Latest / Elon Musk Podcast / BREAKING: Direct WARNING to Elon Musk, we are not here to play - says politician

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BREAKING: Direct WARNING to Elon Musk, we are not here to play - says politician · 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 that shape SpaceX, Tesla X, The
• 0:11
  Boring Company, and Neurolink. I'm your host, Will Walden.
• 0:16
  All right. Well, good morning, everyone.
• 0:18
  Thank you, Madam Chair, and welcome to the very first
• 0:21
  Subcommittee on Government Efficiency.
• 0:24
  As was said, this committee is tasked under the Oversight
• 0:27
  Committee with ensuring that the government and the vital
• 0:30
  services that it provides, from healthcare to national security,
• 0:35
  actually work for the American people.
• 0:37
  And this is certainly a topic that we have worked on for many,
• 0:41
  many years here in the Oversight Committee, and which I
• 0:44
  personally have worked on as a former servant who worked at the
• 0:47
  Office of Management and Budget. And in fact, for anyone who has
• 0:51
  ever worked on these issues, you know that there is ample ground
• 0:55
  for bipartisan work to make the government work better for the
• 0:58
  American people and to ensure that it operates in a more
• 1:02
  efficient manner. And in fact, all of us here on
• 1:07
  the Democratic side are ready to roll up our sleeves and to get
• 1:10
  to work. And just last week, I had the
• 1:12
  opportunity to sit down with the chairwoman and to discuss these
• 1:17
  very issues and opportunities to work across the aisle.
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  And like the chairwoman, who shared some of her background
• 1:23
  with me, I grew up in a working family.
• 1:26
  I grew up working for small mom and pop family businesses and
• 1:30
  understand the necessity of balancing the books, making sure
• 1:34
  we can deliver, and fiscal responsibility.
• 1:37
  And that's why today's hearing is focused on making sure that
• 1:40
  the federal government is doing what it's supposed to and
• 1:43
  digging into the more than $236 billion in improper payments
• 1:49
  that we see going out the door every single year.
• 1:53
  And we need to get to the bottom of that.
• 1:55
  And we need to make sure that we're putting into place
• 1:57
  rigorous oversight and controls to prevent fraud and abuse and,
• 2:02
  of course, to go after bad actors.
• 2:05
  And that is why myself and the oversight Ranking Member
• 2:08
  Connelly and other Democratic members of the committee sent a
• 2:12
  set of bipartisan ideas that we'd like to work on together
• 2:16
  that would root out waste, fraud and abuse and modernize and
• 2:19
  streamline how our agencies deliver vital programs for the
• 2:22
  American people. These are programs that are
• 2:25
  important for our seniors and our families and healthcare in
• 2:29
  the education system. And we need bipartisan solutions
• 2:33
  to get across the finish line. And, and we've been trying over
• 2:36
  the last several years to get these ideas out of this
• 2:39
  committee, but unfortunately the committee's priorities have been
• 2:42
  elsewhere under the current majority.
• 2:45
  So I hope we can fix that this Congress, but we can't just sit
• 2:50
  here today and pretend like everything is normal and that
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  this is just another hearing on government efficiency.
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  I mean, all you have to do is look across this room and see
• 3:01
  that it is not a normal hearing. Because while we're sitting
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  here, Donald Trump and Elon Musk are recklessly and illegally
• 3:08
  dismantling the federal government, shuttering federal
• 3:11
  agencies, firing federal workers, withholding funds vital
• 3:15
  to the safety and well-being of our communities, and hacking our
• 3:18
  sensitive ETA systems. In fact, while we were here
• 3:23
  discussing government waste on the House floor yesterday, Elon
• 3:26
  Musk was standing behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office
• 3:31
  with the president, and the administration was making
• 3:34
  emergency court appeals to try to unlock his team's access to
• 3:38
  the Treasury payment system, which they claim they are using
• 3:42
  to study improper payments, which is the topic of this
• 3:46
  hearing. But here's the thing.
• 3:49
  The Treasury payment system, which includes Social Security
• 3:52
  information and bank accounts for millions of Americans and
• 3:55
  data that's critical to national security and the operation of
• 3:59
  the US government, and payments that go out the door annually
• 4:03
  equal to almost a fifth of the US economy, is not where the
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  payment decisions are made. Because that happens inside the
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  agencies that are currently being dismantled.
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  And the people who actually investigate waste, fraud and
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  abuse at these agencies are the inspector generals who Donald
• 4:22
  Trump fired his first week in office in a midnight massacre.
• 4:26
  So we have to ask ourselves, what is really going on here?
• 4:31
  Why did Republicans block Elon Musk from appearing before this
• 4:35
  very committee last week? Why is the administration so
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  eager to allow Elon Musk and his hackers to have access to
• 4:43
  proprietary and private information in the Treasury
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  payment systems? Why are colleagues across the
• 4:49
  aisle shielding them as they are clearly breaking the law?
• 4:52
  And why is the vice president trying to rewrite the US
• 4:57
  Constitution by tweet and undermine the judiciary?
• 5:02
  So obviously, we're in the Oversight Committee, and we have
• 5:05
  a lot of questions. And so do the American people,
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  especially while while our colleagues across the aisle are
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  trying to scoop up the savings from the dismantling of these
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  agencies to pay for the largest permanent tax break in American
• 5:20
  history for billionaires and the folks that they're helping on
• 5:25
  their side of the aisle. So let me close by saying this
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  directly to Mr. Elon Musk. We are well aware that you are
• 5:35
  eager to engage with members of Congress on social media, but
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  we're not here to play. If you have serious desire to
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  engage in democracy and transparency, we welcome you to
• 5:49
  the Oversight Committee. Come and testify in front of the
• 5:52
  American people, Underoath, because we want to know what
• 5:56
  you're up to. So if you're interested in
• 5:59
  talking to us, then please join us here in the People's House in
• 6:03
  the House of Representatives. And with that I yield back.
• 6:09
  The gentlelady yields. President Trump signed an
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  executive order on his first day in office called Establishing
• 6:15
  and Implementing the President's Department of Government
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  Efficiency. The EO simply renamed an office
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  in the White House that was actually established by
• 6:25
  President Obama in 2014 called the US Digital Service.
• 6:30
  President Trump can have Elon Musk into his Oval Office
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  anytime he likes. I now recognize the Chairman of
• 6:38
  the Oversight Committee, Chairman James Comer.
• 6:47
  Hey, thank you so much for listening today.
• 6:49
  I really do appreciate your support.
• 6:51
  If you could take a second and hit the subscribe or the follow
• 6:54
  button on whatever podcast platform that you're listening
• 6:56
  on right now, I greatly appreciate it.
• 6:58
  It helps out the show tremendously and you'll never
• 7:01
  miss an episode. And each episode is about 10
• 7:04
  minutes or less to get you caught up quickly.
• 7:07
  And please, if you want to support the show even more, go
• 7:10
  to patreon.com/stagezero and please take care of yourselves
• 7:16
  and each other and I'll see you tomorrow.