Louisiana Voice

Remember not so long ago when a blowhard named Trump stoked the rumor that the President of the U.S. was born in Africa?

Now, there’s a myth being promoted by the current IMPOTUS in Washington that an African, no less, is working diligently to ferret out government waste and fraud in an effort to slash trillions of dollars from the federal budget on behalf of that same Donald Trump.

The truth that is emerging is somewhat different. Rather than looking for ways to eliminate waste, Elon Musk and his puppet Trump are seeking information – lots of it. And it is information that neither should have any need for.

Why, for instance, would they need your and my tax information and bank records? Yet, that is precisely what the latest dust-up is all about. In fact, he head of the SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION stepped down from her position this past weekend over Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) demand to access social security recipient information.

That is today’s story. Yesterday, it was Musk’s DOGE seeking access to TAXPAYER DATA.  at the IRS, giving him (and, presumably Le Grande Orange) access to literally millions of files that contain tax records, bank records, social security numbers, addresses, etc.

This, if you will recall, from a president who steadfastly refuses to release his own tax information despite repeated promises to do so during the 2016 campaign.

That insincere campaign promise aside, why would you suppose a non-elected, foreign-born proxy for the president would need your Social Security, tax and bank records? The answer is that it’s information they want and there is only a couple of reasons for wanting that information.

One, it can be used against voices of dissent – kinda the way dictators in other countries have done. For some reason, 1930s Germany comes to mind. A bone-chilling proposition indeed.

Two, there could be some scheme at play to undermine – or even eliminate – Social Security (and Medicaid/Medicare). Remember, that was one of the many objectives cited in Project 2025, the playbook put together by the Heritage Foundation with which Trump said he was unfamiliar.

The irony is that Trump and Musk’s cuts and firing of federal employees has hit Trump’s support base the hardest – not that we didn’t warn you in advance or anything.

Kevin Kosar, a honcho at the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute, lamented that “the DOGE push to downsize government employees will hit the coalition that elected Trump.” That includes Louisiana where more than 19,400 federal employees reside, according to LOUISIANA ILLUMINATOR.

Our very own Sen. Bill Cassidy expressed his concern that the firing of FBI agents would have dire consequences for the state. “I am all for efficiency and ultimately downsizing the federal government, but firing large numbers of new FBI agents is not the way to achieve this,” Cassidy wrote in a social media post. “Louisiana specifically benefits from newly hired FBI agents. We need to add to our law enforcement, not take away.”

Louisiana Illuminator also pointed out last week that proposed cuts in research funding from the National Institutes of Health could result in Louisiana colleges and universities LOSING TENS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS.

Now what do you suppose the result of a loss in funding would be? Well, if you remember, every time Bobby Jindal cut funding for higher ed (which was often), tuition went up. A college education is fast exceeding the ability of the average household to pay and any loss of funding is going to be made up somewhere. So, you do the math.

You can bet that efforts to obtain tax and banking records aren’t made with major Trump donors in mind. Don’t hold your breath, for instance, for any further targeting by the administration of one Frank Schuler, IV, of Atlanta, whose tax shelter scheme has been described as “the worst of the worst tax scams.” He is currently fighting the IRS over $4 billion in disallowed deductions.

I think we can safely predict that Schuler’s headaches will mysteriously vanish now that he has been appointed as a SENIOR ADVISER to the General Services Administration by the Trump administration. Strange how these things work, eh?

So, I reiterate: the goal is not to eradicate waste, it’s to establish an oligarchy and you and I aren’t invited.

And folks, keep this in mind: Trump hasn’t even been in office a month yet. You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.