Yesterday I called the offices of Senator Marsha Blackburn, Senator Bill Hagerty and Rep. Chuck Fleischmann and asked them to uphold their oaths of office by speaking out against the unconstitutional activities happening at the US Treasury. So far they’ve had nothing to say.
With no legal authority or security clearances, Elon Musk and six tech-savvy young men, ages 19 to 24, have gained access to the U.S. Treasury payment system. These government computers contain classified information as well as the personal information of every American who pays federal taxes or receives federal benefits. Essentially it’s a massive data breach. We are the victims. And it’s being facilitated from within.
Musk is bragging online that he’s stopping the federal funding of programs that he doesn’t personally approve of. He doesn’t have the authority to do that, any more than you or me.
Only Congress has “the power of the purse.” Even the President doesn’t have the constitutional authority to withhold federal funds that Congress has appropriated. Nixon tried it, which is why there’s now a law against it.
Musk’s first target was USAID, established by an act of Congress under John F. Kennedy. He now has his sights on the IRS and the U.S. Department of Education.
What anyone thinks of the targeted agencies is irrelevant. The data breach was criminal. The withholding of federal funds is unconstitutional.
My father was 17 years old when he swore to defend the Constitution as a U.S. Marine. He was 36 years old when he was killed in action. Now our Constitution has been violated, and my elected officials—who never miss a photo op with veterans and our men and women in uniform—can’t be bothered to open their mouths about it. Are they complicit, or just cowards? I don’t know. But I’m disgusted.
Allison Gorman
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Is the Constitutional crisis the fact that someone is looking at what moneys are being spent, or that Congress has not done their job well? The United States government has spent more money than they have taken in since at least the days of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Yes, there were a few years under Bill Clinton that they did not run a deficit.
No one can spend more than their income indefinitely. I can’t, you can’t, the government can’t. There are three ways to fix this: one, increase revenue, more taxes or two, cut spending. And three, a mix of one and two. I do not want higher taxes, and I doubt anyone else does either. Raising corporate taxes will raise prices and send more jobs out of the country. How do we cut spending if we don’t know what we are spending, and what we are spending it on?
We may not like how President Trump tries to resolve this, however it must be done. Our elected representatives have refused to address this issue for much to long. It would have been much easier a long time ago. If George W. Bush had continued from Bill Clinton’s balanced budget we would now be much better off. If we do not stop digging this hole, we will be buried in it.
George Odom
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I share Ms. Gorman’s concern about Elon Musk’s access to highly restrictive government data and agree that his recent actions constitute a dire constitutional crisis. Like Ms. Gorman, I am disappointed that we haven't heard indignation from elected officials or, at the very least, concern.
Musk was named head of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, established to identify and address budgetary waste and operating under executive order with little congressional oversight. Musk, unelected and unvetted, is considered a special government employee, a status that subjects him to the same guidelines that govern regular federal employees such as being prohibited from involvement in areas that affect their financial interests. Musk holds billions of dollars in government contracts through his companies, Tesla and SpaceX, creating an obvious and concerning conflict of interest that has not been addressed.
Only days after being sworn in as Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent granted Musk and his team at the access to the federal payment system which handles over $5 trillion annually in federal payment services – including Social Security, Medicare, IRS refunds, veteran benefits, federal grants, and government contractors. These records include personal information like names, social security numbers, addresses, health and welfare information and business information such as government contracts and payments, businesses in direct competition with Musk’s companies.
Musk and his team, with questionable security clearances, were given access to sensitive government data which violates several federal statutes established to prohibit disclosure of personal data, mandate strict security control for IT systems, and criminalize improper use of government data.
Why are our elected representatives silent about such egregious violations? Many people, like Mr. Odom, may not understand the implications. Others, like our senators, may have lost their way or believe this is another political stunt. Either way, to be silent is to be complicit.
Elisabeth Zachary
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Mr. Odom completely missed the entire point of Allison Gorman's commentary and did not offer a lucid counterpoint. He did not speak to the subject matter of Ms. Gorman's letter, neither to agree with the actions that DJT has allowed DOGE to undertake nor to disagree with those unconstitutional actions. By the tone of his response, we can assume that he tacitly approves of the intrusion into the financial data of every American by a cabal of unvetted tech geeks with the approval of DJT under the auspices of improving "government efficiency". The implementation of DOGE and its apparent ability to sidestep security protocols is the issue.
No American who fathoms the enormity of our debt will argue that we should be living within our means and that it is imperative to reduce that debt (see the example of our debt at the end). Ms. Gorman correctly stated that Congress alone holds the power of the purse. Laws can be initiated as a part of a president's agenda but Congress makes the laws and they are signed into law by the president. A federal law can only be changed by an act of Congress, not by the person sitting in the Oval Office because he or she doesn't agree with it and chooses to circumvent it, i.e. break the law.
The blitzkrieg of executive orders with which DJT has littered Washington D.C. in his first 14 days in office has had its intended effect, that is to shock and awe the American citizenry and batter us into submission and further divide us. Allowing DOGE to access the financial data of the US Treasury is only one example of how DJT and his minions are trying to gut the federal government, and doing so in his "lightning war" fashion is definitely not efficient as implied in the acronym DOGE.
I too have contacted Senators Blackburn and Haggerty, and I do not expect a reply, certainly not one that will assuage my misgivings about Elon Musk and DOGE. I expect that our two senators, because of the R behind their names, will back DJT and ignore their constituents' pleas to stop the insanity.
Yes, we are all for reducing the national debt. To allow a handful of unvetted, unrestrained kids to gain access to what was, until now, highly secured data just because the richest man in the world convinced DJT that he can reduce our debt overnight is a preposterous notion. The potential danger to the financial data to which these kids have been granted access should alarm every clear thinking citizen irrespective of his or her political leaning or affiliation.
(A stack of one thousand crisp $1,000 bills is one million dollars and is seven inches tall. A stack of crisp $1,000 bills that total one trillion dollars is 7 million inches or 110 miles tall. Let me repeat that.....not laid end to end, but a stack of $1,000 bills 110 miles tall. Our 32 trillion dollar, and counting, national debt is a stack of $1,000 bills over 3,500 miles tall. That is 14 times the distance between earth and the orbit of the International Space Station).
Woody Sibold
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Why is it a constitutional crisis to have an audit of the taxpayers money? The revelations already made known of the waste and abuse from the USAID is only a drop in the bucket of the fraud and corruption within the government.
As the hand wringing goes on about Elon Musk and his young team of individuals working to audit the overreaching excesses by bureaucrats who are flagrantly misappropriating taxpayer funds to pet liberal projects worldwide, let me remind those of you that these folks (USAID) are not elected either and they have been abusing their position for decades. So much for that argument about Elon and his team being unelected. I have seen several news outlets including a few liberal media reporting that Elon and his team do have security clearances.
I too have contacted all my state representatives and whole heartedly encourage and support this process to evaluate the fraud, money laundering and spending spree that this government is consumed with.
All one has to do is a little research and the lists of what USAID has wasted millions of dollars on will blow your mind. Even millions of dollars going to terrorist organizations per (WSJ and National News desk) much less $50 million for condoms in Gaza. Go look for yourself - it will make you mad or at least it should. I’ve paid thousands to the IRS in taxes over the years and it’s offensive that my hard earned money goes to this corruption.
I hope the newly sworn in AG Pam Bondi opens an investigation into the mismanagement and those in leadership of this corrupt USAID organization be brought to justice.
There is no data breach. I have seen videos of Elon Musk in the media, as well as President Trump, and they have clearly stated that whatever Elon finds he reports to the president and then President Trump makes the decisions. Elon is doing a great service to this nation by auditing and exposing the truth about this government.
The White House press spokesperson Ms. Leavitt stated just yesterday that no essential government services such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and others were affected by any funding pauses.
The Democrat politicians just this past evening at the Capitol were raving and ranting, cursing, “We are at war” stirring up discontent and seemingly trying to invoke violence as Maxine Waters who was one of the speakers has previously done towards the Supreme Court justices along with Chuck Schumer.
Why do the Democrats not want accountability with the taxpayers' money? Maybe it’s because Elon has found their slush fund of corruption and that includes Republicans and Democrats. NGO’s and the likes being funneled money. Next audit that congressional slush fund that pays off plaintiffs who come forward with sexual allegations against members of Congress. I would truly like to see that list of payments and the members who are on that list.
Let’s face it folks, our government is corrupt to the core and it’s way past time to start the recovery process of reeling in this out of control bureaucracy.
Next, IRS and the Department of Education and don’t just stop there, audit the entire government and its agencies.
I shudder to think what a mess we are leaving our children and grandchildren if this government isn’t brought back in to reality and fiscal responsibility.
Arch Tinker