"Check your sources!" Musk blew up the budget compromise with these three lies
The richest man in the world brings down an agreement between both parties in Congress - and doesn't take the truth very seriously. Even a Republican advises him to check his sources first.
22.12.2024, 09:04
dpa
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- Elon Musk has played a major role in the failure of the original budget compromise between Democrats and Republicans and the narrow avoidance of a shutdown.
- In over 100 posts on his platform X, he disseminates partly falsified or fictitious content.
- A wage increase of 3.8 percent becomes 40 percent, a billion-euro subsidy for a new stadium is fictitious and a laboratory for infectious diseases becomes a production facility for bio-weapons.
Billionaire Elon Musk has made it clear what influence he is likely to have on future government leadership with his ricochets against the transition budget agreed in the US Congress.
In more than 100 posts on his X platform - some of which contained untrue claims - he has railed against the agreement between the Republicans and Democrats in recent days, causing it to collapse together with President-elect Donald Trump. A new - slimmed-down - version finally passed Congress.
"Trump has done something like this before, blowing up a bill at the last minute. This time, however, he seems to be afraid that Musk will steal the show," said political scientist John Mark Hansen from the University of Chicago. "Now there's a new social media bully in town pushing the master social media bully around."
Wage increase, taxes for stadium construction, bio-weapons
Another parallel to Trump: Musk is not particularly precise with the facts of the 1547-page original bill for the transition budget, which he vehemently rejected in his postings on X. He claims that it includes a 40 percent increase in the pay of US congressmen. In fact, it would have been a maximum of 3.8 percent - the first increase since 2009. Since then, most members of parliament have earned 174,000 per year, while the Speaker of the House of Representatives receives 223,500. The increase is now off the table for the time being.
Musk also passed on to his many followers the false claim by another X user that the bill also included three billion dollars for a possible new stadium for the NFL team Washington Commanders. "This should not be funded by your tax dollars," Musk wrote.
In fact, the bill was about transferring the land for the stadium from the federal government to the capital district of Washington D.C. This is a prerequisite for the possible construction of a new stadium, but there is no mention of payment with federal money. Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said such false rumors are frustrating.
In a third post, Musk falsely wrote, "We are funding a bioweapons lab in this bill." In fact, it was about funding twelve labs to conduct research on biosafety, not weapons. It is explicitly about the danger of new infectious diseases, for example.
Bernie Sanders: "Welcome to the oligarchy"
When asked by the AP news agency, a spokesperson for Musk did not comment on his false claims.
Musk's false claims were also not well received by some Republicans. "I love you Elon, but you need to take five seconds to check your sources," wrote Texas Congressman Dan Crenshaw on X.
Even regardless of the false allegations, Musk's interference in congressional decisions was, for many critics, a sign of a further erosion of American democracy. "Welcome to the world of oligarchy," wrote independent Senator Bernie Sanders on X in response to a video in which he harshly condemned Musk. The latter had threatened to deprive Republican MPs of their mandate in the next election if they did not follow him and vote against the agreement.
Musk was not elected to any office in the election, but is to head the newly created Office of Government Efficiency under Trump. This will become interesting when it really comes to cutting supposedly unnecessary spending, said political scientist Hansen. Presumably, this would not include the lucrative contracts of the space organization Nasa for Musk's own company SpaceX.
