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Musk Now Controls the US Checkbook

Musk Now Controls the US Checkbook

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Clock

I wonder if he will just keep writing checks? Or will he stop? 😆

"Officials affiliated with Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” have been asking since after the election for access to the system, the people said — requests that were reiterated more recently, including after Trump’s inauguration.

A spokeswoman for DOGE declined to comment. Lebryk could not be reached for comment late Thursday.

When Scott Bessent was confirmed as treasury secretary on Monday, Lebryk ceased to be the acting agency head.

Typically only a small number of career officials control Treasury’s payment systems. Run by the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, the sensitive systems control the flow of more than $6 trillion annually to households, businesses and more nationwide. Tens, if not hundreds, of millions of people across the country rely on the systems, which are responsible for distributing Social Security and Medicare benefits, salaries for federal personnel, payments to government contractors and grant recipients and tax refunds, among tens of thousands of other functions."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/01/31/elon-musk-treasury-department-payment-systems

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@spruce112358 said
I wonder if he will just keep writing checks? Or will he stop? 😆

"Officials affiliated with Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” have been asking since after the election for access to the system, the people said — requests that were reiterated more recently, including after Trump’s inauguration.

A spokeswoman for DOGE declined to comment. Lebryk could not ...[text shortened]...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/01/31/elon-musk-treasury-department-payment-systems
Who better to be the person holding the nation’s purse strings? Look what he has done for Twitter…I mean X.

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@spruce112358 said
I wonder if he will just keep writing checks? Or will he stop? 😆

"Officials affiliated with Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” have been asking since after the election for access to the system, the people said — requests that were reiterated more recently, including after Trump’s inauguration.

A spokeswoman for DOGE declined to comment. Lebryk could not ...[text shortened]...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/01/31/elon-musk-treasury-department-payment-systems
This is equivalent to asking the fox to watch the henhouse because he’s had a lot of experience doing it.

Clock

@spruce112358
From your link:

"The executive order Trump signed creating DOGE also instructed all agencies to ensure it has “full and prompt access to all unclassified agency records, software systems, and IT systems,” which would appear to include the Treasury payment systems."

"Access" isn't control. Musk is after the data so it can be analyzed. Works for me.

Clock

@Sleepyguy said
@spruce112358
From your link:

"The executive order Trump signed creating DOGE also instructed all agencies to ensure it has “full and prompt access to all unclassified agency records, software systems, and IT systems,” which would appear to include the Treasury payment systems."

"Access" isn't control. Musk is after the data so it can be analyzed. Works for me.
Wouldn’t you be just a little suspicious if somebody gave some third-party you didn’t vote for “access” to your bank account?

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@moonbus said
Wouldn’t you be just a little suspicious if somebody gave some third-party you didn’t vote for “access” to your bank account?
In a sense it is all American's bank account, and I welcome a little scrutiny on how the money is being spent. Why don't you? It may provide insight on waste and fraud.

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@moonbus said
Wouldn’t you be just a little suspicious if somebody gave some third-party you didn’t vote for “access” to your bank account?
Presidents appoint unelected people to government positions all the time. That’s what the right calls “the swamp” or the “deep state”.

Somehow I’m not surprised Trump is contributing to the very phenomenon his voters hate with a passion.

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@AThousandYoung said
Presidents appoint unelected people to government positions all the time. That’s what the right calls “the swamp” or the “deep state”.

Somehow I’m not surprised Trump is contributing to the very phenomenon his voters hate with a passion.
It takes a special kind of stupid to elected a billionaire to appoint more billionaires to 'fix' the system which made them billionaires.

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@spruce112358 said
I wonder if he will just keep writing checks? Or will he stop? 😆

"Officials affiliated with Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” have been asking since after the election for access to the system, the people said — requests that were reiterated more recently, including after Trump’s inauguration.

A spokeswoman for DOGE declined to comment. Lebryk could not ...[text shortened]...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/01/31/elon-musk-treasury-department-payment-systems
Let's say Musk had full control of all federal spending (which he obviously doesn't).

Are you saying he'd do a worse job than the buffoons currently in charge?

It would be great if we had a CEO-type like Musk to actually balance the budget.

Alas, we don't.

Clock

@sh76 said
Let's say Musk had full control of all federal spending (which he obviously doesn't).

Are you saying he'd do a worse job than the buffoons currently in charge?

It would be great if we had a CEO-type like Musk to actually balance the budget.

Alas, we don't.
Aren’t t you worried you might get a CEO like the guy Richard Gere plays in Pretty Woman? The kind of guy who borrows through the company, pays himself all the money and declares bankruptcy?

From Pretty Woman:

Fumbling with his tie, Edward tells Vivian about his business.]

Vivian:
You don't actually have a billion dollars, huh?

Edward:
No. I get some of it from banks, investors… it's not an easy thing to do.

Vivian:
And you don't make anything…

Edward:
No.

Vivian:
… and you don't build anything.

Edward:
No.

Vivian:
So whadda ya do with the companies once you buy 'em?

Edward:
I sell them.

[Viv reaches for his tie.]

Vivian:
Here, let me do that. You sell them.

Edward:
Well, I… don't sell the whole company, I break it up into pieces, and then I sell that off, it's worth more than the whole.

Vivian:
So, it's sort of like, um… stealing cars and selling 'em for parts, right?

Edward:
[sighs exasperatedly] Yeah, sort of. But legal.

Clock

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_career_of_Donald_Trump

Although Trump has never filed for personal bankruptcy, hotels and casino businesses of his have declared bankruptcy six times between 1991 and 2009 due to its inability to meet required payments and to re-negotiate debt with banks, owners of stock and bonds and various small businesses (unsecured creditors).

Clock

@spruce112358

Cheque Book

Ya dummy

Clock

@Sleepyguy said
@spruce112358
From your link:

"The executive order Trump signed creating DOGE also instructed all agencies to ensure it has “full and prompt access to all unclassified agency records, software systems, and IT systems,” which would appear to include the Treasury payment systems."

"Access" isn't control. Musk is after the data so it can be analyzed. Works for me.
Yeah, actually, it is control.

"Exclusive: Musk aides lock government workers out of computer systems at US agency, sources say"

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/musk-aides-lock-government-workers-out-computer-systems-us-agency-sources-say-2025-01-31/

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@sh76 said
Let's say Musk had full control of all federal spending (which he obviously doesn't).

Are you saying he'd do a worse job than the buffoons currently in charge?

It would be great if we had a CEO-type like Musk to actually balance the budget.

Alas, we don't.
Musk has full control of all federal spending and can stop any payments he doesn't like.

You think he will stop any payments to SpaceX? 😆

Clock

@spruce112358 said
I wonder if he will just keep writing checks? Or will he stop? 😆

"Officials affiliated with Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” have been asking since after the election for access to the system, the people said — requests that were reiterated more recently, including after Trump’s inauguration.

A spokeswoman for DOGE declined to comment. Lebryk could not ...[text shortened]...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/01/31/elon-musk-treasury-department-payment-systems
This is patently illegal. There will be repercussions for Elon Stench. At this point I see prison in his future, and I hope every red cent he owns is stripped from him along the way. If it doesn't happen in the US, then maybe the EU will step up as Stench gets increasingly entangled in its affairs by aiding and abetting Nazis.

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