Musk Rat

There is an abiding assumption in America that the rich must be smart and that the free market doesn’t play favorites. In fact, the rich have often gained their wealth due to their skill at getting government subsidies, grants, bailouts, and contracts; their cleverness at skirting government regulations; and their hubris in ignoring conflicts of interest. Wherever great wealth connects with significant power, democracy suffers.

Donald Trump is Exhibit A. Elon Musk is Exhibit B.

That Trump has tasked Musk to find some $2 trillion of cuts in the federal budget through more “efficiency” is as bonkers as putting the Justice Department in the hands of an alleged sex trafficker, or assigning an anti-vaxxing conspiracy theorist to run public health, or choosing a possible Russian mole to direct U.S. intelligence.