Money

Money

By

Leonard Zwelling

In the 2001 film Heist, the great Danny DeVito said, “Everybody needs money. That’s why they call it money.”

Have there ever been two people that more embody this sentiment than Donald Trump and Elon Musk? I think not.

The liberal media is screaming bloody murder about Elon’s Department of Government Efficiency’s efforts to decrease the federal work force through optional buy outs before the mandatory layoffs come. The DOGE efforts to dive into every nook and cranny of the executive branch and its computer systems to find more “waste, fraud, and abuse” continues. But what is this really all about? Money. It also is unclear whether Musk and Trump can withhold money that Congress has authorized (legislated) and appropriated (set aside in the budget). It is likewise unclear whether buyouts are even legal. And what about the fact that the current government is under a continuing resolution that runs out in March? There may be a government freeze after that. Then who gets paid? No one. When those who took the buyout complain that they haven’t been paid, Trump will say the check is in the mail.

There can be no doubt in the mind of anyone who has ever worked in any large institution that there is a lot of waste. As a former government employee for nine years, I can assure all readers that the NIH was filled with it. But Musk and Trump have even more in mind. They are making the case that entire departments are extraneous—USAID, the Department of Education, and who knows what is next. Again, this too is about money. USAID ships large amounts of taxpayer-funded aid abroad. It feeds many. It prevents the spread of diseases like HIV, but USAID workers were said to be sympathetic to Hamas and may have participated in October 7. Surely this agency needs a good hard look. The shutdown may have been callous, but not outrageous.

Ditto the Department of Education. The quality of the public schools in this country are so poor that voucher systems have become hot issues in many states. Parents are looking for some way for their kids to get good educations knowing the decisions around school closures during COVID may have set their kids back and were unnecessary.

Next comes the Department of Health and Human Services. The Trump Administration has ordered that the indirect cost rates on NIH grants be reduced to 15% of the actual cost of the research. At MD Anderson, the current indirect rate is 67%. At some northeastern schools it exceeds 100%. These are the monies allotted to institutions over and above the money to do the actual research to pay for the infrastructure needed to support the research done on grants. However why should that be the taxpayers’ problem? Where did 67% come from? It is supposed to be a negotiated rate. Who is doing the negotiation for the American people and if 67% is the true rate, why do industry grants only get charged 25%? What is the real overhead? I doubt anyone at MD Anderson actually knows.

As a former Vice President for Research Administration at MD Anderson, who signed all the grants and contracts, and who was, let’s face it, overhead, the institution was and is terribly bloated in the research arena with way too many secretaries, and administrators with whom I mostly had to fight to get the faculty members what they needed. If industry can pay 25 %, and Texas state-funded CPRIT grants pay a lower rate than the federal government, maybe Elon has a point.

And why shouldn’t some of these large academic institutions be forced to reach into their billion-dollar endowments to make-up for the shortfall in indirect costs?

What Musk is really doing is turning up every rock that has been considered sacred cows for decades. (Mixed metaphors, sorry). Might it force local countries in Africa to pay more for medicine for their people? Yes. Might it make those countries more open to Chinese or Russian help if our adversaries supplant the help that used to come from USAID? Yes. That’s a debate that needs to be had in Congress, but it probably won’t occur because Congress has become Trump’s lap dogs. That’s not healthy either.

If the Department of Education goes away and relief of student loan payments vanishes, will most Americans be upset? No.

You see what Trump and Musk are really doing is what previous administrations, both Democratic and Republican, should have done. Ask a lot of questions. What do we need? What is extraneous? And if something is really important does that mean that American taxpayers should foot the bill? To be sure this is what Trump was elected to do.

I don’t have all the answers, but I have to admit I like seeing these questions being asked even if I believe Musk is a little heavy handed. Then again, as Trump has said about Gaza, has anything else worked?

The real challenge that Trump and Musk have is to do what Trump was elected to do without breaking the law. My guess is that the Supreme Court may well have the last word on this.

All I really worry about is whether or not Donald Trump will upend the rule of law. I cannot get a bead on this one yet.