Elon Musk has sparked yet more controversy after it was revealed how much he is being paid by taxpayer’s money.
The billionaire is being called out for earning a whopping $8 million per day by the taxpayer in the first DOGE hearing.
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), experienced its first oversight hearing where its practices were called into question.
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While it’s not technically a government department, DOGE has been said to act as an outside advisor on federal spending, headed up by Musk.
The level of Musk’s power under DOGE has been called into question, and fears have heightened since the Tesla boss was granted full access to the Treasury payment system.
This week, the team experienced its first oversight hearing.
Rep. Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico, who is the top Democrat on the committee, attacked DOGE’s actions over the last few weeks, stating: “We can’t just sit here today and pretend like everything is normal, and that this is just another hearing on government efficiency, while we’re sitting here, Donald Trump and Elon Musk are recklessly and illegally dismantling the federal government.”
Democrat Rep. Greg Casar of Texas also said: “If this committee were serious about rooting out waste from our federal government, then today’s whole hearing would be about how Musk and Donald Trump are firing the independent watch dogs who’ve done this work for decades.”
And that wasn’t the only revelation by Casar, who went on to point out that Musk is earning an enormous $8 million a day from his government contracts, comparing it to the average person ‘who survives on social security’ with a daily payment of just $65.
Casar continued: “We’re not looking into Elon Musk’s $8 million a day. This subcommittee chaired by Marjorie Taylor Greene and the House of Republicans is looking into your grandmother’s $65 a day.”
Musk’s access to Treasury financial data has been halted for now after New York judge Paul A. Engelmayer placed an injunction to block him.
The preliminary injunction came into effect on Saturday (February 8), and will last until the next court hearing tomorrow (February 14).
As part of the ruling, Musk and his team have also been ordered to immediately destroy any copies of records that they have.
This comes after the Trump administration was sued by 19 state attorneys general, who claim that giving DOGE access to the records violates federal law.
In the judge’s order, it said that states would ‘face irreparable’ harm if immediate relief wasn’t implemented.
The order continued: “That is both because of the risk that the new policy presents of the disclosure of sensitive and confidential information and the heightened risk that the systems in question will be more vulnerable than before to hacking.”