by WorldTribune Staff, March 2, 2025 Real World News
Wednesday's Cabinet meeting at the White House stood out with its opening prayer and President Donald Trump's freewheeling exchanges with reporters in which hard truths were confronted, not avoided.
Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) chief Elon Musk said America "simply cannot sustain" its current level of debt which, as of Wednesday, had ballooned to $36,220,749,649,855.42.
"Just the interest on the national debt now exceeds the Defense Department spending," Musk said. "We spend a lot on the Defense Department, but we're spending like $1 trillion on interest. If this continues, the country will go, become de facto bankrupt."
"That's the reason I'm here," Musk said. "And taking a lot of flack, and getting a lot of death threats, by the way."
"But if we don't do this, America will go bankrupt," Musk continued. "That's why it has to be done. I'm confident at this point, knock on wood… that we can actually find $1 trillion in savings. That would be roughly 15% of the $7 trillion budget. And obviously that can only be done with the support of everyone in this room. And I'd like to thank everyone for the support."
Support for cutting federal spending extends to a large majority of the American public, a new poll found.
The latest Rasmussen Reports survey found that 70% of likely U.S. voters say they’re angry about the amount of waste, fraud and abuse in federal government spending, including 45% who are very angry.
The anger is universal, with Republicans at 81%, Democrats at 60%, and independents at 70%.
The Rasmussen survey noted: “There is nearly no ‘gender gap’ on these questions, with just slightly more men (71%) than women voters (68%) saying they’re angry about the amount of waste, fraud and abuse in federal spending. Majorities of every racial category – 68% of whites, 59% of black voters, and 73% of Hispanics and other minoirities – consider it likely that some employees of the federal government have engaged in fraud to enrich themselves with taxpayer money.”
"If there is one phrase that the public has in reaction to President Donald Trump’s war on waste, it would be that 'it’s about time,' " Washington Examiner columnist Paul Bedard noted. "Promised since the Reagan years, little wasteful spending has ever been rooted out and eliminated, and people are plain mad about it."
The Rasmussen survey found that a majority also believe that “some employees of the federal government have engaged in fraud to enrich themselves with taxpayer money.”
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