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DOGE Is Making The Country Less Safe · 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
• 0:14
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• 0:16
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• 0:21
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  It takes just a second for you, but it makes a huge difference
• 1:00
  for the show. David, Thank you, Mr. Chair.
• 1:02
  Thank you, Senator Warner. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
• 1:06
  Mr. Fochner, it's good to see you again.
• 1:09
  I got to pick up where my friend the Senator from Minnesota.
• 1:15
  You would agree that IRS has antiquated systems.
• 1:21
  Yes, Sir. Do you agree with independent
• 1:23
  assessments that you not adding a single new tax, but actual
• 1:33
  enforcement of existing laws could generate, you know, over a
• 1:39
  10 year period excess of $500 billion?
• 1:42
  Some people have said a trillion.
• 1:44
  Do you think those independent assessments are accurate?
• 1:48
  I'm skeptical of those numbers that we could, that there's that
• 1:51
  amount that we could actually incrementally collect.
• 1:55
  I think that it, again, as I mentioned to the previous set of
• 1:58
  questions, where I think we can best improve enforcement is by
• 2:02
  having better data so that we have tax enforcement people
• 2:06
  going where the pockets of tax evasion are most likely.
• 2:09
  I agree on the data, but I just, I just, you know, and, and, and,
• 2:12
  and I know you we talked about this in the office, but the just
• 2:14
  the idea, OK, we're going to not deal with taxpayer services, but
• 2:18
  if it appears that it is open season and we're going to cut
• 2:24
  back 50,000 folks even with additional technology or a total
• 2:29
  of 50,000 folks, you know, we talked about this somewhere.
• 2:32
  Yeah, I was a business guy for a long time.
• 2:34
  And I think that would be a stupid business decision.
• 2:39
  Many of us and I, we didn't come to agreement, but many of my
• 2:43
  Republican friends, including the chairman, we talked about
• 2:45
  this at times and recognized that there was, you know,
• 2:49
  additional dollars in the IRS could actually save taxpayer
• 2:53
  money because we would have better enforcement.
• 2:54
  And we, I echo completely, we need the new systems.
• 2:57
  But I just, I am hugely concerned and I'm not going to
• 3:01
  beat you up the way everybody else does.
• 3:03
  I think they've already have on the Doge boys and what they're
• 3:06
  doing in national security. And it is it is beyond it is
• 3:10
  making our country less safe. But I'm just plain dollars and
• 3:13
  cents basis. I, I, I think the notion that
• 3:17
  you can the, the 12,000 people that have been fired, you are
• 3:21
  going to make no difference that that number goes up to 50,000 is
• 3:26
  going to make no difference. Define defies the reality that
• 3:32
  all of us on both sides of the aisle had and we may have agreed
• 3:37
  had different numbers, we agreed about how much new investment,
• 3:39
  but that IRS was woefully under invested in.
• 3:42
  We needed to upgrade our systems.
• 3:44
  We need to bring back modern technology and I am I'm
• 3:48
  extraordinarily afraid that we are going to take a giant step
• 3:51
  back this way. Bringing in a thoughtful
• 3:54
  approach on any of these issues would make sense.
• 3:58
  I don't believe that's taking place.
• 3:59
  But I, I do want to touch on one thing that we I think we agree
• 4:02
  on. And I want to make sure I can
• 4:04
  get the chairman nodding on this since he and I have been
• 4:06
  partners on this. Is this CDF is community
• 4:10
  development financial institutions.
• 4:12
  You know, under the first Trump administration, we made record
• 4:15
  investments, $12 billion, nine billion of which went for tier
• 4:19
  one capital. We've seen that field expand
• 4:25
  nine to 10 fold over the last decade.
• 4:27
  It is a broadly bipartisan issue.
• 4:29
  We have 28 members, 14 Democrats, 14 Republicans on
• 4:32
  this caucus. You know, Senator Crapo and I
• 4:34
  have worked on things like can we get a secondary market
• 4:38
  started in CDFI debt, which could again further expand that
• 4:42
  opportunity. We've worked together as well as
• 4:43
  trying to get on the Economic Opportunity Coalition to try to
• 4:46
  get dollars deposits in. I ask Secretary Beson on this
• 4:51
  question, but would you continue to agree to work with me and us
• 4:58
  on CF IS? And Senator Warner, you do have
• 5:01
  me nodding on this. I want.
• 5:02
  To make sure, I was hoping I was getting you nodding on the IRS
• 5:05
  conversation too, because I can remember some of those
• 5:07
  conversation. But like I said.
• 5:08
  Senator Warner, I, I'm happy to hear reiterate what you and I
• 5:12
  discussed in your office, which is that for the last six months
• 5:16
  of the first Trump administration, CDF is reported
• 5:19
  into me. They are that they are, they
• 5:22
  exist because there are geographies in our in our
• 5:25
  country where there are unbanked and underbanked people, largely
• 5:29
  rural areas where the infrastructure costs do not
• 5:33
  merit the creation of standalone branches.
• 5:34
  And so I commit to you that we will continue to I.
• 5:37
  Would argue that it is not simply rural but I but.
• 5:40
  Predominantly rural. We we can litigate that another
• 5:43
  time. I just have to tell you, and
• 5:44
  this is, you know, some who are talking about, you know, on the
• 5:48
  tax debate, current law versus current policy.
• 5:53
  I, I believe if any business entities said, well, we're going
• 5:59
  to presume that we didn't have to pay for the cost of
• 6:06
  production increases because that's our current policy.
• 6:09
  Even though those policies were supposed to end at a certain
• 6:12
  point and you operated on those financial premises rather than
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  the current law. I think you get, I think the
• 6:23
  Donald Trump, the TV host would say you're fired because the
• 6:28
  idea that you're going to somehow cover up four plus
• 6:31
  trillion dollars of tax cuts and not count it is the kind of
• 6:35
  accounting that I hope we were going to get away from at a debt
• 6:41
  that's now at 36 trillion. I think it is grossly fiscally
• 6:44
  irresponsible. And I hope and pray that you and
• 6:47
  my colleagues on the other side that we can have a robust
• 6:50
  discussion on that. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
• 6:52
  Thank you, sister Senator Warner and I will just say there's a
• 6:54
  big difference between saying you won't pay for something and
• 6:57
  saying you won't raise $4 trillion of taxes on people.
• 7:00
  Mr. Mr. Chairman, as we all know, we went, we spent a lot of
• 7:03
  time on these subjects, and this is the kind of a Congressional,
• 7:08
  don't look here while we take your money there and just
• 7:11
  because a tax cut is put in place or spending program is put
• 7:14
  in place. Hey, thank you so much for
• 7:21
  listening today. I really do appreciate your
• 7:23
  support. If you could take a second and
• 7:24
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• 7:27
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• 7:30
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• 7:35
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• 7:41
  support the show even more, go to patreon.com/stagezero and
• 7:47
  please take care of yourselves and each other and I'll see you
• 7:49
  tomorrow.