Sometimes Fox News online offers something worth reading. My Fox News “notifications” announced on Tuesday morning, “Elon Musk dunks on Sen Chuck Schumer, declaring 'Hysterical reactions' demonstrate DOGE's importance.”
Early in the article:
He [Musk] made the comment in response to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
"An unelected shadow government is conducting a hostile takeover of the federal government," a post on Sen. Schumer's @SenSchumer X account reads, echoing remarks the lawmaker made during a press conference.
"DOGE is not a real government agency. DOGE has no authority to make spending decisions. DOGE has no authority to shut programs down or to ignore federal law. DOGE’s conduct cannot be allowed to stand. Congress must take action to restore the rule of law," Schumer's post continued.
I would go a step further, as Substack writer Robert Hubbell did in an excellent post on February 1, with the title “Call it by its name: A coup.”
The Fox article continues:
Musk described the effort to slash government waste and bureaucracy as a one-time opportunity [my bold].
"Hysterical reactions like this is how you know that @DOGE is doing work that really matters," he wrote in response to Schumer.
"This is the one shot the American people have to defeat BUREAUcracy, rule of the bureaucrats, and restore DEMOcracy, rule of the people. We’re never going to get another chance like this. It’s now or never. Your support is crucial to the success of the revolution of the people," he asserted.
USAID CLOSES HQ TO STAFFERS MONDAY AS MUSK SAYS TRUMP SUPPORTS SHUTTING AGENCY DOWN
The business magnate [Musk] has called DOGE "the wood chipper for bureaucracy."
"If the Treasury Secretary does not remove DOGE’s access to the Treasury payment systems at once: Congress must immediately act," another post echoing the sentiments Schumer conveyed during the press conference reads. "That is why @RepJeffries and I will work together on legislation to stop unlawful meddling in the Treasury Department’s payment systems. We must protect people’s Social Security payments, Medicare payments, and tax refunds from any possible tampering by DOGE or other unauthorized entities."
Musk declared in a post, "Doge has not looked at, nor is there any interest in, private financial data. What would we even do with it? The outgoing payment review process just looks at potential fraud and wasteful spending to organizations. Corrupt politicians are the ones complaining. I wonder why?”
Think about this: “The outgoing payment review process just looks at potential fraud and wasteful spending to organizations.” Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, the very symbol of oligarchy, the un-elected, un-reconstructed white supremacist Afrikaner, claims to be the sole decider of what appropriations by the U.S. Congress are going to “fraud and wasteful spending”. He declares that he will withhold payments based on his (DOGE’s) judgement. Even if Trump authorized Musk’s actions, they are nonetheless illegal impoundment under the Impoundment Control Act of 1974 as well as an unconstitutional power grab from Congress of “the power of the purse”.
Just one small (in terms of the entire federal budget) concrete example of the power that Elon proposes to wield is in his unilateral declaration that USAID “is a criminal organization” and that it is “time for it to die”, an execution that he attempted earlier this week which, if allowed to stand, will be a literal execution of people in war torn parts of the globe. (Click on the video above to watch biased, smirking Fox host Jesse Watters set up a discussion with “The Five”. This presentation alone makes it clear why Rupert Murdoch [owner and founder of Fox] had a seat of honor at the Trump indoor inauguration two weeks ago—but I digress.) Musk is trying, illegally, to delete USAID, a Congressionally established government agency, based nothing but his own personal judgement and animosity. “The Five” fails (by design, no doubt) to address the illegality and unconstitutionality of Trump/Musk’s action. Instead the segment opens with Watters saying that Democrats are “having a hissy fit” by pointing out these issues. According to another of Fox’s Trump-sycophants, Laura Ingraham, featured in another clip, Musk’s actions are returning “Power to the People, not the Government.” Really? Handing over the power to an unelected multi-billionaire wannabe dictator is “Power to the People”? If you buy that premise you have truly drunk the Kool-Aide.
The sub-headline to the “Elon Musk dunks on Sen Chuck Schumer…” weirdly offers hope: “‘We’re never going to get another chance like this,' Musk asserts.” If you are among the many who have not drunk the Fox News Kool-Aide, who retain respect for the Constitution and the rule of law, and who are appalled at his meat-axe maneuvers, the object is to see to it that Musk is deprived of his current illegal chance.
Our (eastern WA, CD5) newly elected Republican Representative to the U.S. House, Michael Baumgartner, is certainly a supporter of President Trump, but he also claims to be an “Article I guy” meaning that he supports the authority of Congress as laid out in the U.S. Constitution. Right now, in view of Musk’s actions, those two loyalties are incompatible—and we need to tell him so. Here’s his number: (202) 225-2006 from https://baumgartner.house.gov/. Or make a call to his Spokane office 509) 353-2374. Make your voice heard.
Keep to the high ground,
Jerry