BREAKING: Direct WARNING to Elon Musk, we are not here to play - says politician
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Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the Elon Musk podcast. This is a show where we discuss the critical crossroads that shape SpaceX, Tesla, X, The Boring Company, and Neuralink. I'm your host, Will Walden.

All right. Well, good morning, everyone. Thank you, Madam Chair, and welcome to the very first subcommittee on government efficiency. As was said, this committee is tasked under the Oversight Committee with ensuring that the government and the vital services that it provides from health care to national security actually work for the American people. And this is certainly a topic

that we have worked on for many, many years here in the Oversight Committee, and which I personally have worked on as a former civil servant who worked at the Office of Management and Budget. And in fact, for anyone who has ever worked on these issues, you know that there is ample ground for bipartisan work to make the government work better for the American people and to ensure that it operates in a more efficient manner. And in fact, all

And all of us here on the Democratic side are ready to roll up our sleeves and to get to work. And just last week, I had the opportunity to sit down with the chairwoman and to discuss these very issues and opportunities to work across the aisle. And like the chairwoman who shared some of her background with me, I grew up in a working family. I grew up working for small mom and pop family businesses and understand the necessity of balancing the books.

making sure we can deliver and fiscal responsibility. And that's why today's hearing is focused on making sure that the federal government is doing what it's supposed to and digging into the more than $236 billion in improper payments that we see going out the door every single year. And we need to get to the bottom of that.

And we need to make sure that we're putting into place rigorous oversight and controls to prevent fraud and abuse and of course to go after bad actors.

And that is why myself and the Oversight Ranking member Connolly and other Democratic members of the committee sent a set of bipartisan ideas that we'd like to work on together that would root out waste, fraud, and abuse and modernize and streamline how our agencies deliver vital programs for the American people. These are programs that are

important for our seniors and our families and healthcare and the education system and we need bipartisan solutions to get across the finish line and we've been trying over the last several years to get these ideas out of this committee but unfortunately the committee's priorities have been elsewhere under the current my majority so i hope we can fix that this congress but

We can't just sit here today and pretend like everything is normal and that this is just another hearing on government efficiency. I mean, all you have to do is look across this room and see that it is not a normal hearing because while we're sitting here, Donald Trump and Elon Musk are recklessly and illegally dismantling the federal government.

shuddering federal agencies, firing federal workers, withholding funds vital to the safety and well-being of our communities, and hacking our sensitive data systems. In fact, while we were here discussing government waste on the House floor yesterday, Elon Musk was standing behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office with the President, and the administration was making emergency court appeals to

try to unlock his team's access to the Treasury payment system, which they claim they are using to study improper payments, which is the topic of this hearing. But here's the thing.

The Treasury payment system, which includes Social Security information and bank accounts for millions of Americans and data that's critical to national security and the operation of the US government and payments that go out the door annually equal to almost a fifth of the US economy.

is not where the payment decisions are made because that happens inside the agencies that are currently being dismantled. And the people who actually investigate waste, fraud and abuse at these agencies are the inspector generals who Donald Trump fired his first week in office in a midnight massacre.

So we have to ask ourselves, what is really going on here? Why did Republicans block Elon Musk from appearing before this very committee last week? Why is the administration so eager to allow Elon Musk and his hackers to have access to proprietary and private information in the Treasury payment systems? Why are our colleagues across the aisle shielding them as they are clearly breaking the law? And why is the Vice President

Trying to rewrite the U.S. Constitution by tweet and undermine the judiciary. So obviously we're in the Oversight Committee and we have a lot of questions and so do the American people. Especially while our colleagues across the aisle are trying to scoop up the savings from the dismantling of these agencies to pay for the largest permanent tax break in American history for billionaires ever.

and the folks that they're helping on their side of the aisle. So let me close by saying this directly to Mr. Elon Musk. We are well aware that you are eager to engage with members of Congress on social media, but we're not here to play.

If you have serious desire to engage in democracy and transparency, we welcome you to the Oversight Committee. Come and testify in front of the American people under oath because we want to know what you're up to. So if you're interested in talking to us, then please join us here in the People's House in the House of Representatives. And with that, I yield back. This episode is brought to you by PDS Debt.

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The PC gave us computing power at home, the internet connected us, and mobile let us do it pretty much anywhere. Now generative AI lets us communicate with technology in our own language, using our own senses. But figuring it all out when you're living through it is a totally different story. Welcome to Leading the Shift.

a new podcast for Microsoft Azure. I'm your host, Susan Etlinger. In each episode, leaders will share what they're learning to help you navigate all this change with confidence. Please join us. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

The gentlelady yields. President Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office called Establishing and Implementing the President's Department of Government Efficiency. The EO simply renamed an office in the White House that was actually established by President Obama in 2014 called the U.S. Digital Service.

President Trump can have Elon Musk into his Oval Office anytime he likes. I now recognize the chairman of the Oversight Committee, Chairman James Comer.

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