Elon Musk-Doge Threats to Government

Floor Speech

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Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for convening us for this Special Order today and for her very thoughtful comments.

Today, I rise to voice my alarm about the rapid descent of our democracy into a dictatorship.

While co-President Donald Trump focuses on expanding his business opportunities globally while ignoring his campaign promise to lower the cost of living for ordinary Americans, co-president Elon Musk has taken a wrecking ball to the Federal Government one agency at a time.

Congress established the agencies that Musk is trying to delete, and it is only Congress, under our Constitution, not an unelected co- president, that has the constitutional authority to abolish a Federal agency.

We still live in a democracy, which is government of, by, and for the people who have the right, the precious right, to vote for their leaders.

We tell our constituents to vote. We tell them their votes and voices matter, that their choices shape the future of this country, but what does that mean when an unelected billionaire can waltz into our agencies and slash and burn the whole thing to the ground like a Taliban terrorist, threatening 2 million Federal employees to resign under false pretenses, putting other folks out of work, and stopping payments to small businesses and nonprofits while illegally putting in purchase orders for the State Department to spend $400 million in taxpayer money for Tesla pickup trucks?

This level of corruption is shocking. Co-President Trump and the Republicans in Congress, all of whom have abrogated their legislative power to the king, have handed the keys to the Nation's Treasury to unelected co-president Elon Musk. Their actions are taking what we know as corruption to a whole new level. This is banana republic-style corruption at its ugliest.

While the powerful play their games, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and their billionaire buddies get richer while the cost of living goes up for everybody else.

Every day, my constituents call me, worried and scared, asking how an unelected billionaire they never voted for is gutting the very resources they rely on to put food on the table and a roof over their heads.

They see a man who wants billionaires like himself to pay nothing while hardworking Americans foot the bill.

They see him kneecapping the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency created to shield the people from scams, fraud, and corporate greed.

They ask why someone with a long history of union-busting, worker abuse, and blatant disregard for labor laws is being allowed to scuttle the Department of Labor.

They want to know why a billionaire businessman from South Africa, who holds no elective office, has been given unchecked access and influence over their most sensitive personal and financial information, their rights, and their future.

Let me be clear: I am committed to ensuring that president Musk stops this attack on the American people. House and Senate Democrats will not stand by, like my Republican colleagues are doing, while Elon Musk hijacks our government. We will fight to protect the institutions that serve the people, not the privileged. That is what we must do to protect democracy and freedom.

We will stand, and we will fight. With the American people roused in peaceful, nonviolent protests across the country, Mr. Speaker, we will win. This country belongs to the people, not to the billionaires.

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