A Layman’s Explainer on Elon Musk’s Seizure of the Bureau of Fiscal Service, and Some Worst-Case Scenarios

Here is a quick layman’s explanation of what’s possible under the worst-case scenarios:

• Elon Musk now has the ability to choose what government bills to pay and what not to pay.
• Elon Musk can gain access to sensitive data about almost every American.
• Elon Musk could implement a new list of individuals or organizations who would not receive Treasury payments.
• Elon Musk could damage or break the payments system by giving access to unqualified associates
• Elon Musk can make political, damaging, or self-dealing decisions around the debt ceiling, potentially destroying the full faith and credit of the U.S. Treasury
• Elon Musk can implement new forms of payment
• Elon Musk may be able to cut off payments to specific destinations, including specific states
• Elon Musk can choose not to pay his competitors
• Even amidst the economic catastrophe caused by a debt ceiling breach, Elon Musk will stand to profit.

NOTE The memo is undated, so I used the date where it was mentioned by the Revolving Door Project. Oddly, there’s no mention of this memo on the Progressive Change Institute website. Google links only to the memo itself. Kagi doesn’t link to it at all.