Hey, remember how, the week before the election, Elon Musk mused out loud about how he could very easily eliminate the federal debt with a few billionaire-friendly changes to the tax code, by drastically cutting the federal budget, and of course deporting everyone. Then, all we’d need would be for everyone who isn’t a billionaire to tighten their own belts for an unspecified period of extreme austerity. But then we’d emerge from the economic crash — or at least the survivors would — into a bright new day of prosperity and living within our means!
As Musk put it in a virtual town hall, “We have to reduce spending to live within our means. And that necessarily involves some temporary hardship, but it will ensure long-term prosperity.”
He went on to acknowledge that it wouldn’t necessarily be easy, especially not for You People, and certainly not for Those People, who probably aren’t Trump voters anyway (except for all of them who are), so they can either get their shit together or be left on the ash heap of history, possibly literally. Don’t bother feeling sad about it, they’ll have it coming. And don’t worry about Elon, he’ll have plenty of security, and he’ll lock the doors in case he’s attacked.
“Obviously, a lot of people who are taking advantage of government are going to be upset about that. I’ll probably need a lot of security, but it’s got to be done. And if it’s not done, we’ll just go bankrupt.”
Fast forward to the last week of February 2025, and President Elon’s big private security team has reportedly been deputized by the US Marshals Service, so they can carry firearms on White House grounds. Just in case.
Oh yes, and Musk is also sending his Nazi Teen Bungle Force to cut as many government jobs as possible, eliminating unneeded waste like lifesaving medical treatment in other countries. Meanwhile, Trump and Republicans in Congress are taking aim at harming their own voters by slashing Medicaid, and maybe Social Security and Medicare too, but they’ll insist they’ll only eliminate “fraud.” Ergo, any Trump voters who find themselves without healthcare, disability payments, or retirement income will just have to face the fact that they were committing fraud, and be grateful they only lost their benefits instead of being prosecuted. President Musk and President Trump are tough but fair.
And wouldn’t you know it, just yesterday on State Telescreen — the very serious Fox Bidniss Channel, not just the Two Minutes Hate Fox News for the proles — a guest on the serious business news show “Making Money” explained that Americans might want to get ready for the necessary spanking the economy needs, so it will mend its ways.
Here’s video of bidniss consultant Danielle DiMartino Booth telling Fox Bidniss host Charles Payne (hmmm) how what’s coming this may sting a little, but it’s good for us.
We have to look back to history, right? Ronald Reagan is remembered as one of the best US presidents in history. People forget that when he came into office in 1981, that he slashed federal head count and actually put the economy back into the double dip recession of 1980 and 1981.
Or maybe that was Fed chair Paul Volcker who did the recession, but the point is that Ronald Reagan was a great American, at least as long as that’s a convenient talking point and you’re not talking about how he gave AMNESTY to ILLEGALS, making him a GLOBALIST TRAITOR. But for the moment, this is the version of Schrödinger’s Reagan it’s still OK for MAGAs to admire.
Booth went on to explain about how a year or two of 10 percent unemployment is just the shock doctrine we need to clear the cobwebs out of the economy, and maybe the useless eaters while we’re at it:
BOOTH: That did not last for long, and deregulation and other things that paralleled the beginning of his administration ended up taking over and brought the economy out of recession.
The host nodded, saying “Right, Right,” agreeing there’s nothing wrong with a little short-term Payne, and Booth continued:
BOOTH: We might just be in for some short-term pain here, which the prior administration was not willing to take and put the country on much weaker footing because of it. […]
PAYNE: No doubt about it. And I agree with you 1,000 percent that when you change something that’s like this, lot of cash floating around, maybe there’s a little temporary pain. We also end up calling it investing.
Mind you, this version of history sends Reagan’s huge increases in federal spending straight down the Memory Hole. Yes, he cut taxes. Yes, he fired some government workers. But he also increased government spending, not only on the military but across the board. We ended up calling that investing, and apparently forgetting it, too.
Hey, this reminds us of a very good book we read a few times, by a British gent named George Orwell, in which the main character looks up at his telescreen and hears a report of some very good news:
It appeared that there had even been demonstrations to thank Big Brother for raising the chocolate ration to twenty grammes a week. And only yesterday, he reflected, it had been announced that the ration was to be REDUCED to twenty grammes a week. Was it possible that they could swallow that, after only twenty-four hours? Yes, they swallowed it.
Still, Booth had a great point about how short the Reagan recession was. Two years isn’t very long at all, at least not when it’s 40 years in the past and you’re not living through it right now.
In real time, the recession ground along for quite a while before all that federal spending started the economy rolling again. In August 1982, polls found only 35 percent of Americans thought Reagan should seek reelection, while 57 percent said he should pack it in. All the while, Reagan’s approval ratings sank lower and lower.
But memory is weird, and very malleable, as Winston Smith noticed. Even as Reagan campaigned for a second term, plenty of people who’d been mauled by his recession really did believe that it was a very good thing that, from a peak of 10.8 percent unemployment in December 1982, Wise Benevolent Ronald Reagan brought unemployment down to “only” 7.2 percent in time for the 1984 election.
Voters swallowed that fucking “It’s Morning In America” shit sandwich like it was a fucking Chick-fil-A, even though that chain hadn’t grown past one mall in Atlanta yet. What’s more, truly in the space of a couple minutes, voters decided to overlook Reagan’s already visible dementia sundowning in the first debate against Walter Mondale, because Saint Ron delivered a scripted funny joke about “the age issue” in the second debate, making the issue vanish instantly.
I remember seeing that at the local Democratic watch party in Flagstaff and my heart sinking, knowing the election was over. It wasn’t policy, it wasn’t persuasion, it was showbiz and it fucking worked.
In conclusion, Fucking Elon Musk and the Fucking Fox Bidniss Fucks might have a fucking point here: If Trump is going to cause a recession, he may as well do it now and hope voters won’t massacre him in the midterms, if they take place.
He’ll have all the time in the world to amend or ignore the Constitution in time for 2028, after all. Victory Gin, anyone?
[CBS News / Media Matters / Justin Baragona on Bluesky / Pew Research Center]
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