Elon Musk's Potential New Role and the Budget Deficit: A Concern for Democracy?

As you may recall, I reported that former President Trump announced a new role for the richest man in the world (allegedly) during his speech at the Economic Club of New York last Thursday.

“I will create a government efficiency commission tasked with conducting a complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government,” Trump said, adding that Elon Musk has “agreed to head that task force.”

Musk has since tweeted his response, "accepting" the new position if it were offered to him.

Let's revisit what Musk shared with the Wall Street Journal in 2021 about the national debt:

"The federal budget deficit is insane. It's like $3 trillion. Federal expenditures are $7 trillion. Federal revenue is $4 trillion. That's a $3 trillion difference. If this was a company, it’d be a $3 trillion loss. So, I don't know if we should be adding to that loss. That seems pretty crazy. Something's got to give. You can't just spend $3 trillion more than you earn every year and not expect something bad to happen. I think this is not good. The deficit is more than $3 trillion when you look at future obligations. So, it's $7 trillion of current expenditures. But it's much more than that if you look at future obligations for Social Security, Medicare, and so forth. So, we're running this incredible deficit. Something's got to give. This just can't keep going."

When considering how to address the deficit, one faces three main options: reducing expenses, increasing revenue, or both. Here, Mr. Musk seems to focus primarily on reducing expenditures, particularly impacting the middle class and those reliant on government programs. But why not consider paying taxes more equitably? Companies like Amazon and billionaires like Musk often avoid paying sufficient taxes. Balancing the budget while allowing such practices seems impossible.

Putting a billionaire in charge of national finances would undermine democratic principles as we know them. Vote accordingly.