Co-President Elon Musk went on Fox Information Tuesday evening to whine about protests at Tesla automotive dealerships throughout the nation, claiming he has no concept why anybody can be mad at him, since he is only a benevolent man making an attempt to assist People.
“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 stated in a Fox Information look Tuesday evening. “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 accomplished extraordinarily dangerous issues since he bankrolled President Donald Trump’s 2024 marketing campaign and wormed his method right into a nebulous and highly effective function throughout the federal authorities.
By way of his so-called Division of Authorities Effectivity, Musk has satisfied Trump to disregard the regulation and lower congressionally permitted funding, shutter authorities businesses, and make it more durable for People 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 Growth—which a federal decide dominated on Tuesday violated the regulation—has led folks in impoverished nations to die, together with an 10-year-old boy and an 8-year-old woman who had been receiving HIV remedy by way of a USAID program, The New York Instances reported. Shuttering USAID and the applications it ran to feed the ravenous and deal with the sick may trigger a whole bunch of 1000’s of individuals to die from starvation or illnesses. And people illnesses may unfold to the US if they don’t seem to be stored beneath management.
As a part of DOGE’s push, the Social Safety Administration introduced new adjustments on Tuesday that may power aged and disabled folks to confirm their identities on-line fairly than over the cellphone. If aged persons 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 People who is likely to be too frail to journey or can not drive.
Even worse is that DOGE is chopping 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 because 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 stated in a publish 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 useless persons are receiving Social Safety advantages. And that lie has led DOGE to accuse dwelling folks of being useless and cancel their Social Safety and Medicare advantages.
One such particular person—82-year-old Ned Johnson—spoke to The Seattle Instances concerning the hell being accused of being useless has induced him. Johnson’s incorrect dying accusation led the federal government to take again $5,201 from his checking account, and canceled his Medicare advantages.
From The Seattle Instances’ report:
What adopted was an almost three-week battle to resurrect himself. He known as Social Safety two or 3 times a day for 2 weeks, with every name placed on maintain after which finally disconnected. Lastly somebody answered and gave him an appointment for March 13. Then he acquired 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 beneath what the [Associated Press] known as “a frenetic and error-riddled push by Elon Musk’s budget-cutting advisers.”
It was like a Melancholy-era scene, he stated, with a queue 50-deep jockeying for the attentions of two tellers. The workers had been variety however beleaguered.
“They are so understaffed down there,” he stated. “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 illnesses 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 the planet, who’s main the cost to fireside them. Actually, lots 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 forestall them from acquiring these advantages.
And firing that many authorities staff may impression the administration of presidency applications—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. economic system right into a recession, which might trigger ache for hundreds of thousands of People.
So sure, Musk has accomplished so many dangerous issues. Fact be instructed, it’s a surprise the protests in opposition to him aren’t greater.
