February 04, 2025 12:16 PM UTC

Colorado Dems Sound Alarm Over Musk's Payment Pillage

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• by: Colorado Pols

As Colorado Newsline’s Quentin Young reports, there’s a pasty, pudgy virus loose in one of America’s most important systems:

Democratic members of Colorado’s congressional delegation reacted with shock Monday to reports that a team led by Trump administration-empowered Elon Musk had infiltrated sensitive data and financial systems overseen by multiple federal government agencies.

Several of the members said Musk’s actions are illegal and promised to oppose them, though they offered few details on how they would check him…

Originally sold as an unofficial “advisory body” operating outside the government with a two-year mission to propose changes, the world’s richest man Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has become a very much operational and powerful arm of the executive branch since Donald Trump took office, moving with shocking speed to implement massive changes through the curtailment of payments made by the federal government–a process expected to be challenged as a gross usurpation of Congress’ power of the purse.

But with DOGE in control of the “send” button for federal payments of all descriptions, can Musk do the damage he wants before anyone can intervene?

“This is an unprecedented abuse of power by a dangerous, unelected, and unhinged person,” U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen, a Lakewood Democrat, said in a statement to Newsline. “Americans shouldn’t have to worry that an unelected billionaire could stop payments to lifesaving programs all so he can further enrich himself and further his own self-interest at our expense.”

Joe Neguse of Lafayette, the assistant minority leader in the U.S. House, said, “The President does not have the authority to eliminate statutorily authorized agencies, impound funds lawfully appropriated by the Congress, or to give unfettered access to core government financial payment and personnel systems to his billionaire campaign donors. These actions are dangerous, reckless and unlawful.”

This morning, Sen. John Hickenlooper vowed to fight back “in the courts, on the Senate floor, and anywhere else we can.”

Last week the Trump Administration tried to illegally freeze federal funding that would go to our rural hospitals, local public schools, and law enforcement agencies in Colorado. This week, they’re threatening to shut down entire agencies without transparency or congressional approval and allowing access to Americans’ sensitive data.

Our founders put checks and balances in place for a reason. We’re all for making government more efficient, but violating our laws is not the way to do it. We’ll fight these attempts in the courts, on the Senate floor, and anywhere else we can to defend Colorado and the Constitution.

Although Democrats are resolved to fight back against Musk’s backdoor intrusion into core functions of the federal government, as the Denver Post reports, even freshman GOP Rep. Jeff Hurd has knuckled under to the Musk House, which given his previous willingness to criticize Trump’s excesses is a significant disappointment:

A spokesman for U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd, a freshman Republican who represents the Western Slope and Pueblo, said Trump “is within his constitutional prerogative to ask an individual or individuals to assist in recommending policy and personnel changes to the government.”

The problem, of course, is that Musk is not “recommending” changes. Musk is by all accounts making changes, changes that only American elected officials have the power to make, simply because he has access to the computer system controlling the federal checkbook. Everyone who still values the checks and balances written into the Constitution between the branches of government should be against this blatantly autocratic power grab.

It’s the dream of every hacker that ever was.