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Photo: Jabin Botsford / The Washington Post via Getty Images
With the support From President Donald Trump, Elon Musk embarked on an unconstitutional outburst against the federal government. The richest man in the world is trying to close the main agencies and programs that protect the health, well-being and prosperity of millions of Americans. He has pushed mass layoffs, silenced the federal agencies and accessed massive quantities of confidential government data.
Of course, Musk has important personal interests on the table. Its two large companies, Spacex and Tesla, have both greatly American government funding and policies. And thanks to his links with Trump, the richness of Musk has radically bloated. According to Bloomberg, its net value increased by $ 200 billion In the past year only, due to a large part of market expectations that its companies will earn much more money during the presidency of Trump.
If Musk’s government contracts and policies were credible, its recent paper gains would shrink or disappear.
But with all this wealth generated by the government comes a significant vulnerability. If Musk’s government contracts and policies were credible, its recent paper gains would shrink or disappear. Musk, of course, would remain incredibly rich and powerful. But if his actions in Washington significantly harm his businesses, shareholders’ pressure and his own results could force him to limit his oblique bars campaign against the federal government. And just as important, a campaign targeting Musk would make life to the Democratic Party at a time when he rushes.
How can all this be accomplished? The first step is that Congress members adopt a solid public position against government contracts granted to Musk companies. From there, elected officials should begin to transform their declared opposition into real votes. The most powerful tool for this is in the hands of the American Senate: the filibustier. Forty -one American senators could use the filibusier to block most of the laws that allow the financing of musk companies. With 53 Republicans, 45 democrats and two independents in the Senate, such a push is digitally possible, although politically difficult.
Normally, I support the Abolition of obstruction Because he has long used to undermine the promulgation of popular progressive policies. But with a billionaire oligarch who has made Roughshods throughout the US government, we must use the tools we can to prevent massive and sustainable damage.
Currently, the market is enriching Musk and its companies for their close association with Trump. SpaceX assessment increased from $ 210 billion has $ 350 billion In December 2024, a month after Trump’s re -election. Tesla stock Rose briefly last week according to a report that the State Department could spend $ 400 million in Tesla’s “armored electric vehicles”. But if the market sees that a public offices of Musk’s policy becomes a substantial threat to the income of its companies, Tesla and SpaceX will lose value. This would in turn generate new titles, controversial and perhaps above all, financial costs for Musk and its investors. Musk’s companies would find it difficult because of his toxic involvement in politics, and he would face pressure to withdraw.
It is worth taking a moment to recognize how much money the US government pays in musk companies. SpaceX received almost $ 20 billion In government contracts, and private society is now the most precious startup in the world. Musk would have Has 42% of SpaceX.
Then, there is Tesla, who benefited considerably from government incentives for people to buy electric vehicles. These incentives gave car manufacturers thousands of dollars when buying a Tesla, which facilitated billing more than the market than the market would normally allow it. It was essentially free money for his business at a time when he desperately needed money to keep Tesla afloat. Now it is planned that Trump will delete THE Incitations created under the law on the reduction of Biden inflation This facilitates the purchase of electric vehicles. This actually helps Tesla more, because it would make more difficult for other car manufacturers to catch up by promoting the purchase of their own electric vehicles.
Despite the political power of an obstacle of Musk’s richness, many American senators are likely to withstand the voting strategy to block Musk contracts. First and foremost, politicians are not used to choosing fights with billionaires. Musk spent a quarter of a billion dollars Help trump be electedAnd it is easy to imagine him seeking revenge against the elected officials who oppose him. It is unlikely that it dissuades senators like Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders, but it could have an impact Those who have narrower races in purple states. Indeed, many Republicans and Democrats have in fact gone of the SpaceX political action committee.
There is also reality that the injury of Musk’s wealth would trigger a reaction from others that would also be negatively affected. The most powerful among these would probably include SpaceX investors, Tesla shareholders and even certain sectors of the cryptographic community which invest in the memes Doges favored by Musc. And if federal contracts for SpaceX or Tesla have sucked – or if the investors feared that they could – there would be job losses in these companies. Of course, it should be remembered that a hypothetical blow to Tesla or SpaceX would open up market space – and the jobs that accompany it – via rival companies that also want Sell or electric cars.
But the main reason why elected officials would resist the difficulty of musk using this strategy is that the bills of authorization and credits which allow the financing of its companies also finance many other interests and programs. The financing of the SpaceX and Tesla contracts goes through several federal credits – including for the Ministry of Defense, the State Department and NASA. The obstruction of these bills would mean delaying the distribution and expenditure of large sums of money, potentially arousing the type of chaos caused by government closings or by Trump movements has freeze foreign aid. And that chaos creates an opportunity for a political rival to launch a criticism or an attack.
Despite these difficulties, what is pressure for a legislative attack against the richness of Musk, such a powerful opportunity is that Musk himself is deeply unpopular among democratic voters. Two economist / Yougov polls carried out in November 2024 And Earlier this month Show that the percentage of democrats who see musk has always remained very high at 79% and 82%, respectively.
Musk’s support among republican voters also changes. The same polls reveal that 80% of Republicans see Musk favorably. But the percentage of republicans who want Musk to have “a lot” of influence in the Trump administration has dropped considerably in the last 3 months, from 47% to 26%. For the self -employed, this number increased from 26% to 6%. And for Democrats, the number went from only 15% to 6%. The main thing is that pushing legislative strategies to attack or block the richness of Musk is not only healthy for our democracy, it also makes an intelligent policy.
Putting legislative strategies to attack or blocking the wealth of Musk is not only healthy for our democracy, it also makes an intelligent policy.
In recent years, the Democratic Party has struggled among the voters of the working class. It is largely because it has suffered from a fundamental inability to define who are the opponents of the American working class. This failure to “strike” by naming and criticizing the holders of concentrated wealth has created a void in which Trump and other Republicans are able to strike, tell the story that the Americans of the working class suffer because of the undocumented immigrants,, transgenderAnd Diversity, equity and inclusion. Target Musk with a campaign to cut its access to US government contracts offers a unique redemption opportunity – and the reconstruction of political power.
But even with Trump and Musk on the offense, some leaders of the Democratic Party continue to operate from a strangely passive and obsolete game book. The head of the minority of the house, Hakeem Jeffries, demonstrated it both in his recent interview with Jon Stewart and in his report criticism progressive organizations like Moveon and indivisible, which have enlightened The switching panels of the offices of the Democratic Congress with Ask to fight harder. Fortunately, Advance organizations And the basic networks are not released. A painting of community requirementsprotest, and legal proceedings were launched to energize elected officials and block the many secret and illegal actions.
Progressive organizations are often at their best when they resist right attacks. But we have long need an offensive strategy that directly targets the interests of those who have decided to destroy the social state. Musk is the perfect target for plea networks and activists, and his dependence on the financing of the United States government creates a clear argument to explain why the apathetic democrats should begin to act.