Dem
47
GOP
53
We've been planning this for a while, and today the day has arrived. Regular reader A.R. in Los Angeles is being promoted to "regular contributor." Let's let her introduce herself (note that this contains references to our site bios):
Alison Regan is a not-so-mild-mannered resident of Los Angeles who serves as General Counsel for a local municipal agency. She has worked as an adjunct professor at UCLA School of Law, teaching trial advocacy and pre-trial litigation. Her early career was as a trial lawyer practicing in the area of employment discrimination. Probably her most important qualification, besides her legal practice, is her term as president of a local neighborhood council. Once you've survived that cauldron of pitchforks and torches, everything else is easy by comparison.
She advocates for fair and equitable legal processes, good and ethical governance, and an independent and impartial judiciary as a check on political power. When not holding powerful people accountable, Alison loves to chase plastic as an avid ultimate frisbee player with the occasional triathlon thrown in for variety. Unlike (Z) and (V), she has no talent for photography or cooking, though she's handy at the piano during the holidays.
When she's acting as a normal reader—say, Sunday letters—Alison will keep her normal initials and city. When she's contributing, she'll be (L), for Belva Ann Bennett Lockwood (L). Lockwood ran for president of the U.S. in 1884 and 1888 as the candidate for the Equal Rights Party, and was the first woman attorney to be admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, having drafted the legislation that made it legal to do so.
(L)'s weekly contributions will be primarily in areas where we do not have expertise, and she does, like law, bureaucracy, and reproductive rights. It's going to take a few cycles for us to get everything in sync, so please be patient. That said, here is her first official contribution:
Co-president Elon Musk (whose livelihood depends on government contracts) and Vivek Ramaswamy (whose livelihood... hmmm, what does he do again?) are set to head up a Trump initiative—erroneously titled a "department"—on so-called government efficiency. It's safe to say that efficiency is not really the goal. The real goal is more subtle. Their latest idea is to eliminate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, one of the few agencies that prevents American consumers from being ripped off by con men and grifters with enormous power and influence. The SEC is also reportedly on the chopping block. You see where we are heading?
The Bobs have already said the quiet part out loud about their mission: "Our opponent is the bureaucracy." That means that "efficiency" is just shorthand for reducing oversight and regulations that affect billionaires like Bob 1 (and his businesses) and increasing the tax dollars flowing to them. That's not how most define efficiency, but these billionaires have a penchant for manipulating language in a way that George Orwell would envy.
There are substantial direct benefits to Musk and his businesses from a hollowed-out bureaucracy. In 2015, The Los Angeles Times reported that Musk's Tesla empire separately benefited from $4.9 billion in government subsidies in various forms including grants, tax breaks, factory construction, discounted loans and Tesla buyer tax credits and rebates. SpaceX has signed federal contracts worth nearly $20 billion; in 2008, the $1.6 billion in taxpayer funds it received saved the company from bankruptcy. SpaceX just signed another $3 billion contract to design a vehicle to take astronauts to the moon. If Musk would just stop sucking at the government teat, that would save the government untold billions.
There are also indirect benefits. All of Musk's companies, including The Boring Company, Neuralink, X, and xAI have faced scrutiny from federal regulators, some of which have cited the companies for violations. Musk does not like this and wants it to stop. How does firing all the government employees who are going after him for violating laws and contracts sound? Peachy, no? It saves the taxpayers money! An AP report says "The incoming administration is seeded with Musk allies, including venture capitalist and former PayPal executive David Sacks serving as the 'White House A.I. and Crypto Czar' and Jared Isaacman, a tech billionaire who bought a series of spaceflights from Musk's SpaceX, named to lead NASA." He also wants to limit the oversight of SpaceX by the FAA and by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which is examining the environmental impact of its South Texas launch facility.
A recent article from the Harvard Business Review argues that the government should be more effective, not necessarily more efficient. A functioning bureaucracy that is legally insulated from politics (as it is now) protects and serves the public. Their work is critical to maintaining the checks and balances that form the foundation of our democracy. They work across administrations regardless of party because the laws they carry out carry over from one administration to the next. Those laws can't be ignored or bypassed by an administration wanting to concentrate power in the office of the president.
The bottom line is that the bureaucracy is one of the public's last lines of defense against a would-be authoritarian, and these overt attacks by those motivated by profit and power demonstrate just how critical it is to democracy's survival. Co-president Musk probably can't believe his luck that he has amassed this much power in the U.S. government without receiving a single vote. Nice work if you can get it. (L)
We won't actually indent future contributions like this; we just had to do it because of the intro text. Anyhow, look for the next one next Wednesday. And if you have subjects you would like to hear about, (L) is certainly happy to have suggestions. (Z)