I was intending to do something different, maybe illegal immigration or terrorism, but, this is beyond batguano insane, and you almost only need the first paragraph
Explainer – Is Elon Musk’s government efficiency drive legal?
Elon Musk is testing the limits of legal and ethical restrictions on the role of special advisers in U.S. presidential administrations, according to some legal experts and lawmakers who oppose the billionaire’s mission against what he deems wasteful government spending.
Think about that: these legal “experts” and lawmakers (meaning Democrats) are against reigning in government waste, against not using your forcibly taken hard-earned money for idiocy, graft, scams, and their own personal beliefs. They think you are their personal piggy bank, and they can take that money for whatever the hell they want for this and that and the other, all over the US and world. And their pockets. Perhaps Reuters should have asked We The People how we feel about the government doing all the nutty things they do with our money. About wasting it.
The White House says Musk is a special government employee, meaning he does not get paid and is only allowed to work 130 days or fewer in a year. He is subject to some but not all conflict-of-interest and ethics rules for federal employees.
Legal experts disagree over whether Musk’s widening role in government means he needs to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate as a cabinet officer. Generally, officials who report directly to the president and enjoy high levels of autonomy over major decisions need to be Senate-confirmed.
I wish I could find an article I read yesterday, which discussed how no one was questioning John Kerry’s role, at least legally, as he was in the same position as Musk, a special government employee. Which is fully legal. Presidents have the legal ability to do this.
Some lawmakers, legal experts and advocacy groups say Musk has no authority to shut down or interfere with the work of agencies set up and funded by Congress.
Did Kerry have the authority to negotiate climate (scam) agreements? Yes, he actually did, for better or worse. You won’t find one thing in my archive saying what he was doing was not legal.
That order mandated it to modernize federal technology and software “to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity,” but Musk and his aides appear to be doing much more than simply making recommendations.
Musk’s actions have already sparked multiple lawsuits. Public interest groups sued DOGE alleging its structure violated fairness and transparency rules, and government employee unions have sued to block the Treasury Department from disclosing their personal and financial information to DOGE.
Some legal experts and government ethics groups say Musk may be violating at least three privacy laws: the Federal Information Security Management Act, the Privacy Act and section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Service code.
They’re throwing everything at the wall in order to stop DOGE from stopping the government from wasting your money. Have they really considered their position on this? One comment under the article reads
If you are writing an article on this and not the corruption, you may be part of the problem. How/Why do civil servants get wealthy. The salary is a comfortable salary. How are they millionaires?? You can argue what you like, but we have problems in America that need to be solved first. We should be aiding the homeless, aiding the poor, trying fix the education system. Our infrastructure too.
There was a time when people said “you don’t go into government, into being a public servant, or the money, though the benefits are great. You go in because you want to help people.” Nowadays they go in for the money, the even better benefits, and the power. They aren’t trying to help Americans, they’re trying to help themselves and take taxpayer money for their own beliefs and benefits. Not all. Some, maybe most, are good people, at least not doing shady things. Americans have complained about the inefficiency of government for decades and decades. About it wasting money. We got rid of earmarks. And now the money is even worse.
If your kid or spouse were taking money from your wallet and then wasting it, would that be acceptable?
The same Reuters that was being paid by the Biden administration for favorable/Democratic party agenda supporting propaganda? They are just mad that their income was discovered and stopped. THEY were beneficiaries of the corruption so naturally they don’t want it to stop.
I couldn’t believe that Reuters typed this:
‘reigning in’, Reuters?? Really.
When I clicked on Teach’s link, I couldn’t find that in Reuters article!! Where did it come from?? From Teach, maybe?
Anyway, should an unelected, unconfirmed “special” government employee close down government functions he doesn’t like? N.B. – Elon and his companies have at least $15 BILLION in current contracts with the US government.
Does Mr Professor have evidence that Reuters received payments from the Biden admin? And that this funding was found and stopped? Thanks.
Ellie,
The “employee” works directly for the President. Should he do something that the ELECTED employer, aka PRESIDENT, doesn’t like he can be fired immediately and the actions reversed.
As to contracts, if they are illegal please quit whining and advise what should be done.
ELECTIONS HAVE CONSQUENCES
LOL.
Trump needs to immediately fire the supervisors who called the jobs ‘essential’!! We need to shut down all government activities.
I thought that it was really interesting that the team that Musk put together is a handful of young adults who are around 20 years old. They are going in and getting into the guts of the computers and finding all sorts of crime, generally associated with the Dems. And I love seeing the Dems out crying and shouting over finding waste and illegal use of funds.
Both Xi (China) and Putin (Russia) are celebrating the end of USAID!!
Trump’s new CIA was ordered to send a list of new hires (in last 2 years!) to the White House using an insecure line. To their credit Trump’s new CIA ‘masked’ the names by using only first names and first initial of the last name. Clever!! No way the Russians, Chinese and Iranians and AI could figure out who’s who!!
Episode 9 of ‘The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight’.