https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-wants-elon-musk-focused-on-government-efficiency-critics-say-key-services-perhaps-social-security-could-be-in-his-sights-133841206.htmlWhen Donald Trump recently endorsed Tesla CEO Elon Musk's idea for a government efficiency commission, he claimed that an audit of the federal government would turn up trillions in savings "for the same service that you have right now."
It's an idea that Trump has continued to tout including as recently as yesterday. But critics have been quick to point out that the math likely doesn't add up. There's simply little evidence of that level of fraud in the federal government.
Trump has nevertheless called Musk "the greatest cutter," citing his layoffs at social media company X (formerly Twitter) as a model.
The idea for taking that approach to Washington, which neither Trump nor Musk has gone into detail on exactly which cuts they'd prioritize, also comes after Washington has for decades tried to tackle "waste, fraud, and abuse" with commissions that propose big ideas but often end up having limited effects.
"That is absurd," noted former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich in a recent interview about the notion that a potential Musk commission could succeed without massive cuts to government services.
Reich is a prominent foe of both Trump and Musk and is part of a chorus of left-leaning critics. He noted that half of the approximately $6 trillion in annual federal spending is tied to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
There's very little to do for those programs beyond benefit cuts in what Reich calls a "quarter-baked idea."
