ICYMI: Warren Sounds Alarm on Threat Elon Musk Poses to Government Payment Systems
“Donald Trump and his billionaire buddies are determined to take over this government to make it work better for themselves and worse for everyone else.”
“[T]his is not business as usual…We are living a nightmare created by Donald Trump and Elon Musk, and we need to wake up.”
Video of Press Conference (YouTube)
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs (BHUA), delivered remarks on the danger of Elon Musk having access to the federal government’s critical payment systems, which includes the sensitive personal information of millions of Americans.
Transcript: Press Conference - Democrats Sound Alarm Over Musk Forcing Way into Highly Sensitive Central Government Payment System
February 3, 2025
As Delivered
Senator Elizabeth Warren: I want to be clear about what’s going on here.
The system that makes sure that your granddad gets his Social Security check. The system that makes sure your mom’s doctor gets a Medicare payment to cover her medical appointment. And the system that makes sure you get the tax refund you’re owed, has been taken over by Elon Musk. And every organization from your state government that uses federal money on that bridge project to the local Head Start that takes care of little kids while their mommies and daddies go to work is now at the mercy of Elon Musk. Maybe you get paid, or maybe you don’t—because now it appears that all of us work for Elon Musk.
Elon just grabbed the controls of that whole payment system, demanding the power to turn it on for his friends or turn it off for anyone he doesn’t like. One guy deciding who gets paid and who doesn’t. It is not the law, but it is the reality.
Now, there’s a second problem here. It’s not just payments from the federal government that are now in Elon’s control. Elon and his handful of friends now have full access to your personal and financial information that’s in the system. Your payment history. Your social security number. Your bank account numbers. Elon now has the power to suck out all that information for his own use. Now, whether it’s to boost his finances or expand his political power, it is all up to Elon.
And there’s a third problem. In order for this handful of programmers to gain access to our $6 trillion payment system, we don’t know what safeguards were pulled down. Are the gates wide open now for hackers from China, from North Korea, from Iran, from Russia? Heck, who knows what black hat hackers all around the world are finding out about each one of us and copying that information for their own criminal uses.
Donald Trump and his billionaire buddies are determined to take over this government to make it work better for themselves and worse for everyone else. And this is just the start. As we gear up for the tax fight, it will become even clearer that Trump will open the doors for billionaires and giant corporations to find more ways to loot the government at your expense. Meanwhile, everyone else pays more for groceries, more for housing, more for prescription drugs, and more for healthcare.
When unelected billionaires start ransacking our government offices, this is not business as usual. Nope. Nothing is normal. We are living a nightmare created by Donald Trump and Elon Musk, and we need to wake up. We need to use every tool we have to fight back, and in the Senate, we can start by saying NO to dangerous Trump nominees like Tulsi Gabbard or Russ Vought.
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