Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk told former President Donald Trump during their “chat” on X on Monday night that the U.S. should establish a commission to address the federal government’s spending crisis, and he would serve on it.
“A lot of people just don’t understand where inflation comes from. Inflation comes from government overspending because the checks never bounce when it’s written by the government,” Musk said.
“So if the government spends far more than it brings in, that increases the money supply, and if the money supply increases faster than the rate of goods and services, that’s inflation,” he continued.
“So really, we need to reduce our government spending. And I think we need a government efficiency commission to say, ‘Where are we spending money that’s sensible, and where is it not sensible,’” Musk argued.
Trump agreed.
“And we need to live within our means,” Musk then stated. “We’re currently adding, I think, a trillion dollars to the deficit, roughly every hundred days. The interest payments on the national debt now exceed the defense budget. It’s on the order of a trillion dollars. It keeps growing.”
Elon Musk tells Trump that he would like to work on a Government Efficiency Commission to cut out wasteful government spending that is driving inflation.
Trump responds by saying, “I’d love it” and calls Musk “the greatest cutter” of inefficiencies inside organizations. pic.twitter.com/wiGMy4PfFM
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) August 13, 2024
Trump responded that such a commission to root out government waste would be good.
Do you support Musk’s commission idea?
“The waste is incredible, and nobody negotiates prices,” Trump said.
Trump cited the example of a Boeing contract to build new Air Force One planes that he renegotiated after taking office in 2017.
The price was to be $5.7 billion for two planes, which the 45th president said he brought down by $1.6 billion.
“I think it would be great just to have a government efficiency commission that takes a look at these things and ensures that the taxpayers’ money, the taxpayer’s hard earned money, is spent in a good way, and I’d be happy to help out on such a commission,” Musk offered.
“I’d love it. You’re the greatest cutter,” Trump replied. “You would be very good. You would love it.”
President Ronald Reagan established a commission in 1982 made up of “experts from the private sector” to find ways to cut wasteful government spending chaired by businessman J. Peter Grace.
“During his Administration, growth in government spending plummeted from 10 percent in 1982, to just over 1 percent in 1987. With inflation factored in, Federal spending actually went down in 1987 — the first time that had happened in well over a decade,” according to the Reagan Foundation.
Trump offered the example of Argentine President Javier Milei as to what can be done to cut government overspending and thereby inflation.
Fox Business reported, “In May, the Latin American nation saw its best month since Milei took office in December, when the monthly inflation rate cooled to 4.2 percent before inching up to 4.6 percent in June — a significant reduction from the three-decade high of 25.5 percent incurred by the end of 2023.”
Part of Milei’s remedy has included getting rid of about 70,000 public workers and reducing government pensions.
These difficult choices had to be made because of previous administration’s choices.
“[Venezuela] should be prosperous, but if the government’s wrong, it impoverishes the people,” Musk said. “And so I think we should not be complacent in the United States in taking our prosperity for granted, because with bad government policy we can run the country into the ground.”
Last week, Musk responded to a series of posts on X that started with remarks Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris made at a campaign event in Wisconsin.
“We believe in a future where we lower the cost of living for America’s families, so that they have a chance not just to get by, but to get ahead. Because while our economy is doing well by many measures, prices for everyday things like groceries are still too high,” she said.
Harris then blamed corporations for charging too much for their products and said that she would go after price-fixing schemes and establish government imposed price controls.
So her assessment of the primary cause of inflation in the U.S. is that companies and landlords had become greedy during the Biden administration and unfairly raised their prices.
Musk echoed Reagan’s 1981 inaugural address when the nation was experiencing double-digit inflation. The newly-minted 40th president said, “In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem.”
The rise in prices (inflation) is caused by government overspending, which increases the amount of money faster than the increase in goods & services output.
That is the vast majority of the problem.
Inflation was particularly bad during the Covid years, as there was massive… https://t.co/G9s6OKvZyO
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 9, 2024
Musk posted on X, “The rise in prices (inflation) is caused by government overspending, which increases the amount of money faster than the increase in goods & services output.”
“This [over spending] is further exacerbated by excess regulation,” Musk argued, “which prevents the market from solving an unmet need (eg housing in high-demand areas).”
