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cover of episode Breaking: They dropped the hammer on Elon Musk for "unconstitutional government cuts"

Breaking: They dropped the hammer on Elon Musk for "unconstitutional government cuts"

2025/2/18
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Elon Musk Podcast

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Mr. Chairman
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Will Walden
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Mr. Chairman: 我对本次听证会深感失望,认为它更像是对特朗普总统非法夺权行为的支持。我认为我们应该关注联邦支出的合理性,消除浪费和欺诈。然而,特朗普政府却授权像埃隆·马斯克这样未经审查且存在巨大利益冲突的亿万富翁来决定如何使用纳税人的钱,这是违宪的。我认为,特朗普政府不顾国会意愿,非法削减对外援助、消费者金融保护局等项目的资金,将对全球和美国家庭造成损害。我们必须捍卫国会的权力,对这种非法行为进行监督。我认为,特朗普政府解雇独立监督员的行为,进一步表明其打击浪费和欺诈的诚意不足。我们应该邀请埃隆·马斯克来回答关于利益冲突的问题,并努力捍卫国会在法律下的角色和责任。 Mr. Chairman: 我认为特朗普政府的行为不仅损害了美国家庭的利益,还违反了权力分立的原则。我们必须反击,捍卫国会的权力。我认为,本次听证会应该关注特朗普政府破坏国会通过的法律和损害美国人依赖的项目的非法行为。现在的情况是国会与行政部门的对抗,我们必须明确这一点。我认为,特朗普指示埃隆·马斯克非法削减对农民、儿童保育中心、癌症研究等项目的资助,都以解决浪费为幌子。如果特朗普政府真的想解决对外援助中的浪费和欺诈,他就不会解雇美国国际开发署的监察长。我认为,这不是总统第一次试探总统权力的界限,但却是共和党国会议员第一次屈服并让总统夺取宪法赋予立法部门的权力。我们掌握着财政权,应该像1970年代反对尼克松总统那样,通过立法来维护国会的宪法权力。 Mr. Chairman: 我认为,如果特朗普总统认为他的行为是合法的,那么他的政府应该站出来回答国会的直接问题,公开透明地运作,而不是试图对国会、法院和独立监督机构隐瞒。我对过去几周你拒绝签署一些监督信函感到失望,希望你能重新考虑。我认为,我们应该邀请埃隆·马斯克来回答问题,特别是关于他在做出这些决定时存在的众多且重大的利益冲突。我希望本委员会将来能够努力捍卫国会在法律下的角色和责任,并对特朗普政府的这些非法行为进行真正有意义的监督。

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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. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Chairman, I'm very discouraged by this hearing and by the witnesses in particular that you have chosen to give a platform today. Instead of having a serious discussion, I'm sure we're going to hear conspiracy theories as this committee holds what amounts to basically a pep rally in support of President Trump's illegal power grab. I certainly agree with this committee that this committee should conduct rigorous

oversight of federal spending, including wasteful foreign aid. That's certainly what we should be talking about. And we should always be working to sort out and eliminate waste and fraud in all federal programs. And in fact, this committee has done that for years on a bipartisan basis. It's a big part of what we do every week as we come together to consider legislation and deal with the tough issues that we face as a country.

But today's hearing, I'm sure we're going to hear many of our colleagues on the other side of the dais, my Republican colleagues here, cheer on President Trump and his cronies like Elon Musk in their illegal and unconstitutional efforts to cut off foreign aid. And it is not only a sham, I think it really misses the point on what this administration is really doing.

and how far President Trump will go to hurt American families so that they can pay for tax cuts for billionaires. We can't have a real debate about wasteful spending when President Trump has empowered an unvetted billionaire, and let's say it, an unvetted billionaire with massive conflicts of interest, massive conflicts of interest,

hundreds of millions of dollars of government contracts he receives. I would hope we will look at those hundreds of millions of dollars of government contracts from Elon Musk as he's cutting off funding to programs that clearly the administration doesn't understand or they may not agree with politically. Let's be clear, the Constitution does not empower a social media billionaire with massive conflicts of interest that has never been vetted to decide on how taxpayer dollars are spent.

In fact, the Constitution doesn't even empower President Trump to make these decisions. The Constitution gives Congress, and only Congress, the sole power to decide how taxpayer money is spent. And for the most part, we pass bipartisan laws to determine how that money should be spent. But President Trump has directed Elon Musk

and many other cronies to ignore Congress, to ignore the Constitution, and recklessly and illegally cut off funding that Congress has passed according to the law. Not only is it illegal, not only is it unconstitutional, but President Trump's direction to shut our USAID will have damaging consequences across the globe and here in the United States.

I'd like to enter into the record, Mr. Chairman, numerous statements from organizations and experts that detail those consequences. Without objection.

That's why my Democratic colleagues and I are most concerned about what is what the agency, what federal programs is going to be next, where the domino is going to fall after USAID, what's going to be next on the chopping block. We know President Trump has already directed his cronies to shut down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Will they halt social security payments that seniors count on next? Will they stop Medicare reimbursements and prevent seniors from accessing health care? Will they block disaster aid to states that have suffered from hurricanes and wildfires? Well, I'll tell you, President Trump and his cronies have already hinted on all of those resources that Americans count on and more could be shut down going forward. And it's not just that it's illegal,

It's not just that it violates the separation of powers. The bottom line is that these actions hurt American families and it's our job to fight back. And that's why Democrats on our committee will be focused on that today. If this committee is seriously about defending American families and Congress's oversight role, a role, Mr. Chairman, that I know you have said over and over again as part of what we were going to be doing here at the committee,

Then the hearing we have today should be about examining blatantly illegal activities that President Trump has led to undermine the laws passed by Congress and to wreak havoc on the programs and services that support Americans. Mr. Chairman, I know you've often talked about how it's Congress versus the executive, whoever's in the executive office. That's what's happening right now. Let's hope we focus on that because we're seeing it clearly happening.

As President Trump's direction, Elon Musk and his minions have illegally cut off funding that Congress passed to support farmers. They've cut off funding to support child care centers. They've cut off funding for life-saving cancer research. They've cut off funding for community health centers, cutting off funding for religious charities and services that Americans rely on every day. And it's all been under the guise of addressing waste. But if the administration is serious about combating waste and fraud,

then the president would not have fired 18 inspector generals, the independent watchdogs who actually identify waste, fraud and abuse. Why is Donald Trump firing the watchdogs to waste and abuse? The next time you fly, upgrade your comfort to Emirates Premium Economy.

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The Emmy Award winning series Slow Horses has critics and audiences raving. Could be this is a one-off. For the start of something. Receiving two Screen Actors Guild Award nominations, including Best Ensemble in a Drama Series. I'm gonna fix this. Yeah, lovely. And Gary Oldman for Outstanding Lead Actor. You're no good at this. And a PGA Award nomination for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television.

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but it's the first time that Republicans in Congress have simply rolled over and let a president seize power that the Constitution assigns to the legislative branch. We have the power of the purse, and I've heard the chairman talk about that many times in our meetings. But let's look at an example from history in the 1970s when President Richard Nixon refused to spend money appropriated for child care, job programs, environmental cleanup programs, and

Virtually every member of Congress from both parties rejected that, passed the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, which asserted Congress's constitutional power. And when it passed, it passed unanimously. Every Republican senator stood up to Richard Nixon and said, "This is unacceptable." Now, clearly that was a time when we did not have feckless Republican senators, but it was a great time to look at how we came together to stand up to presidential power.

And it wasn't just Congress. President Nixon lost in the courts over and over again. No judge ever endorsed President Nixon's argument that he had the right to ignore the laws of Congress.

If President Trump thinks his actions are lawful, then his administration should come forward and be able to answer straightforward questions from Congress. They should operate in the light of day instead of trying to hide what they're doing from Congress, the courts, and independent watchdogs. Mr. Chairman, I was disappointed that over the last few weeks I've had a number of oversight letters that you refused to sign. I would hope that you'd reconsider, and I look forward to meeting with you to talk through those letters in the near future.

And I think also, Mr. Chairman, many of the questions that we have today about the actions of President Trump that has been directed by Elon Musk, I think that's something that we should also call in Elon Musk to ask questions, particularly about his numerous

and substantial conflicts of interest while he's making these kinds of decisions. And I hope that going forward, this committee will work to defend Congress's role and responsibilities under the law and conduct real meaningful oversight of these lawless actions by the Trump administration.

Hey, thank you so much for listening today. I really do appreciate your support. If you could take a second and hit this subscribe or the follow button on whatever podcast platform that you're listening on right now, I greatly appreciate it. It helps out the show tremendously and you'll never miss an episode. And each episode is about 10 minutes or less to get you caught up quickly. And please, if you want to support the show even more, go to patreon.com slash stage zero.

And please take care of yourselves and each other. And I'll see you tomorrow.