1w ago

Musk vows to cancel grants after gaining access to US Treasury payment system

www.ft.com Elon Musk vows to cancel grants after gaining access to US Treasury payment system

System disburses trillions of dollars in US government spending each year, including social security

Summary

Elon Musk vowed to cancel government grants after allegedly gaining access to the US Treasury’s payments system, triggering the abrupt resignation of a senior official.

Musk, who leads Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), claimed his team found Treasury officials approving payments without scrutiny.

Democrats, including Sen. Ron Wyden, raised alarms over Musk’s influence on federal funds. Treasury access concerns intensified after Trump ally Michael Flynn posted grant payments online.

Musk’s authority to halt payments remains unclear, and the Treasury has not responded to inquiries.

Politics @beehaw.org

along_the_road @beehaw.org

1w ago

Musk vows to cancel grants after gaining access to US Treasury payment system

www.ft.com /content/27ba0a6a-0d9b-4e08-8329-730b581c0481

64 10

100 comments

Who the fuck even is this guy? No vetting process, no confirmation hearings, nothing.
And he's just given this kind of power?
This country is so very, very fucked. Thanks to donvict's base and a huge assist from the apathetic and the "bothsides" idiots.
- He wasn't "given it". He stole it and nobody with the power to stop him is trying to stop him.
  
  he was given it by the elected president. which i think is so much worse
- Reminder that he’s not even American. He’s a South African billionaire with no allegiance to any one country. He’s a carpet bagger
  
  Would you say the same thing about a naturalized immigrant doing things you agree with?
  He's a citizen whose status allow him to take pretty much any government related position except for being president, leave the immigration bit out of it as it's the same rhetoric being used by the far right to justify what they're doing to some naturalized citizens right now and it's a very dangerous slippery slope you're on.
- Most Americans are sleepwalking. As much as they're going to hurt other countries they're going to hurt Americans the most.
  
  Well, so there's some justice
  
  I think as long as Americans have something to lose, they will not revolt 😞🤙
- I think a lot of people still, even now, believe that the statement "this country is fucked" is a bit overboard.
  They don't grasp that the writing is on the wall. America literally is fucked. The point of no return has already been passed. What you're witnessing is the wholesale sellout of America to the wealthy, who will remain in power indefinitely, and a system way too far gone to do anything about it.
  It's over.
  Next stop, Russia 2.0. In the end, we really weren't any better than them.

Can we please send this fuckwit back to where he comes from? Like, the seventh circle of Hell?
- The 8th circle might be a better fit, especially in the 8th Bolgia for councellors of fraud.
- We don't want him. I propose shooting him out of a cannon into the sun
  
  Stick him in a Cybertruck and launch that into the sun.
  
  Too energy intensive. Just launch him into a Sun orbit so he can join his roadster.
- Deport fElon.
- He needs a new goal: Occupy the Sun
- We would need power to do that. How do we get power? Don’t expect anyone else to do it for you.
- Is it appropriate to say something about sending him back to a continent of origin or is the whole sentence racist no matter the subject?
  
  I would say it's fine to use his and his ilk's language against him, but I wouldn't force Muskrat upon any country.

Gee, there is no way Musk would abuse that power...
Like canceling grant payments to rival EV manufacturers
- It would be ironic if this is what ends up with him facing some consequences. It'll be interesting how long the house allows him to usurp their authority.

There have been two court orders requiring that payments continue normally. It looks like Musk has decided that court orders do not bind him. It hasn't even been two weeks and already we're at the constitutional crisis?
- When you're the wealthiest man in America the laws don't apply to you.
  
  The system in its infinite wisdom prevents poor and rich alike from begging on the streets....
- We’re setting up the “Mr Burns’ diseases” system. We’ll just have every constitutional crisis in existence all at once, and they’ll balance each other out! 🤦‍♀️
- It’s only a constitutional crisis if anyone will pursue it.
  If court orders don’t apply and higher institutions do nothing, well, there is no crisis.
  
  Exactly. And SCOTUS is on Trump's side, so they will approve.

He's not an employee of the Federal Government. This is completely illegal. And he's a psychopathic junkie so...
- Why isn't he arrested
  
  Arrested? This man needs to be 6 foot under by any means necessary. That's the only way this thing ends. Nobody is going to arrest him.
  
  Which brownshirt do you want to arrest him? The ones in Congress? The ones in the SC? The gestapo?
  
  Money
  
  That's what I'm wondering!
- "Illegal" no longer means anything for the top people in the Trump administration. Including the ones who are not official employees.
  
  Yup, they know what we all know. That the American justice system is the butt of a joke.
  It's open season for criminality if you're a politician or rich person.
- psychopathic junkie
  I think you just hit on the Cabinet hiring requirements.

Democrats "raised alarms"? Gee thanks, that'll take care of it you pathetic wimps. Why haven't they brought an immediate case to the Supreme Court for an emergency ruling? A non-elected, non-nominated or confirmed by Senate (and we should of course note) immigrant has been given access to the United States Treasury. This is insane.
- RIGHT!? The treasury and HR! Why are Senators not screaming until they’re hoarse!? If this isn’t the worst Executive overreach in the history of this country I don’t know what is!
  
  It's pretty clear that the majority of politicians on the right and left support this. It's always been about the rich and powerful.
  
  He's already hoarse from the last bout https://newrepublic.com/post/190958/robert-f-kennedy-jr-bernie-sanders-big-pharma-money
- Because they arent actually opposed. Theyre doing the bare minimum to uphold their public image while ensuring that capitalism rules the country.
  
  To a point. If they are cut out of the loop, how are they supposed to reap the benefits of their position? They only want the capitalism to rule the country so long as they get to reap the benefits. If bypassing legislature and going straight to executive works, then the legislature will still get pissed, if only for their own self interest.
  In fact, that was the whole design. That the branches would be eager to undermine each other to the extent they are allowed. The concept of a branch just surrendering their authority was insane.
- Leave the immigrant bit out of it, he's a naturalized citizen just like a ton of people he's trying to hurt and your rhetoric just generates hate towards naturalized migrants and opens the door to policies against them being allowed positions in the government with support from people on both sides because even the left is now talking about someone's migrant status as being a bad thing.
  
  I mean, you're aware people are pointing out the immigrant thing to highlight the hypocrisy of the people that hate immigrants that support Elon Musk, right?
  Like, that's not going over your head, right?
- "Oh God! No one's doing anything about it! Let's tell the voters so that they can... Elect us?"

I thought we were agreed: Any Musk photo in news from now on is his Nazi salute.
- Hitler didn't mean to do that. He was just excited and he had self-diagnosed autism.
  Wait, who are we talking about again?
- I'd be fine if he had the Hitler mustache as well
- He ain't a Nazi. I mean... Nazis make good cars /s
  
  Lol Germans make good cars. South Africans and Americans make shit cars, Nazi or not.

Democrats, including Sen. Ron Wyden, raised alarms over Musk’s influence on federal funds. Treasury access concerns intensified after Trump ally Michael Flynn posted grant payments online.
That's funny, the only thing I get when I search for "Michael Flynn grant payments" are about payments Flynn received from the Russian government

So the country is now a dogecracy or is it still aan oligarchy? Does this count as a coup?

The world’s richest man, who bankrolled Donald Trump’s re-election campaign and was tasked by the president with running the cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency, boasted on his social media site X that he was “rapidly shutting down . . . illegal payments” after a list of grants to Lutheran organisations was posted online.
The threat came after Musk appeared to confirm on Saturday that DOGE had access to the Treasury system, which disperses trillions of dollars each year, including social security payments.
He justified the move by claiming his team discovered “that payment approval officers at Treasury were instructed always to approve payments, even to known fraudulent or terrorist groups”.
The system has been run by career civil servants and the Treasury already has an in-house team tasked with identifying fraudulent payments. A source with knowledge of the situation said that DOGE representatives did not have the authority to cut payments, only to read the data.
Senator Ron Wyden, the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said his office had been told that Treasury secretary Scott Bessent had granted DOGE “full” access to the system.
Lutherans!! Well, I’m glad Elmo Nazi shut that shit down! Who knows how long those shady Lutherans were growing fat off the Treasury’s ample, juicy teats!
Srs tho, omfg the batshit is everywhere.
- DOGE representatives did not have the authority to cut payments, only to read the data.
  They shouldn't even have that!
- I'm not sure we should be giving government grants to any religious organizations, but why on earth would you target Lutherans of all groups?
  
  Grants were for immigrant assistance.
  
  Tim Walz, Democratic VP is a Lutheran, bigly involved in the church. This is payback for daring challenge their demented rapist puppet.
- Oh.

So if he's acting as a government official doesn't he need to be confirmed by Congress?
- LOL, but we have Worthington's Law here in 'merica. It overrides any of that pesky Constitutional and/or democratic norms stuff...
- you would think so... but then again he could just be an independent contractor or some such legaly distinct thing.
  
  That's not how it works at that level.

It's time for Elon to go
- We need Luigi

Mush is a terrorist.

Only democrats are fussing. That is why this shit gets a pass.
- The assumption of the right is if only democrats are upset, he must be hurting the right people more.
- Oh just wait until cheques stop coming, plenty of Republicans will have quite the wake up call as tons of then thought Trump was only going after "the bad ones".
  
  Have seen smaller versions of that, it's all fun and games until your constituents are homeless due to a natural disaster and the government fails in their duty to them. Those GOP reps have people that are likely to be made homeless, but certainly not gunless, and that random low level reperesentative will not have a security detail up to the task.

When this nation was strong we executed people for less than what this freak is doing.

I don’t understand. What’s apparently so heinous about Lutheran charities?
- Ninety-five Theses are too many. He wants DOGE to streamline it to four and take out that pesky objection to indulgences.

Archive

100 comments