Feb.13

electoral-vote.com

Dem 47

   

GOP 53

It's Official, Musk is Now the Senior Co-President

Yesterday, we briefly mentioned a new executive order that empowers Elon Musk to de facto run the federal government. It is so important that it deserves a bit more attention.

In a way, it was to be expected. Donald Trump has no interest in actually governing. It is too much work and requires a vast amount of knowledge he doesn't have. By contrast, Musk is a hard worker and is very detail-oriented. He is also power hungry. He is not content to be only the world's richest man, but he also wants to be the world's most powerful man. Whole government agencies live or die at his command. It is not the first time in American history that an unelected man had so much power. King George III did, too. That didn't work out so well, though.

Here are some of the key items in the XO:

• A DOGEy (i.e., political commissar) will be appointed to oversee each agency.
• All agencies shall actively attempt to reduce their numbers of employees.
• A new employee may be hired only if four other employees depart.
• No career vacancies may be filled over the top DOGEy's veto except by order of the agency head.
• The top DOGEYs shall file monthly reports with the DOGE service (i.e., the DOGEy-in-chief).
• New rules appear to forbid the hiring of undocumented immigrants for any federal job, even janitors.
• Within 30 days, all agency heads shall file a report stating which subunits are required by law.
• Within 240 days, the DOGE Service administrator (i.e. Musk) shall give Trump a progress report.

The XO ends with this obscure sentence: "This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person." This appears to state that it does not give any party the right to sue the government over the XO. Of course, it also doesn't take away rights that already exist, either due to statute or previous jurisprudence.

One little fact here that doesn't seem to be getting much attention is that cutting the federal workforce by 25% would cut the budget by about 1%. Most tax money goes to Social Security, Medicare, and the military, all of which are exempt from the cuts. It is not about saving the taxpayers' money. The whole project is about crippling the government so it can't go after tax cheats, companies that violate environmental laws, banks that defraud their customers, and the like. The main goal seems to be making it easier for big companies to escape any consequences for breaking the law because the agencies that are supposed to regulate them have been decimated. As we pointed out Monday, Musk's companies have had run-ins with five cabinet departments and six independent agencies for violating various laws. It has probably occurred to Musk (and Trump) that stripping departments and agencies of their personnel will, as a practical matter, force them to focus only on the most egregious violations, which will result in their dropping investigations not deemed absolute top priority. This is probably a compromise most oligarchs can live with. In theory, what you are doing is illegal, but in practice, nothing happens to you for doing it. (V)