Dubious tech billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy promised to use his new, nongovernmental position with the Department of Government Efficiency to “carefully scrutinize” federal loans made to Elon Musk’s electric vehicle rivals.
In a post on X, Ramaswamy promised to investigate federal loans made to electric vehicle manufacturers not named Tesla under the Inflation Reduction Act.
Ramaswamy’s tirade came the same day the U.S. Department of Energy announced a $7 billion federal loan to two Indiana-based electric battery plants. The two plants, in Kokomo, Indiana, would supply batteries to car manufacturer Stellantis, who owns Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and Ram.
The loan to create the battery plants in Indiana is expected to create 3,200 construction jobs, and then 2,800 manufacturing jobs when the plants are fully operating. The Rivian project in Georgia is expected to create 7,500 jobs through 2030.
The tech bro’s threats also called into question the Biden administration’s decision to commit $6 billion to support electric vehicle-maker Rivian to produce batteries at a plant in Georgia, last week.
“DOGE will carefully scrutinize every one of these questionable 11th-hour transactions, starting on Jan. 20,” Ramaswamy wrote.
That’s doubtful, according to Wall Street, who doesn’t believe DOGE will be able to accomplish much, if anything, according to a new Goldman Sachs survey. The Daily Beast reports:
Only 10 percent of investors told Goldman they think DOGE will be able to find $400 billion or more in annual spending cuts, while Musk has claimed he’ll find $2 trillion to trim from the $6.7 trillion federal budget. Another 10 percent of investors expect DOGE will manage a more modest $200 billion to $400 billion.
Four in 10 investors, the most to respond to any option, said they expect Musk will find insignificant or modest spending cuts at best, Goldman Sachs said.
Experts have also questioned Musk’s plans, given that interest payments, which can’t be cut, account for 13 percent of the budget, and Trump has promised not to touch major entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, which account for half of all government spending.
Musk has been transparently critical of federal aid to his EV competitors. He has said he would welcome Donald Trump’s promise to kill President Biden’s $7,500 federal tax credit promoting EV vehicle ownership. It’s a self-serving position for someone who relied on the credits in building out his market share for Tesla.
Tesla’s dominant share of the U.S. EV market, once well over 70%, has fallen steadily since 2019. In the months leading up to Musk’s full-throated endorsement and support of Trump, Tesla’s share dropped below 50% for the first time. Analysts have long predicted the EV company would continue to lose market position as more affordable offerings with larger distribution infrastructures became available.
Those analysts clearly didn’t foresee Musk’s ascent into an oligarchical leadership position with Trump. According to The Hill, “The EV maker’s share price is up nearly 45 percent since Election Day, amid expectations that President-elect Trump’s win could benefit the Tesla CEO.”
Having billionaires in charge of any government positions represents an inherent conflict of interest. USA Today reports that the “roughly 800 billionaires” hold more of the country’s wealth than the entire bottom half of our country.
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