Money Where Big Mouths Are

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By Patrick F. Cannon

Back in August, during my failed run for president, I proposed a few sensible ideas for cutting the Federal budget. It included mandating that every department cut their discretionary budget by five percent a year each year for at least four years. This would force them to decide what was actuallly important for the taxpayer, and what clearly wasn’t. In addition, I suggested that all the food, housing and other anti-poverty programs be consolidated and that those eligible receive only one check.

            Now that Donald Trump is president again and has loosed the likes of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy on a trembling bureaucracy to force them to cut trillions from the budget, I have an idea which would be symbolic of their sincerity. Since Musk does business with the government, a noble gesture would be for him to discount his bills by a similar five percent! And not only him, but all the other companies who have gotten rich at our expense!

            Let’s take the Department of Defense as an example. Of their total budget of $820 billion, a company like Lockheed Martin pockets $64 billion. Surely, they could afford to give the poor taxpayer a mere $3.2 billion rebate. Raytheon could kick in $2 billion, Northrup Grumman $1.75 billion (I could go on, but you get the idea). You may not be aware of this, but Musk’s Space X alone does nearly a billion dollars a year business with NASA, and he may well have contracts with other agencies.

            Jeff Bezos’ Amazon does business with all levels of government, local, state, and Federal. He has also entered the space rocket business, so no doubt he will be doing business with NASA (maybe he already does). And President Trump’s new buddy, Mark Zuckerberg, is also a major government contractor.

            Now, their wealth is subject to the vagaries of the stock markets, but Musk is the world’s richest man, worth roughly $250 billion; Bezos has nearly $200 billion in assets; and Zuckerberg a mere $180 billion.

            If they put their money where their mouths are, they could set a fine example of patriotism by offering us (our taxes pay for all this) that five percent discount. If they did, how could companies like Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, General Dynamics, Northrup Grumman, and the other major contractors not follow suit?

            I’m reminded of the wealthy corporate executives who went to Washington during World Wat II to assist in the war effort. They were of course paid for their efforts – and handsome $1  a year (nearly $20 in today’s dough!).  I’m sure Mssrs. Musk, Bezos, and Zuckerberg are no less patriotic?  

Copyright 2025, Patrick F. Cannon

4 thoughts on “Money Where Big Mouths Are”

  1. The story of Robin Hood, who took from the rich (the abbots) and gave to the poor, has always appealed as a mythical model of fairness in our Western culture. Marx did a spin on the idea with his “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” I always thought that bearded nuisance got it backwards. It should be, “To each according to his ability, from each according to his needs.”

    Government contracts are a gravy train. Corporations, not to mention legions of non-profits, live and lobby for the promised land of government largesse. We would all be better off financially without the vast sums spent on bribes.

    Even though it is our own weapons manufacturers who profit, think of the billions in taxpayer money (and, yes, millions of lives) would be saved if we stopped financing wars. All of that manufacturing power could be used to make less expensive cars without those useless, beeping gadgets new cars are peppered with. Can I, please, just drive the car?

    Your five percent solution should also be applied to the nation’s universities. They need to drain their own administrative swamps and cut tuition fees. Purdue has managed to do this without prompting, a rare case. In contrast, Indiana University, a state school (though it doesn’t get that much funding from the state), has a net worth of about $5 billion. Some might argue that much of that money is tied up in fixed assets like buildings. But they are buildings, nice buildings as property manager Trump might say, that sit vacant and un-utilized about one-third of the year.

    Goodwill, even five percent worth, is a rare commodity among corporations Social welfare is not the purpose of business. It can appear in times of national crisis, but I’m not sure we are at that point, yet, even if uncomfortably close with our rising levels of debt. They could take a pay cut. If not, Trump could issue emergency executive order No. 2488, to raise their taxes, er tariffs.

    Elon Musk gets a lot of flak because he’s rich and highly visible (Bezos likes to keep low, like his slut wife’s decolletage), and thus a ready target. But you can tell he’s having great fun. I hope he can succeed in DOGE-ing the federal budget. The Democrats will fight with hammer and tongs to defend their treasure. It’s Rocket Man vs. the Swamp Kings. Let the games begin!

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