Bill Kristol: Taking A Wrecking Ball to the Government
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Why are Musk's actions a threat to government efficiency?
I remember it was like a little bit of a conservative thing in the 70s and 80s to object to the change from Washington's birthday to President's Day. I guess they were sort of mushing together Lincoln and Washington. And then, of course, it had to be on a Monday. But yes, insofar as it sort of implies that we equally respect all presidents. It's very bad, and I'm glad you've decided. I'm glad you've declared the bulwark policy of not recognizing President's Day, right? I mean, if we could all just adopt whatever names we want, right?
Yeah, we're not recognizing President's Day. We're dead naming the Gulf of Mexico. That's just kind of how things are going here. Much to discuss, I guess, it seems like. Your newsletter this morning was focused on all of the – trouble that has been being created from Elon Musk's quasi-governmental Department of Government Efficiency. Many different specifics I think worth getting into, but I'm just at the highest level interested in what you are trying to get across.
I just want to wrecking ball it is. And as Don Moynihan, the professor of political science at Michigan, says in a very good newsletter that I recommend, and he's a sober guy, serious student of public administration, the point isn't government efficiency. The point is to wreck the government and make it more susceptible, wreck the structures, you might say, of the government, of which civil service is such an important part. and make it susceptible to Trump's personalized leadership and really to autocracy. And so all the idiotic things they're doing, if you sort of individually, it's hard to understand. Why do they want to make air travel less safe? Why do they want to, you know, damage our nuclear safety inspection regime? But if you think of it more as just taking a wrecking ball to the government, you... I think have a pretty good sense of what's going on. And then I was provoked this morning to write about this particularly.
I was going to write actually more about the foreign policy stuff from the weekend, which was the last four or five days, which was so terrible. The IRS headline, I guess, broke last night in the Washington Post and in the New York Times. Doge is insisting on getting into the IRS and into the very, very sensitive part of the IRS that even IRS commissioners don't have access to, which has your tax returns and my tax returns and 180 million or something other Americans. Trump's tax returns, presumably. Yeah. And Elon Musk's tax returns. And Doge needs to get in there. I don't know why. And look at them, I guess, and have access to them. And they're sort of resisting a little bit of Treasury, and it's up in the air. So it seems like that would be a good moment for everyone to weigh in and say, this is a clarifying moment, perhaps, of what their ambitions are and why it's worth resisting.
It is clarifying. And the IRS, I mean, that situation is a little bit murky, I guess, still. But some of the more clarifying elements are some of the other things you referenced. I think it's worth talking about a few of them in particular. With regards to the National Nuclear Security Administration, so there were up to 350 employees that were laid off late Thursday. Yeah.
What are the implications of firing nuclear safety employees?
They showed up to the office Friday and were locked out. One of the hardest hit offices was the Pantex plant near Amarillo, Texas. The employees there work on reassembling warheads, one of the most sensitive jobs across the nuclear weapons enterprise with the highest levels of clearance.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
Why are Musk's actions a threat to government efficiency?
0:39–3:33
2
What are the implications of firing nuclear safety employees?
3:33–7:29
3
How are government cuts affecting public safety and services?
7:29–11:26
4
What should the Democratic Party's strategy be against recent changes?
11:26–15:21
5
Can congressional oversight counteract recent governmental shifts?
15:21–20:58
6
Who is Kash Patel and why is his confirmation controversial?
20:58–28:16
7
What recent resignations have occurred over legal disagreements?
28:16–38:28
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from The Bulwark Daily
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