Axios: Behind the Curtain: The wrecking-ball theory

[Dennis Donovan]

Axios - Behind the Curtain: The wrecking-ball theory

Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen
5 mins ago -
Politics & Policy

Elon Musk has persuaded President-elect Trump that government has grown so big, bloated, slow and sclerotic ... only a wrecking ball can fix it.

Soon, that ball will slam into hard reality: Politicians like to giveth, not taketh away.

Why it matters: Trump is more fixated on a "deep state" blocking his ambitions, than cost savings, advisers tell us. But he has bought into the Musk concept of using AI and lean-business thinking to try to dramatically shrink a government he helped grow, they say.

The wrecking-ball theory holds that only a massive shock to the system will break a lifetime of build-up.

-Musk wants to be Trump's wrecking ball. Musk has vowed to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget — about 30% of annual government spending. But as this column will show you, that may be harder than Musk's signature mission of planting human life on Mars.

How it works: Trump announced this week that Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, a Trump primary opponent, will head a new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE — like the cryptocurrency).

-Sources tell us Musk wants to use AI and crowd-sourcing to hunt for waste, fraud and abuse. But DOGE isn't actually a government department: We're told Musk and Ramaswamy plan to set up a nongovernmental entity to try to pull off the entrepreneurial approach to government that Trump envisions.
-Trump aides are looking for ways the White House could bypass Congress and unilaterally adopt DOGE proposals, which "could trigger a constitutional showdown over a bedrock aspect of the federal government, the power of the purse," The Washington Post's Jeff Stein reports.

/snip

[CrispyQ]

1. Shrink the government really means, "How can I siphon the US Treasury in my direction?"

I can't believe so many American's don't see what's about to happen—the biggest fucking heist in our history.