The column below reflects the views of the author, and these opinions are neither endorsed nor supported by WisOpinion.com.
Musk is a multitasker: receiving over $38 billion from the federal government for his business empire, despite new multiple conflicts of interest while using his Trump “appointed position” to win additional government contracts; forcing out or firing “some 100,000 federal workers” (NYT), with tens of thousands more to be fired; and shamelessly spending $19.5 million on the Wisconsin Supreme Court election to defeat Susan Crawford. Musk is also financing “dirty tricks” to win.
Musk says he is intervening in the Supreme Court election to guarantee a GOP-led House: “It could cause the House to switch to Democrats if that redrawing takes place (legal challenges to gerrymandered congressional districts), and then we wouldn’t be able to get through the changes that the American people want.” It’s horrendous that the corrupt billionaire bully is trying to buy Wisconsin while feathering his financial nest in Wisconsin and across the country. However, keep your eyes on Musk as he dismantles the federal government.
It’s the federal programs and services delivered by all federal employees to Wisconsinites that will be dramatically impaired by Musk’s program cuts and firings. Wisconsin is getting shafted. Musk is engineering a return to the 1920s. Let’s look at how the mass firings and agency dissolutions will impact Social Security, farmers, health care and veterans.
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Musk, like Wisconsin GOP Senator Ron Johnson, calls Social Security “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.” They are lying. Social Security is a beloved program, earned and paid by taxpayers, for retirement, survivors and disability benefits for 73 million Americans, including 1.2 million Wisconsinites. However, mass firings, closing of Social Security offices and restricting phone inquiries have led to chaos and panic. Congressional office phones are ringing off the hook. Will Social Security collapse and be privatized?
Farmers are also being shafted. The dismantling of the Agency for International Development resulted in American farmers’ losing a $2.1 billion market to feed the world’s hungry. Similarly, the Department of Agriculture has halted over $1.5 billion in purchases of food and meat from farmers for schools and food banks. About 300 Wisconsin farms and hungry Wisconsinites got shafted. Wisconsin Democratic Governor Tony Evers said Musk and Trump “were turning their backs on America’s Dairyland and betraying out farmers.” Moreover, Trump’s trade wars will compound the damages.
Then there’s Medicaid. At Musk and Trump’s insistence, the GOP-led House voted to cut $880 billion from Medicaid and Medicare to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy. All Wisconsin GOP representatives voted yes. Over 1 million Wisconsinites are covered by Medicaid, 57% outside of Milwaukee, disproportionately in rural areas (nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office and Kaiser Family Foundation). What about Medicare (covers 1.2 million Wisconsinites)?
Finally, mass firings at the Department of Veterans Affairs screwed over employed veterans. More mass firings are being scheduled. Health care and benefits services will be cruelly impaired by heartless Musk. Be angry. Despair is not an option. Protest. And, vote on Tuesday, April 1 for Susan Crawford and teach the billionaire bully a lesson. Stop the shafting of Wisconsin.
-Kaplan wrote a guest column from Washington, D.C., for the Wisconsin State Journal from 1995 – 2009.
