Introduction
"I'm sorry, but I just can't stand it anymore," Tesla and SpaceX CEO Musk wrote in a post on his social media platform X. "This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination." [Footnote]
This seems like strong language from someone who seems committed to the "Trump" agenda, but he has not gone far enough. This monster (we call Government) we look for nearly every need eats us alive. We must either kill it or severely disable it.
I have learned from first-hand experience and study that taking things from people motivates them much more than giving them something. Politicians think they can get more votes by giving voters more and more of other people's money, but they shrink in terror at the thought of the votes they would lose by taking things from voters. As a result, the Government grows and grows like Jack's beanstalk.
I need to repeat, "Politicians think they can get more votes by giving voters more and more of other people's money…" Cutting taxes sounds good, but it will not solve the problem of misallocation of resources caused by "spending."
Simple math will prove the truth of my words.
"Spending" (redistribution)
The Government produces absolutely nothing to gather the dollars in "spending" to satisfy their preferences. Politicians have brainwashed voters into thinking they will "represent" the "will of the voters." They cannot represent the will of the voters because they cannot, from issue to issue, know the preferences of voters.
This fact forces them into making vote-buying promises, many of which they cannot keep.
Funding
Since the Government produces nothing of market worth, it must get every dollar spent from the same citizens they claim to "represent." The Government 1) taxes, 2) borrows (savings), or 3) borrows (inflated dollars.)
Taxation
Taxes have many different names, including income tax, sales tax, property tax, and tariffs. Taxes have so many different names to fool you, the consumer, into thinking it doesn't cost you too much.
Whatever the form or name, taxes confiscate property. In the "private sector," we would call it theft.
But the Government does not take enough to fund all of its "spending." To make up the difference, it borrows, which occurs in two forms.
Borrowing: Real Savings
Investors looking for a "safe" investment will use money that they have earned to buy one of the many types of government securities.
If the buyers of government securities did not have this "investment," they would look for something that would provide more benefit to the economy. (That's the topic for another newsletter.)
Borrowing "real savings" has the one advantage over taxation. The lenders do so voluntarily.
"Borrowing:" Inflated Dollars
Frequently (perhaps the majority of the time), the Government cannot find enough private investors to buy all the securities they want to sell. When this happens, the Government sells to a ready market: banks.
Banks, however, do not "lend" money that "depositors" put in the bank. Banks create new dollars from nothing. By "spending" dollars created from nothing, the Government confiscates property from citizens. It steals directly from government suppliers and indirectly from producers receiving the inflated dollars from recipients.
Conclusion
Spending = Taxes + Borrowing (real borrowing and inflating).
Bookkeeping uses simple math. When the government "spends" more, it must find the money. It has no choice. (By the way, the MMT advocates are wrong. I will deal with that later.)
Elon Musk has it right. The combination of Government spending and finance always amounts to "a disgusting abomination" because it redistributes resources based on the preferences of politicians, not the preferences of consumers in the market.
Don't fall for the arguments that the Government must provide money for health care, welfare, retirement, infrastructure, education, research, and more…Government must confiscate or use its unbacked promises to gather and misdirect the money it spends.
Footnote:
Clipped from [Musk calls Trump's tax-cut and spending bill 'a disgusting abomination' | Reuters](https://www.reuters.com/world/us/musk-calls-trumps-big-beautiful-bill-a-disgusting-abomination-2025-06-03/)
It's worse than I knew, this governmental abuse of our hard-earned money. What a swamp we are in!