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Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota) has slammed billionaire Elon Musk for defending taxpayer funding for his own company after he has spent weeks eviscerating federal contracts for crucial services like health care and research.
In a press conference in the Oval Office on Tuesday, a reporter asked Musk whether or not it would be considered a conflict of interest for Musk to look into contracts administered by the Department of Defense, which provides funding for SpaceX.
Musk responded by saying that the contracts for his companies provide “value” for Americans, suggesting that the funding he has slashed as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — including funding for combating famine, education research, clinical trials for illnesses like cancer, and more — is wasteful.
“First of all, I’m not the one filing the contract, it’s people at SpaceX,” he said, as though he doesn’t directly benefit from the contract regardless of the logistics of it being granted.
“And I’d like to say, if you’ve seen where — where it was awarded to SpaceX and it wasn’t by far the best value for money for the taxpayer, let me know. Because every one of them was,” Musk went on.
Musk’s SpaceX and Tesla have received at least $18 billion in federal funding over the past decade. SpaceX’s contracts have grown in value in recent years, with the company receiving $3.7 billion in federal contracts in the 2024 fiscal year.
Meanwhile, due in large part to taxpayer subsidies to his companies, Elon Musk has become the richest man on Earth, with a net worth of nearly $400 billion — more than the yearly budgets for entire agencies responsible for services like health, housing, agriculture and education. Shareholders for Tesla have approved a pay package of $56 billion for Musk, with the package currently being held up in court.
Additionally, Musk has used his ownership of X to shape public opinion. Since the billionaire purchased the platform, he has carried out widespread censorship, especially of left-wing accounts, while uplifting right-wing and Nazi content — along with anyone who defends him and his companies.
“So let me get this straight, he wants contracts for cancer research cancelled but says let[’s] keep contracts for his company SpaceX to do research. Greedy billionaire trying to ripoff [sic] the American people pretending to be altruistic is all I see,” Omar said in a social media post on Tuesday.
Other progressive lawmakers condemned Musk’s claims on Tuesday that he is carrying out the will of voters and that “the people are going to get what they voted for,” pointing out that Musk is an unelected official carrying out an administrative coup and that DOGE was created after Trump was elected.
“The people didn’t vote for you to cut off cancer research funding,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Washington).
Omar also shared an article from last month about Europe’s largest pension fund selling its $585 million stake in Tesla. The pension fund cited issues with Musk’s “exceptionally high” pay package.
“The greedy billionaire that Europe rejects is the same man the Republicans are imposing on the American people,” Omar said. “Mind you, Elon has never suggested using his wealth to help the American people who made him a billionaire with the help of U.S. taxpayer dollars.”
Omar and other lawmakers held a press conference on Tuesday further criticizing Republicans for supporting drastic cuts to essential services while keeping military funding intact.
“We have seen this Republican playbook before. They claim we must cut spending on education, on health care like Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, on housing, on foreign aid, on climate solutions. But when it comes to defense contractors, they open the purse strings, pouring billions of dollars into the pockets of their well-connected friends,” said Sen. Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts). “This bloated Pentagon budget does not make us safer.”
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