“Texas Gov. Greg Abbott applauded Elon Musk’s commitment to stopping … the federal government from funding … a new football stadium” in Washington D.C. in the omnibus spending deal the House just passed to avert a government shutdown a week before Christmas.
“Good catch, Elon. You are doing a great job,” Abbott proclaimed. There’s just one problem. Washington Post reporter Aaron Blake says, “The thing is not only not in the spending deal; the spending deal explicitly prohibits it” (read story here). Good catch? It’s a fouled hook and line (picture below).
This lie was born on the internet, as so many are. A poster on Musk’s “X” platform said, ‘Buried in the 1,547-page omnibus bill is a provision to facilitate a $3 billion stadium in Washington, D.C.'” (The bill “facilitates” the project by authorizing a land lease of the site to D.C.) Musk replied, “This should not be funded by your tax dollars!”
Well guess what, it isn’t; and by insinuating the bill provides funding for the $3 billion stadium, Abbott and Musk are either lying or didn’t read the provision at page 233 which says,
“PROHIBITING USE OF FEDERAL FUNDS FOR STADIUM. The Declaration of Covenants entered into under subsection (a)(1) shall include provisions to ensure that the District may not use Federal funds for stadium purposes on the Campus, including training facilities, offices, and other structures necessary to support a stadium.”
Normally, when someone goes off half-cocked, you laugh at them and walk away. When a governor and an oligarch with Trump’s ear spew b.s. into the public space, that’s a problem.
There was a time in America, not all that long ago, when a student couldn’t get away with this in class. He’d be promptly corrected by the teacher in front of the other students. It was part of the process of teaching students that facts matter.
Abbott and Musk shouldn’t be allowed to get away with it in public discourse. It’s time to stop excusing powerful people who get careless with facts, because they can do a lot of damage.
