Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gave representatives of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency full access to the federal payment system late on Friday, according to three people familiar with the change, handing Elon Musk and the team he is leading a powerful tool to monitor and potentially limit government spending.
The new authority follows a standoff this week with a top Treasury official who had resisted allowing Mr. Musk’s lieutenants into the department’s payment system, which sends out money on behalf of the entire federal government. The official, a career civil servant named David Lebryk, was put on leave and then suddenly retired on Friday after the dispute, according to people familiar with his exit.
The system could give the Trump administration another mechanism to attempt to unilaterally restrict disbursement of money approved for specific purposes by Congress, a push that has faced legal roadblocks.
Stop this thinking right now
They don’t care. They only cared about the country going bankrupt when Democrats had the White House. Go back through any bill debate to raise the debt ceiling and you’ll hear nothing about “uncontrolled spending” from Republicans.
Their voters don’t care. They see “a return to traditional values” because they can now dead name trans people and start saying the n word.
We crossed the Rubicon. We are entering fascism.
No notes!
…except, well, it would be nice if the truth didn’t sting so damn much.