‘Most of That Is Foolishness’: Whitehouse on Musk’s Plans to Cut $2T from the Federal Budget

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
SHARPTON: “Now, you are the chair of the Senate budget committee. And a number of economists have warned that Trump’s fiscal proposals could spark an economic catastrophe. On that note, Trump has discussed his intention to put tech billionaire Elon Musk in charge of cutting $2 trillion from the federal budget in the name of efficiency. We will remind our viewers that Trump’s win appears to have already added roughly $15 billion to Musk’s network. What does it mean for the nation, the Democrats have lost the Senate with Donald Trump returning to the White House.”

WHITEHOUSE: “Well, if Elon Musk wants to make those kind of cuts to federal spending he needs to go back and read about a guy named David Stockman, who tried to do that as Reagan’s budget director . what he tried was so unpopular, even with Republicans, but it blew up in his face and he was famously taken to the woodshed by Ronald Reagan, or at least pretended that he had been. So I think most of that is foolishness. I think that the budget problem we are going to face is that climate change is starting to disrupt insurance markets in really significant ways. Florida is the epicenter of that problem. And if you can’t get home insurance, you can’t get a mortgage. If you can’t get a mortgage, it is hard to find a buyer for your house. And the end of the insurance to mortgaged property value cascade is what the chief economist for freddie mac, the mortgage company, not a green group, described as a coastal property values crash. And we are seeing its twin in wildfire country, as well. I think back to the looming economic danger, of course, Trump pretends that this is all a hoax and pays no attention to the reality of it. So we are headed for the cliff.”