Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025 | 2 a.m.
A couple of ideas about Elon Musk, who for the time being seems to be making an attempt to remake the federal authorities from the within.
I begin with the large image in thoughts. All people understands that the federal authorities spends vastly more cash than it takes in. The latest 12 months, the deficit was $1.8 trillion. The buildup of annual deficits has constructed the federal government’s whole debt to $36.2 trillion.
That can’t maintain going. The curiosity funds on that debt are already changing into a serious line merchandise within the price range itself, and ultimately the holders of that debt — largely China — will have the ability to dictate harsher phrases. So we both have to lift taxes or minimize spending, or each.
On the one hand, getting one of the vital financially profitable individuals in historical past engaged within the mission of streamlining the federal forms is a tantalizing prospect. Perhaps authorities service could possibly be improved and prices lowered. The man has already upended the automotive enterprise and house journey, and slashed Twitter and renamed it X.
Then again, personal enterprise is one factor, and the federal government is one thing else. Folks depend on authorities companies, and people companies have been created over many years of debate and dialogue by elected leaders. Eliminating these companies is likewise a political determination, to be made by Congress, the individuals’s elected representatives. It’s to not be made by Musk, who seems to be shutting down whole companies simply because he doesn’t like them.
Moreover — and that is my greatest challenge — Musk himself has a large battle of curiosity. He’s obligated to serve the pursuits of the shareholders in his firms, a few of which have billion-dollar contracts with the federal government itself. In case you hand him the keys to the federal government, it’s his fiduciary responsibility to utilize that to profit Tesla, X and SpaceX. That’s an unlimited drawback. If he must make a take care of China to goose gross sales of Teslas there, would he promote out America’s pursuits to take action? Effectively, if he didn’t, then he needs to be fired by Tesla.
There’s one simple strategy to clear up this, in fact, and that’s for Musk to stop his different roles and divest himself, in order to get rid of the conflicts. My guess is that he isn’t going to do this. The opposite method is to place guardrails on his involvement within the authorities. That’ll be difficult; the trickiness in all probability tells you that handing him the keys just isn’t that nice an thought to start with.
It’s too late to cease this now, but it surely’s not too late to have a critical debate concerning the conflicts and the guardrails. Getting enterprise leaders engaged within the federal price range drawback is a superb thought; getting them engaged in the suitable method is considerably extra sophisticated.
Ned Seaton is a columnist for The Manhattan (Kan.) Mercury.
