colleagues to stand up to this
24:11
and assure us that an agreement and a law is real and that they
24:16
will follow up with us. So yes, we're, we're all worried
24:18
about the government shutdown deadline of March 14th.
24:22
No Democrat wants the government to shut down.
24:24
We have all worked extremely hard to come to an agreement.
24:27
We expect our Republican colleagues to stand up and work
24:31
with us to get it done in a system of trust that this
24:34
democracy is founded on. Senator, why didn't you?
24:37
Follow you expand on. How do you know most?
24:41
Well, we've heard it several places.
24:43
Mr. Kerry can get you some of the details, but yeah, and the
24:48
point really is it's almost government by whim.
24:53
You know, we're used to rules and the opportunity for all
24:57
sides to be heard on the Finance Committee.
25:00
We have worked on this for years and years.
25:03
And we said we want to save five, 600 bucks for the working
25:07
guy. It is now the filing season and
25:10
based on what we've heard, essentially Musk, I guess says
25:14
he's now going to be secretary of Treasury as well as
25:16
everything else because he's telling Besson, you know, he's
25:19
going to go in there. And, and Besson told us in the
25:23
Finance Committee when I asked the question, he said it is on
25:27
for this year and people have started filing.
25:30
Have you tried getting a hold of the Treasury Secretary in these
25:32
last few days and has he responded?
25:35
He certainly didn't consult with us.
25:37
Under normal circumstances, the Treasury Secretary consults with
25:41
the committee and we've heard nothing from him on this can.
25:45
I ask a question. About USA, last question and
25:48
we'll let her and take you to say.
25:49
Now your former colleague, Senator, now secretary of Rubio,
25:53
said today of USAI. We said our frustrations with
25:55
USAID, you go back to my time in Congress.
25:58
It's a completely unresponsive agency and it's supposed to be.
26:01
It's supposed to respond to a policy directive to the State
26:03
Department and IT. Refuses to do.
26:05
So I know that some of you all have the relationships with him.
26:09
Have you tried to reach out to him today about USAID?
26:11
Do you remember him talking about this when he was a member?
26:14
Have. You worked as.
26:15
Some. Other Republicans, we've been in
26:19
constant, my office and, and, and a number of us in the Senate
26:22
have been in constant contact with Secretary Rubio about this.
26:25
He's been obviously overseas, so a little harder to catch.
26:30
Here's what I would say about that.
26:32
If there is an opportunity to look at reform, I am all ears.
26:36
I'm now the ranking member of the S Fobs subcommittee.
26:39
Lindsey Graham and I had a conversation about the kinds of
26:42
reforms that were being contemplated by the secretary.
26:46
But we cannot have a negotiation when the whole agency is
26:50
illegally shut down. If the agency is reopened, then
26:54
we can start acting like adults again and have a negotiation.
26:58
But right now, they've illegally shut down all foreign aid.
27:02
One other point of fact for you is we passed the foreign
27:07
assistance appropriations bill in Congress last year was
27:12
completely everyone voted for it on a bipartisan basis across the
27:16
board, every single member, no one raised any issues that you
27:21
just stated. No one.
27:22
And we had a full committee hearing and markup and none of
27:25
that was raised. I just.
27:26
Have one follow up I have. Heard from someone in the USA
27:30
station abroad who has not been locked out of their system.
27:33
You're saying everything is shut down?
27:36
Is that the case? I I can't speak to individual
27:39
employees. What I can tell you is that
27:41
money is not flowing. I can tell you that medicine is
27:44
not being delivered. I can tell you that there is
27:46
medicine on the dock that was abandoned and spoiled.
27:51
I can tell you that people are evacuating countries.
27:54
I can tell you that there is an outbreak of Ebola in Uganda and
27:59
Marburg virus in East Africa. And all of those programs are
28:06
either completely shut down or hobbled to the point where
28:08
people can't deliver aid. And, and, and it's not just
28:11
about providing life saving care, it's about maintaining
28:14
stability overseas so that that instability doesn't visit us in
28:19
the United States. Thank you all very much.
28:38
Hey, thank you so much for listening today.
28:39
I really do appreciate your support.
28:42
If you could take a second and hit the subscribe or the follow
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button on whatever podcast platform that you're listening
28:47
on right now, I greatly appreciate it.
28:49
It helps out the show tremendously and you'll never
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miss an episode. And each episode is about 10
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minutes or less to get you caught up quickly.
28:58
And please, if you want to support the show even more, go
29:01
to patreon.com/stagezero and please take care of yourselves
29:06
and each other and I'll see you tomorrow.