Just now, on social media, I read comment strings on my local community pages cheering Elon Musk for taking a wrecking ball to our federal government. While reading the news these days makes me sick and anxious, few stories made me so nauseous as my neighbors, celebrating a billionaire’s seeming ability to wreck institutions that provide international aid, educate children, and protect our national parks. The comments seemed giddy, as if these folks don’t care for the thousands of federal workers whose lives of public service will be devastated by these cuts.
Certainly social media aggregates so that humanity’s worst instincts get the most clicks, but the callousness still stunned me. Is this who we’ve become? Cheering for people to lose their jobs and suffer because a powerful man says they should?
Apparently the answer is yes, This is who we are.
Musk’s capricious destruction of federal institutions in search of waste, facilitated by a collection of young coders intent on “auditing” our government finances, should be cause for worry, not celebration. Audits require processes that are not being followed, done by accountants who understand the systems and policies that make an institution run. They require people trained in and experienced with auditing. I doubt most folks would let Musk perform brain surgery on them, because he lacks the proper training. So why is it assumed that he has the skills to audit the federal government when he’s never received any training about auditing? And when he has already cratered some businesses, like Twitter/X? And, perhaps most potently, when he has a clear conflict of interest, given the billions of dollars he receives in federal contracts?
Emboldened Local “Auditors”
In countless ways, the bad behavior of our national elected officials (and their sycophants, like Musk) have emboldened others to likewise behave badly. And now, the unimpeded efforts of a billionaire will also embolden countless people to take the same approach to their local governments, “auditing” spending and spreading disinformation about how money is spent at the local level, causing even more disarray and confusion.
That’s already happening in my hometown; beware that it might be happening in your home town, too. A quick review: Four years ago, a school board election upended a thriving district, firing one superintendent in favor of far less-qualified person, then giving that person a very lucrative salary. The alt-right school board lost its majority in 2023, but its bad decision-making caused continued harm, from the superintendent’s decisions to poor budgeting choices. Last summer, it was reported that the district was $14 million underwater, necessitating deep cuts, including a reduction in force (RIF) of nearly 100 teachers and staff. The superintendent took family leave, then was reassigned, since his sweetheart contract said he deserved a one-year notice of termination. Just this week, he was finally fired with cause.
Now, a local writer without auditing experience has accused the school board of financial waste and of lying, saying that there was no budget deficit whatsoever, and that the RIFs were unnecessary. Her article has been posted on numerous community boards, shared multiple times, raising the ire of those already distrustful of public institutions.
The Havoc these “Audits” Cause
Trouble is, her understanding of school budgets is seemingly limited, and her audit is based on this misunderstanding. In the aftermath of her article, the school district had to put out a statement explaining the difference between restricted funds and general funds, noting how financially perilous the school district’s situation really is and that “local claims that the District is being dishonest and not actually in a fiscal crisis are false. We are indeed coming out of a fiscal crisis, and it will take many years before our operations fully return to normal after the fiscal mismanagement of the general fund in 2023-24.”
Despite this correction, the damage has already been done. The presumed “audit” has sowed more discord in our community. Those who were RIFed will question whether they really had to lose their jobs; others are even more sure that the current school board is lining its own pockets, rather than serving the community’s best interests and its children. Significantly, the disinformation creates fertile ground for more distrust in our public schools, setting up an especially rancorous election in May, and long term, further weakening an institution that is crucial to a community’s thriving.
Perhaps this is what is so disturbing about the discourse that cheers on Musk et al. and his destruction of government programs. Certainly there is waste in government spending, and a proper audit at the state and local level will help find those excesses. But these programs are created to help communities thrive, and they are staffed by real humans who, for the most part, do their work because they want humans to thrive, too. Disinformation about presumed “audits” serves to undermine humans and their work for other humans.
This, I guess, is who we are. But it is not who any of us should aspire to be.
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