Trump Administration's Dismantling of the Federal Government

Floor Speech

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Mr. LANDSMAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to also talk about Elon Musk and to ask the Speaker and my colleagues to follow the money.

Elon owns six companies, two of which are Tesla and SpaceX. SpaceX alone has received something like $20 billion in Federal contracts. That is Federal taxpayer dollars. Tesla, when it was struggling to get off of the ground, got a half-a-billion-dollar loan from the Department of Energy.

This is in addition to the billions that they have received in tax credits and other supplements from the Federal Government. He is not just the world's richest man, but Elon Musk is trying to become the first trillionaire in the history of the world.

Mr. Speaker, during the 2024 election, Musk gave over $200 million to Trump and Republicans. That is a lot of money. Trump wins, and Elon, just weeks--not months--after the election, generates several hundred billion dollars in new wealth, making his way to that trillion-dollar number.

He generated all of that new wealth because the markets knew that, with Trump, he was going to have access to even more of our money. They knew he was going to get billions more in contracts, billions more in Federal subsidies, and he is well on his way.

To expedite these efforts, Trump empowers Musk, moments after he is inaugurated--Musk, an unelected tech billionaire. He empowers him to take access of our personal data, all of it. He gives him access to the Federal payment system. He gives him power to purge as many Federal workers as he possibly can, all in the name of waste, fraud, and abuse, which, in the end turns out to be somewhat accurate.

By the way, what happened with the data breach and the fact that he now has access to all of our data is arguably the greatest data breach in the history of the United States of America.

Mr. Musk has defunded Federal programs, purged public servants, and stripped resources away from government oversight, all while getting richer and richer at the expense of the rest of us.

Today, the State Department said they plan to spend $400 million of our tax dollars to purchase Tesla Cybertrucks.

Why in the world would the Federal Government buy one Tesla Cybertruck, let alone $400 million of Tesla Cybertrucks: waste, fraud, and abuse.

Every day, Elon Musk makes $8 million from government contracts. That number just went up. In comparison, seniors on Social Security get $65 a day.

The question that so many are asking is: How do you fight back against this waste, fraud, and abuse?

There is a playbook, Mr. Speaker. It is the Constitution of the United States. Article I does not lay out the powers of the Presidency or the Supreme Court, the Judiciary, Article I lays out the powers of the Congress of the United States.

This Congress is responsible for appropriating funds and oversight of the Federal Government and holding the President accountable. The Founders envisioned this moment. They didn't know that it would come with a billionaire tech donor, but they envisioned this moment. With Republicans in control of both the House and the Senate, they have to step up and deal with this waste, fraud, and abuse.

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