Elon Musk vs. The Federal Budget

KERA's Think

KERA

Society & Culture, 071003, Kera, Think, Krysboyd

4.8 • 861 Ratings

🗓️ 17 December 2024

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have promised to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget with their Department of Government Efficiency. Simon Rabinovitch is U.S. economics editor for The Economist, and he joins host Krys Boyd to discuss how it may actually be possible to generate significant cost cutting – but not in the time frame the president-elect is hoping for. His article is “How to make Elon Musk’s budget-slashing dreams come true.”

Transcript

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0:00.0	Americans have differing views on whether two entrepreneurs who have never served in government are qualified to set fire to the federal budget as we know it.
0:18.2	But President-elect Trump believes that Elon Musk and Vivek
0:21.9	Ramoswamy are indeed up to the job, and he's tapped them to head an advisory panel they are
0:26.9	calling the Department of Government Efficiency. The payer have promised to cut the budget by something
0:32.1	like $2 trillion in a single year. So let's take up the biggest question on the minds of both supporters
0:38.6	and opponents of the Doge, as it is called for short, is that even possible? From KERA in Dallas,
0:46.1	this is think. I'm Chris Boyd. The short answer is an emphatic no, at least not in that 12-month
0:52.8	time frame. But my guest has taken a serious look at where
0:56.1	these government efficiency advisors might look to cut federal expenditures and finds that while
1:01.2	the timeline seems to be a fantasy, the bottom line may not be. Simon Rabinovich is a U.S.
1:07.1	economics editor at The Economist, where you can read his article, How to Make Elon Musk's Budget Slashing Dreams come true.
1:14.1	Simon, welcome to think.
1:16.2	Thank you, Chris. Great to be here.
1:18.1	So before we get into how and where these budget cuts could feasibly happen, we ought to talk a little about how this Department of Government Efficiency might work.
1:26.7	For one thing, it's not actually a
1:28.9	department at all, at least not in the classic sense. Yeah, that's right. It's really an advisory
1:36.1	group and a two-person advisory group at that. So it's been variously described as a Blue Ribbon commission or an advisory group or an in-government think tank.
1:49.5	But it doesn't have any kind of official power.
1:53.3	The power will reside in the fact that at least for the time being, both Mr. Musk and Mr. Ramoswami appear to have Donald Trump's ear, and, you know,
2:02.9	therefore they will wield a great deal of influence. But actually implementing any of the
2:09.0	recommendations will be challenging, no matter how powerful Trump is and how much control he has
2:15.3	over the White House. Ultimately ultimately it's the Congress that
	...

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