Elon & Vivek Have the 'Swamp on the Run'

Maybe Paul will write the lyrics

Remember the song “Band on the Run”? Now it’s “Deep State on the Run” or “Swamp on the Run” – you pick--- featuring Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. Producer: Donald J. Trump.

Together these men seem to have put paid to yet another egregious, multi-billion dollar CR (continuing resolution) filled with enough pork—some of it written in tired woke phraseology, if you can believe it, with Republicans signed on—to stock every barbecue joint from Atlanta to Bakersfield and have enough left over to supply South Korea (they love their barbecue too).

It was Mr. Ramaswamy who broke it down for us on Mr. Musk’s X. Read the whole thing, if you haven’t but here’s the wrap up:

“The bill could have easily been under 20 pages. Instead, there are dozens of unrelated policy items crammed into the 1,547 pages of this bill. There’s not legitimate reason for them to be voted on as a packed deal by a lame-duck Congress. 72 pages worth of ‘Pandemic Preparedness and Response’ policy; renewal of the much criticized ‘Global Engagement Center,’ a key player in the federal censorship state; 17 different pieces of Commerce legislation; paving for a new football stadium in D.C.; a pay raise for Congressmen & Senators and making them eligible for Federal Employee Health Benefits. It’s indefensible to ram these measures through at the last second without debate.

“We’re grateful for DOGE’s warm reception on Capitol Hill. Nearly everyone agrees we need a smaller & more streamlined federal government, but actions speak louder than words. This is an early test. The bill should fail.”

It better and, as of this writing, it looks very much that it will.

All praise to the DOGE boys, Vivek and Elon, because without them it’s likely to have been business as usual. In fact, I would revise that and say “almost certain” to have been business as usual instead of likely.

For my entire life and those of most readers, we have been hearing about the necessity of cutting government spending to prevent a form of bankruptcy that would render almost all our national budget interest payments with even the most basic entitlements threatened, not to mention military preparedness. It’s a good deal of the way there already. Something had to be done.

Bravo to Elon and Vivek whose early work augurs well. Keep it up.

All praise too to their producer, Number 47, Mr. Donald J. Trump, who has orchestrated this maneuver with some brilliance. He saw the difficulty of effectuating change in perpetually hidebound Washington his first term and has used his personal interregnum to figure out how the seemingly impossible could be done.

He devised a tactic of employing end-arounds of the traditional Uniparty budgeting with its I’ll-scratch-your-back-if-you-scratch-mine spending orgy, using outsiders Musk and Ramaswamy, two high IQ personalities with super creative minds, to upend it.

You will see the same outside the box approach for foreign policy. Marco Rubio as Secretary of State will have his uses, but Mr. Trump will work predominantly outside the moribund and often obstructionist State Department through special envoys like Richard Grenell or national security adviser Mike Waltz. He already did that in his first term with the Abraham Accords. It’s not hard to predict those accords will be enhanced shortly.

None of this will be easy, but Mr. Trump does have a powerful card in his pocket… okay, I’ll say it, a trump card. That is you and me. We the People.

It was fascinating to watch on social media when the bloated CR was first announced earlier today (Dec 18). The popular reaction was immediate and highly negative. Outrage prevailed to such an extent it was picked up on cable news rapidly.

Elon and Vivek did what they had to. So did Trump. But none of them acted alone. We were with them all the way.

The reaction of Congress appeared to be positive. Maybe they learned something. We shall see.