Letter: New budget priorities are boon to Musk
I was surprised when now-President Trump and Elon Musk put pressure on Congress to raise or eliminate the debt limit. I thought Republicans, and Trump as their representative, wanted less government and to lower the national debt. Pres. Trump even created a new department, the Department of Government Efficiency, headed by Elon Musk, to find ways to eliminate as much of the national budget as possible. So does Pres. Trump have so little faith in Musk’s ability to do this job that he wants to raise the debt limit in case Elon fails? And why would Elon want to raise the debt limit, which would just make his new job harder?
In his inauguration speech, Pres. Trump promised we would put a man on Mars. NASA estimates it will take $500 billion to do that. Since 2008, just two of Musk’s companies, Space X and Star Link, have made about $21 billion from government contracts. I wonder how many of the new billions to be spent going to Mars Musk’s companies will receive? No wonder Elon spontaneously jumped for joy when he heard that part of Trump’s speech.
Next Pres. Trump announced a joint venture to invest $500 billion in new dollars in AI infrastructure with Open IA, Oracle, and Softbank. And who owns major shares in Open IA? Elon Musk.
I may be getting senile, but I don’t remember Trump campaigning on putting a man on Mars or on encouraging AI. Yet within the first day in office, Trump announces almost a TRILLION dollars in new spending for just those two areas, both of which personally benefit Elon Musk, a major contributor to Trump’s campaign. No wonder he and Elon want to raise the national debt limit.
Donald Carper
Clearfield