Elon Musk and his DOGE nerds revealed on Thursday plans to turn the U.S. government into an ‘Apple store-like experience,’ in their first joint sit-down interview, with Fox News‘ Bret Baier.
Musk trotted out seven men who have been behind DOGE’s controversial efforts to slim down the federal workforce and root out waste, fraud and abuse.
Much of what they focused on was how outdated government technology was, including how federal government workers’ retirements are processed on paper in an old limestone mine in Pennsylvania.
Joe Gebbia, a co-founder of AirBnB, told Baier on Speicial Report that he joined the DOGE effort upon hearing about the mine, which dates back to the 1950s.
‘I loved the challenge, so I jumped on board,’ Gebbia said. ‘And it turns out there is actually a mine in Pennsylvania that houses every paper document for the retirement process in the government.’
Gebbia, a billionaire like Musk, noted that the cave has ‘22,000 filing cabinets stacked 10 high to house 400 million pieces of paper.’
He said he hoped to turn the retirement process, which takes months, into one that takes place over a matter of days.
‘So we really believe that government can have an Apple store-like experience,’ he said. ‘Beautifully designed, great user experience, modern systems.’
Elon Musk (center, first row) appeared with seven members of his DOGE team for their first group sit-down interview, Thursday night with Fox News Channel’s Bret Baier
AirBnB co-founder Joe Gebbia said DOGE aimed to turn the government into an ‘Apple store-like experience’ as he explained how federal worker retirements are currently done on paper and stored in a mine in Pennsylvania
Musk said DOGE learned of the mine as they tried to push federal workers to voluntarily retire.
‘They said most you could do is 8,000 a month. And even under normal circumstances, it can take six to nine months just to have your retirement paperwork processed. And they often get the calculations wrong,’ the billionaire Tesla executive said. ‘And so like, “Why would it take so long to retire?” And they’re like “Because of the mine.” And you’re like, “What do you mean the mine, what doe a mine got to do with retiring?”‘
Gebbia said he hoped to streamline the process over the ‘next couple of months.’
Turning to the retirement accounts of everyday Americans, Musk pledged that DOGE’s efforts wouldn’t mean cutting Social Security benefits.
‘No, in fact, what we’re doing will help with their benefits,’ Musk said. ‘Legitimate people, as a result of the work of DOGE, will receive more Social Security, not less.’
‘Want to emphasize that. As a result of the work of DOGE, legitimate recipients of Social Security will receive more money not less money,’ Musk continued. ‘And let the record show that I said this and it will be proven out to be true. Let’s check back on this in the future.’
Musk said the biggest issue he’s found in the government is that ‘computer systems don’t talk to each other.’
‘A very sort of thorny problem, a tough problem really, it’s kind of like painful homework frankly is reconciling all the government databases to eliminate the waste and fraud,’ Musk said.
Elon Musk pledged that Social Security beneficiaries would receive more money after the efforts of DOGE to cut out fraud
‘These databases don’t talk to each other and that’s really the source of – that’s the biggest vulnerability for fraud – the fact that these databases don’t talk to each other.’
Anthony Anderson, a former Morgan Stanley banker who helped Musk acquire Twitter, explained that he’s finding that the Small Business Administration’s system isn’t cross-referencing the Social Security database.
In turn, Anderson and Musk claimed, SBA loans were going to children and dead people.
‘If you just solve that simple problem, you would solve a huge amount of fraud,’ Anderson said.
Musk also pushed back on claims he was taking the approach of ‘fire, ready, and then aim.’
‘Well, I do agree that we actually want to be careful in the cuts. So we want to measure twice, if not thrice and cut once,’ he said. ‘And actually, that is that is our approach.’
‘They may characterize it as shooting from the hip, but it is anything but that. Which is not to say that we make we don’t make mistakes,’ he added.
Baier also asked Musk if he planned to stay beyond the 130 days laid out in his contract as a special government employee.
‘I think we will have accomplished most of the work required to reduce the deficit by a trillion dollars within that time frame,’ Musk replied.
‘I think in the context of the government we’re moving like lightning,’ he also said. ‘In the context of what I’m used to moving, it’s slower than I like.’
‘So what seems like incredibly fast-action by government standards is slower than I like, to be totally frank. But we are making solid progress,’ Musk acknowledged.
