- Musk has targeted $1 trillion in taxpayer savings, and one of his chief targets has been the U.S. Agency for International Development, which leads the government’s countermeasure efforts to combat the spread of infectious diseases before they land on American soil.
Elon Musk took responsibility on Wednesday for canceling U.S. prevention efforts to contain the spread of the Ebola virus, and claimed they had been restored as soon as the mistake was identified.
One of the chief targets of Musk’s government efficiency initiative—the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE—has been the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), a taxpayer-funded aid initiative he claims is riddled with corruption and fraud. The Ebola prevention efforts were a USAID initiative.
“With USAID, one of the things we accidentally canceled—very briefly—was Ebola prevention,” Musk told the Trump Cabinet in its first full meeting on Wednesday.
He quickly added that it was immediately restored once the mistake had been identified. “There was no interruption,” he insisted.
The Tesla CEO volunteered to run the Trump administration’s government efficiency effort, which forms a key plank of the President’s economic agenda. Cutting wasteful spending could help offset revenue lost if Trump’s planned tax cuts pass Congress.
Musk aims to shave a minimum of $1 trillion off the federal budget, but he faces pressure as most spending is nondiscretionary and not subject to legislative votes. The bulk of costs stem from mandatory programs like Social Security as well as interest payments on the national debt.
“We can do it and will do it,” an optimistic Musk told Trump’s Cabinet. “It requires saving $4 billion per day, every day from now through the end of September.”
Streamliner Musk
As the entrepreneur pushes his unprecedented cost-cutting program, he has faced reminders such as Ebola of how complex the federal government can be. Uncle Sam employs over 2 million civil servants providing services to some 340 million Americans at the cost of $6.75 trillion in annual spending.
Musk’s businesses, by comparison, are renowned for streamlining operations to maximize scale effects, since complexity creates added costs. His largest company, Tesla, had some 125,700 employees on its payroll at the end of last year.
One way Musk streamlines Tesla is by limiting customer choice. Two-thirds of all Teslas sold are Model Y, and customer options are limited to six exterior colors and two choices for rims and interior with four possible accessories.
His company’s power cells are also standardized, in three cylindrical formats employing either a nickel- or an iron-based lithium chemistry, and can be equipped in battery packs for use in a vehicle, a household Powerwall installation, or an industrial-scale Megapack for balancing the electricity grid.
“What Elon Musk said today was just categorically untrue”
In its effort to quickly trim spending, Musk’s DOGE agency has made mistakes including overstating savings and falsely identifying waste, such as with the allegation that Gazans were due to receive $50 million worth of condoms paid for by U.S. taxes.
The world’s richest man’s statement that Ebola prevention had not been interrupted by DOGE cuts was also disputed by infectious disease experts.
“What Elon Musk said today was just categorically untrue,” Dr. Craig Spencer, a doctor and Ebola specialist who has himself survived the often fatal disease, told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow.
Jeremy Konyndyk, president of Refugees International and a former USAID official who had led Ebola countermeasure efforts, called Musk’s statement “bunk” and argued that what remained was merely a “fig leaf” to protect an exposed administration.
“USAID’s capacity to deploy response teams is totally broken,” he wrote. “Scrambling to recall a few staff and issue some belated funding is just window dressing.”
