[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 25 (Thursday, February 6, 2025)]
[House]
[Page H511]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        ELON MUSK AND DEMOCRACY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. McClintock) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McCLINTOCK. Madam Speaker, hell hath no fury like the deep state 
scorned. That has become obvious from the over-the-top hysterics 
directed against Elon Musk as he turns over bureaucratic rocks and 
shines a light on what has been going on beneath them.
  What he has already exposed should infuriate and alarm every 
American. Millions of taxpayer dollars are covertly used to support a 
tax on the Democrats' political opponents, millions more to support 
far-left causes in this and other countries, millions of dollars that 
were supposed to defend Ukraine and that instead vanished into the 
pockets of Ukrainian businessmen, millions more to fund the Wuhan lab 
that unleashed COVID on the world, $15 million spent on condoms for the 
Taliban, millions more to support illegal aliens entering our country, 
and still millions more on promoting leftist gender ideology around the 
world.
  America is on the verge of bankruptcy, yet the elites within our 
government have no conscience at all as they hollow out the earnings of 
working Americans to fund their pet ideological causes. Instead of 
hanging their heads in shame, the Democrats actively defend this waste.
  Congress never voted to spend money in this manner. Unelected 
bureaucrats within the sprawling Federal labyrinth did this behind the 
backs not only of the American people but of their elected 
Representatives.
  They say the most closely guarded State secrets are not those marked 
``top secret'' but those considered embarrassing. By exposing this 
outrageous waste, Mr. Musk has embarrassed the Democrats, which is why 
they tried to bar him from opening the books for the American people to 
see. Now that those embarrassing secrets are being revealed, the left 
has reverted to its tired old habits of personal attacks and character 
assassination.
  The new boss hires an accountant. The accountant says: Joe, let's see 
the expense account records. Suddenly, it is a threat to democracy and 
a constitutional crisis. A threat to democracy? That is somewhat ironic 
from a party that just threw out a year's worth of primary elections 
when they didn't like the candidate that their own voters selected.
  It turned out their voters didn't like their unelected nominee 
either, and Americans instead elected Donald Trump as President with an 
overwhelming majority.
  To my Democratic colleagues, that is what is called democracy.
  The Democrats shout constitutional crisis. Do they not understand, 
that under our Constitution, executive power shall be vested in a 
President of the United States? All executive power flows from the 
President to his subordinates and advisers. That includes Elon Musk, as 
well as every bureaucrat at USAID.
  Under our Constitution, there is no executive power that is 
independent of the President. The difference is that Elon Musk is 
carrying out the policies that the people elected this government to 
pursue and the bureaucrats at USAID are not. That is a big problem in a 
democracy.
  The Democrats tell us that it is undemocratic for the democratically 
elected President to question how the unelected bureaucracy is 
executing the laws, laws that the President is elected to uphold. How 
can a President faithfully execute the laws if he and his deputies 
cannot see clearly and accurately where the public money is going, 
verify that it is being spent in accordance with the law, and put a 
stop to it when it is not?
  The true threat to democracy is an entrenched ruling class that 
operates entirely outside the control of the duly elected 
representatives of the people. Once that takes root, elections become 
meaningless because the people's decisions at the ballot box are no 
longer executed by their government. The Federal bureaucracy 
increasingly acts independently and often in defiance of the people's 
choices.
  That was the story of the first Trump Presidency. It must not be the 
story of the second or of any future Presidency because it is the very 
definition of a tyranny, a government operating outside the control of 
the people. That is what the Democrats are now advocating.
  In his Gettysburg Address, Lincoln noted the great task remaining 
before us. He offered a prayer, really, ``that this Nation, under God, 
shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, 
by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the Earth.''
  That remains the great question and the great challenge of our 
generation. It is a destiny that we must fulfill.

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