Sanders: ‘What Musk is doing is illegal’

[The Duke]

Sanders is correct. Elmo is GUTTING an agency created by Congress. The Executive can not do that.

This agency had 4,000 employees. Elmo has cut it to less than 300.

well that is outrageous
there should only be about 50 left

Typical leftists. You never stopped to think WHY USAID has 4,000 employees.

 

[EvilCat Breath]

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5130245-sanders-musk-doge-oligarchy/

by Sarah Fortinsky - 02/06/25
[snippet]
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said Wednesday some of the bold steps that billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk has taken to tackle waste in the federal government are “illegal.”
“Nothing wrong with looking for waste in the kinds of bureaucracy that exist. I think we can do a whole lot to get rid of the waste, the fraud, the excessive bureaucracy that exists in government — especially, by the way, in the Defense Department,” Sanders said Wednesday on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360.”
“What is wrong right now is one simple reality: What Musk is doing is illegal and unconstitutional,” Sanders added.
“You cannot go into an agency like USAID and essentially fire everybody and get rid of that agency,” Sanders said. “That’s an agency that was created by Congress.”
“They want to get rid of USAID? Fine. Come to the Congress. Make your case,” he continued. “You can’t do it unilaterally.”
“You tell me whether or not we are living in an oligarchy,” Sanders said. “And I think the function of government under Trump, under Elon Musk, will not be to serve ordinary people, but to make the very richest people in this country even richer.”

Comment:
Trump is not "firing everyone" and "getting rid of USAID"
Trump is using his executive authority to reform USAID.
The president has an obligation to protect the Taxpayer's money from the being wasted, stolen and abused.
This might be going to the courts.

Just over 300 people have been retained and the office folded into the state department. No one got rid of the agency. Just the title.

 

[Lesh]

Just over 300 people have been retained and the office folded into the state department. No one got rid of the agency. Just the title.

300 out of 2500?

It’s gone

 

[EvilCat Breath]

300 out of 2500?

It’s gone

Government service is not another welfare department. If there are people doing unnecessary work or worse, doing nothing. They are separated.

 

[Lesh]

Government service is not another welfare department. If there are people doing unnecessary work or worse, doing nothing. They are separated.

If you remove 90% of the work force … you kinda go way past removing “the unnecessary “ unless your contention is that the entire thing was unnecessary… in which case the remaining 300 are waste

 

[struth]

Sanders is correct. Elmo is GUTTING an agency created by Congress. The Executive can not do that.

This agency had 4,000 employees. Elmo has cut it to less than 300.

Congress doesn’t say how many employees an agency has

 

[BluesLegend]

Bernie three homes on a government salary Sanders is lecturing us on government employee waste, scams, skims, graft, grift, bribes and kickbacks?

 

[EvilCat Breath]

If you remove 90% of the work force … you kinda go way past removing “the unnecessary “ unless your contention is that the entire thing was unnecessary… in which case the remaining 300 are waste

The entire thing was unnecessary and able to be handled by a few people in the state department.

 

[sealybobo]

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5130245-sanders-musk-doge-oligarchy/

by Sarah Fortinsky - 02/06/25
[snippet]
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said Wednesday some of the bold steps that billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk has taken to tackle waste in the federal government are “illegal.”
“Nothing wrong with looking for waste in the kinds of bureaucracy that exist. I think we can do a whole lot to get rid of the waste, the fraud, the excessive bureaucracy that exists in government — especially, by the way, in the Defense Department,” Sanders said Wednesday on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360.”
“What is wrong right now is one simple reality: What Musk is doing is illegal and unconstitutional,” Sanders added.
“You cannot go into an agency like USAID and essentially fire everybody and get rid of that agency,” Sanders said. “That’s an agency that was created by Congress.”
“They want to get rid of USAID? Fine. Come to the Congress. Make your case,” he continued. “You can’t do it unilaterally.”
“You tell me whether or not we are living in an oligarchy,” Sanders said. “And I think the function of government under Trump, under Elon Musk, will not be to serve ordinary people, but to make the very richest people in this country even richer.”

Comment:
Trump is not "firing everyone" and "getting rid of USAID"
Trump is using his executive authority to reform USAID.
The president has an obligation to protect the Taxpayer's money from the being wasted, stolen and abused.
This might be going to the courts.

On NPR they were explaining that Trump may be doing things that he doesn't have the power to do. Some would say he's breaking the law. But so what if you are a dictator? This is as close as we have to a dictator. And this all started with Bush. Congress gave him more power after 9-11.

Then, what if the courts tell Trump he can't do something and he defies them? He does it anyways. What can they do?

And even Biden. On his own he decided to forgive some student debt. The courts told him he couldn't do that on his own but he figured out a way. So just like Trump, Biden defied the courts.

What can and can't the president do — and how do we know? The framers of the U.S. Constitution left the powers of the executive branch powers deliberately vague, and in doing so opened the door for every president to decide how much power they could claim. Over time, that's become quite a lot.

https://www.npr.org/2025/02/17/g-s1-48935/understanding-presidential-power-in-the-age-of-trump

https://www.npr.org/search/?query=presidential%20power&page=1

 

[Mac-7]

“You cannot go into an agency like USAID and essentially fire everybody and get rid of that agency,” Sanders said. “That’s an agency that was created by Congress.”

Sanders is telling the same lib lie

Congress did not create USAID

 

[Lesh]

Sanders is telling the same lib lie

Congress did not create USAID

Who told you that?

They were wrong

Members of Congress Claim Legislative Authority Over USAID – The Presidential Prayer Team

www.presidentialprayerteam.org

 

[sartre play]

Not enough information, just political propaganda, MY problem is MUSK.
Do not trust him.

 

[Mac-7]

Who told you that?

They were wrong

Members of Congress Claim Legislative Authority Over USAID – The Presidential Prayer Team

www.presidentialprayerteam.org

Someone is lying to you

USAID was created by JFK through an EO

 

[Lesh]

Someone is lying to you

USAID was created by JFK through an EO

Read the link I provided jackass

 

[Mac-7]

Read the link I provided jackass

Your link refuted your first claim that congress created USAID and instead moved the goal posts to “claim authority over” USAID

And it still fails

 

[tahuyaman]

The agency was indeed created by congress, but there is no mandate as to how many people must be employed. As long as the agency exists, it's not running afoul of congress.

Example, irs was created from a congressional act, and biden wanted to hire 86000 more agents. Did he need a congressional act to do so? No. People are hired and fired all the time from these agencies.

What Elon did, under authority from trump, was not illegal.

Congress did not create USAID. JFK crested it through an EO.

Congress passed the Foreign Assistance Act. USAID is a separate organization.

 

[tahuyaman]

Read the link I provided jackass

USAIDA was not created through an act of Congress.

 

[CowboyTed]

This is what Trump is saying about USAID reform
The president has an obligation to protect the Taxpayer's money from the being wasted, stolen and abused.

No... That is Congress job... He should have run for Congress..

At USAID, Waste and Abuse Runs Deep

For decades, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has been unaccountable to taxpayers as it funnels massive sums of money to the

www.whitehouse.gov

For decades, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has been unaccountable to taxpayers as it funnels massive sums of money to the ridiculous — and, in many cases, malicious — pet projects of entrenched bureaucrats, with next-to-no oversight.

Here are only a few examples of the WASTE and ABUSE:

• $1.5 million to “advance diversity equity and inclusion in Serbia’s workplaces and business communities”
• $70,000 for production of a “DEI musical” in Ireland
• $2.5 million for electric vehicles for Vietnam
• $47,000 for a “transgender opera” in Colombia
• $32,000 for a “transgender comic book” in Peru
• $2 million for sex changes and “LGBT activism” in Guatemala
• $6 million to fund tourism in Egypt
• Hundreds of thousands of dollars for a non-profit linked to designated terrorist organizations — even AFTER an inspector general launched an investigation
• Millions to EcoHealth Alliance — which was involved in research at the Wuhan lab
• “Hundreds of thousands of meals that went to al Qaeda-affiliated fighters in Syria”
• Funding to print “personalized” contraceptives birth control devices in developing countries
• Hundreds of millions of dollars to fund “irrigation canals, farming equipment, and even fertilizer used to support the unprecedented poppy cultivation and heroin production in Afghanistan,” benefiting the Taliban

The list literally goes on and on — and it has all been happening for decades.

Under President Trump, the waste, fraud, and abuse ENDS NOW.

That list has been ridiculed....

For example... Could you tell us what was the DEI Musical in Ireland that USAID paid for...

Irish want to know this as well...

 

[tahuyaman]

No... That is Congress job... He should have run for Congress..

That list has been ridiculed....

For example... Could you tell us what was the DEI Musical in Ireland that USAID paid for...

Irish want to know this as well...

There’s nothing illegal or unconstitutional about DOGE and what they are going. The chief executive has the authority to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse within government agencies

 

[ThisIsMe]

Congress did not create USAID. JFK crested it through an EO.

Congress passed the Foreign Assistance Act. USAID is a separate organization.

What is should have said is, congress made usaid a lawful government agency.