In the closing days of the 2024 election campaign, Elon Musk is sucking up to Trump, probably hoping to get lucrative government contracts for his businesses. But he also may be angling for a government appointment.
Musk styles himself a budget expert. Trump promotes him “as someone who could identify wasteful federal spending.” Asked, “How much do you think we can rip out of this wasted $6.5 trillion Harris-Biden budget?” he replied, “I think we can do at least $2 trillion.” (Read story here.)
Let’s take a look. From the pie chart below (for the 2021 budget, the most recent I could find), it’s obvious where $2 trillion would come from: Eliminate Social Security and Medicare. But if you wanted to keep Social Security for political reasons, you could still get there by eliminating Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment insurance, and roughly 40% of the “rest.” That would leave defense, interest payments on debt, and basic functions of government intact — but nothing else.
Yeah, it’s not hard to see how the world’s richest man and his fellow billionaires, Trump and his fellow Republicans, and “drown it in the bathtub” conservative ideologues would love this budget.
