Co-President Elon Musk went on Fox Information Tuesday night time to whine about protests at Tesla automobile dealerships throughout the nation, claiming he has no thought why anybody could be mad at him, since he is only a benevolent man attempting to assist Individuals.
“It’s really come as such a shock to me that there’s this level of hatred and violence from the left. I always thought that the left, that Democrats, were supposed to be the party of empathy, the party of caring,” Musk mentioned in a Fox Information look Tuesday night time. “I’ve never done anything harmful, I’ve only done productive things. … This doesn’t make any sense. I think there are larger forces at work.”
After all, Musk has completed extraordinarily dangerous issues since he bankrolled President Donald Trump’s 2024 marketing campaign and wormed his approach right into a nebulous and highly effective function inside the federal authorities.
By way of his so-called Division of Authorities Effectivity, Musk has satisfied Trump to disregard the regulation and minimize congressionally authorized funding, shutter authorities businesses, and make it tougher for Individuals to receive their Social Safety advantages.
The strikes have already had tangibly dangerous results.
For instance, his function in just about shuttering the U.S. Company for Worldwide Improvement—which a federal decide dominated on Tuesday violated the regulation—has led folks in impoverished international locations to die, together with an 10-year-old boy and an 8-year-old woman who had been receiving HIV therapy by a USAID program, The New York Occasions reported. Shuttering USAID and the packages it ran to feed the ravenous and deal with the sick may trigger tons of of 1000’s of individuals to die from starvation or ailments. And people ailments may unfold to the US if they aren’t saved below management.
As a part of DOGE’s push, the Social Safety Administration introduced new modifications on Tuesday that can drive aged and disabled folks to confirm their identities on-line quite than over the cellphone. If aged individuals are unable to make use of the web system, they’re going to be pressured to go to a Social Safety workplace in-person—which Social Safety officers say is a serious hardship for older Individuals who could be too frail to journey or can not drive.
Even worse is that DOGE is slicing 7,000 jobs and shuttering dozens of Social Safety places of work, which is able to make recipients who have to confirm their identities should journey additional or face lengthy wait instances on account of staffing shortages.
“DOGE is closing nearly 50 Social Security offices across the country—including in White Plains—and now they’re limiting phone support,” Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York mentioned in a submit on X. “Make no mistake, this is a full-blown attack on Social Security. Elon Musk is trying to take away benefits you earned.”
Musk has additionally falsely claimed a number of instances that lifeless individuals are receiving Social Safety advantages. And that lie has led DOGE to accuse dwelling folks of being lifeless and cancel their Social Safety and Medicare advantages.
One such individual—82-year-old Ned Johnson—spoke to The Seattle Occasions in regards to the hell being accused of being lifeless has induced him. Johnson’s incorrect loss of life accusation led the federal government to take again $5,201 from his checking account, and canceled his Medicare advantages.
From The Seattle Occasions’ report:
What adopted was an almost three-week battle to resurrect himself. He referred to as Social Safety two or 3 times a day for 2 weeks, with every name placed on maintain after which ultimately disconnected. Lastly somebody answered and gave him an appointment for March 13. Then he received a name delaying that to March 24.
In a huff, he went to the workplace on the ninth ground of the Henry Jackson Federal Constructing downtown. It’s one of many buildings proposed to be closed below what the [Associated Press] referred to as “a frenetic and error-riddled push by Elon Musk’s budget-cutting advisers.”
It was like a Melancholy-era scene, he mentioned, with a queue 50-deep jockeying for the attentions of two tellers. The workers had been type however beleaguered.
“They are so understaffed down there,” he mentioned. “They think the office is about to be closed down, and they don’t know where they’re going to go. It feels like the agency’s being gutted.”
Musk has additionally pushed cuts to medical analysis into new remedies for ailments like most cancers and diabetes. The cuts have led to layoffs and hiring freezes at main analysis establishments.
What’s extra, Musk’s DOGE has additionally tried to fireside tens of 1000’s of federal staff, together with 1000’s of veterans, with tens of 1000’s of firings on the way in which.
These terminations have impacted (or quickly will impression) the livelihoods of public servants who earn pennies in contrast with Musk, the richest man on this planet, who’s main the cost to fireside them. In actual fact, most of the fired federal staff are struggling to acquire unemployment advantages as they search for new work. Why? Musk’s DOGE lied that the employees had been being fired for efficiency causes, which might stop them from acquiring these advantages.
And firing that many authorities workers may impression the administration of presidency packages—together with Social Safety, Medicaid, and veterans’ well being care.
And to high off the hurt Musk has induced, economists say the DOGE-led cuts may assist plunge the U.S. financial system right into a recession, which might trigger ache for tens of millions of Individuals.
So sure, Musk has completed so many dangerous issues. Fact be instructed, it’s a marvel the protests towards him aren’t greater.
