First watch this MSNBC introductory part of the story that lies ahead for the country vis-à-vis the Trump and Elon
Musk partnership that has formed that is hair-raising to the say the least with
this headline:
“GOP faces test with Elon Musk's threat to fund primary challengers for
Trump detractors”
We have a conjunction of massive wealth and massive political power
with the absence of accountability. Will anybody stand up and say, “Stop?”
The main story follow below:
From ALTERNET
an excellent article on Elon Musk and this startling yet true story headline concerning
money & power (with a few minor edits
and formatted to fit the blog):
“Here's what happens when the world's richest man buys the presidency |
Opinion”
Billionaires slash SS,
Medicare, and Medicaid programs to fund their own tax cuts: GOP legislators are
toying with reducing payouts under the system, including raising the retirement age and other benefit cuts.
A GOP representative recently told Fox Business Network: “We’re going to have to have some hard decisions on Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare.”
Trump’s GOP will be
making “hard choices,” meaning they will be cutting benefits, in order to
fund tax cuts for wealthy donors.
Trump tapped Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, to slash government programs and regulations through a
not-yet-existent
Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Musk and Ramaswamy went to Capitol Hill last week to talk up
their plans under DOGE, after which GOP lawmakers publicly
confirmed that “everything, including Social Security and Medicare,
is now on the table.”
What’s not on the GOP’s table is fairly taxing billionaires like Musk and Ramaswamy,
including requiring them to pay their fair share of social security taxes.
During America’s “golden” years, the wealthy paid their
fair share in taxes: Many voters do not understand that oligarchs, CEOs,
heirs, and the uber-rich pay far lower taxes today than they used to. From the
1930s until the mid-1980s, America’s top earners paid over 60% of their income
in taxes, and the percent fluctuated according to federal need. On social
security alone, if they paid into social security at the same rate as the lower
& middle classes, the fund would remain solvent and be able to expand
benefits instead of slashing them.
At present, social security taxes are capped for the wealthy, meaning, they stop paying social security taxes at a certain level which is far below their actual earnings.
In 2024, the Social Security tax cap is set at $168,600,
meaning income over that amount is not subject to any social security tax
whatsoever.
What happens when the
world's richest man buys the presidency: For billionaires like Musk and
Ramaswamy, only $168,000 out of their millions & billions in annual income is
subject to social security taxes, and the rest is social security tax free. Although
tax-adverse conservatives would beg to differ, subjecting full, high wealth
income to SS taxes would stabilize the fund.
Musk bought the
presidency to write his own rules:
1. Musk, with a
reported annual income of $141,475,524,215, spent over $250 million to get Trump elected through
dubious means including that short lived fraudulent lottery of $1 million a day.
2. Musk pays an effective tax rate of 3.27%. Musk paid $44 billion to purchase Twitter, which he then used to
amplify far right messaging and weaponize election disinformation.
3. Musk now manipulates algorithms on X to boost his own
opinion, and had special code written to force his posts into more people’s feeds whether they want them or not.
4. Musk’s own AI program identified him as the chief disinformation super
spreader of the 2024 campaign (according to the Center for Countering Digital Hate).
5. Musk’s false pro-Trump
election claims resulted in over 1.2 billion views on X.
6. Musk spending billions
to spread election disinformation and funding Trump PACs was just the cost of
doing business.
7. Musk has received at least $15.4 billion in federal
government contracts over the past ten years.
The snag is that lucrative federal contracts come with
not-so-lucrative regulatory oversight, as his SpaceX, Neuralink, and Tesla
have discovered.
When Space X discharged polluted/toxic water into nearby bodies of
water in Texas, for example, Musk found out that even in MAGA-crazed Gov. Greg
Abbott’s state, where they’re itching to build concentration camps for immigrants, some people still
prefer clean water.
For Musk, spending $250m to choose his own low-information
boss, re-write pesky regulations, and set his own tax rate was an obvious
bargain.
For the rest of us the oligarchy is firmly in charge, and we should brace for
program cuts and policies enriching the super-wealthy at everyone else’s expense.
But, the silver lining is
that economic disaster will make the 2026 election a cakewalk for Democrats,
but that assumes an exhausted population will still be paying
attention.
· What Bezos and Musk really want from Trump
· Chief
shareholder in the presidency: Musk on Trump-Zelenskyy Mar-a-Lago call fuels
fears
· Michigan
Secretary of State investigating Elon Musk Super PAC
· Problem for Tesla as Dems flee over Musk’s Trump endorsement:Sales may have peaked
· Horrified
Tesla owners feel embarrassed as anti-Musk sticker sales boom
My 2 cents: A good closing based on fine article and headline now
fits perfectly as I’ve said since Trump gave Musk carte blanc to run the nation
– which proves just how duped the Trump voters were when they believed he would
save us from all sort of disasters – oops!!!
All the above is a reminder
about Musk and Trump running the nation into what I see as gloom and well, just
more gloom and doom for us while those two gain more massive wealth for the
Trump family and Musk, USA. So, hang on tight the worse is yet to come.
Thanks for stopping by.
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