AP Photograph/Jacquelyn Martin
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Days after his swearing-in, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gave Elon Musk and his crew on the so-called Division of Govt Potency (which regardless of its title, isn’t an reputable govt division), get entry to to the company’s federal bills machine, which necessarily operates as the rustic’s central checking account.
The transfer, which might doubtlessly supply Musk a view into the non-public knowledge of tens and hundreds of thousands of American citizens, precipitated quick alarm over the weekend. Now Democrats are not easy solutions.
On Monday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) despatched a letter to Bessent, calling the verdict “extraordinarily dangerous,” whilst hitting at Musk’s DOGE crew as “unqualified flunkies.”
“It is extraordinarily dangerous to meddle with the critical systems that process trillions of dollars of transactions each year, are essential to preventing a default on federal debt, and ensure that tens of millions of Americans receive their Social Security checks, tax refunds, and Medicare benefits,” Warren wrote.
She persevered: “I am alarmed that as one of your first acts as Secretary, you appear to have handed over a highly sensitive system responsible for millions of Americans’ private data—and a key function of government—to an unelected billionaire and an unknown number of his unqualified flunkies.”
Warren’s issues are a long way from hyperbole. As my colleague Pema Levy wrote:
Treasury’s fee machine processes greater than $5 trillion every year, paying the rustic’s expenses. This contains Social Safety exams and tax refunds, which means that the machine contains delicate private knowledge on tens of hundreds of thousands of American citizens. A Sunday headline from New York Mag, “Elon Musk May Have Your Social Security Number,” isn’t an exaggeration.
In her letter, Warren warned Bessent that by way of letting Musk have get entry to to such non-public knowledge, the Trump management may “unilaterally and illegally” bring to an end bills for hundreds of thousands of American citizens, in line with political favoritism” or the whims of Musk.
As my colleague Michael Mechanic wrote, the tech wealthy person has made it transparent that he intends to chop govt spending by way of “gutting the federal workforce, eliminating certain agencies, slashing regulations, ending selected entitlements, and, as a corollary, privatizing as much as possible as quickly as possible.”
It sounds as if that Musk has now not publicly addressed Warren’s letter, however he did retweet the next put up from Republican influencer, Rogan O’Handley, higher referred to as DC_Draino, who claimed that Musk used to be certainly elected along Trump (now not true) and is doing precisely what citizens be expecting from him.
Dems stay announcing “No one elected Elon Musk”
Sure we did
Elon used to be very visual with Trump and we elected Trump to make use of Elon in cleansing out corruption in our govt
Similar is going for Tulsi, RFK, and Kash
We voted for ALL of those other people to do just what they’re doing https://t.co/mOx1U5UKq4
— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) February 2, 2025
