Elon Musk is no stranger to using physical props to make a point - After his purchase of social media giant Twitter, which shocked the political left to their core, he famously entered corporate headquarters on day one with a bathroom sink in his hands. "Let that sink in" became a mantra and a meme as Musk proceeded to fire around 80% of the bloated leftist company's staff without any visible decline in operational ability.
Musk proved a common conservative conspiracy theory correct: That Twitter was a corporate monstrosity which employed thousands of people whose only job was to censor views and information contrary to the woke establishment. No website needs 7500 staff members to function; 80% of the workers were only useful as long as the censorship apparatus was in place.
Much like old Twitter, the federal government is also a bloated, festering edifice that needs to to be cut down into a more manageable and far less corrupt structure. One political leader that has experience with this process is Argentina's new president, Javier Milei.
The day Javier Milei was sworn in as president he shuttered 13 ministries and fired over 30,000 government bureaucrats. Argentina's economy has been a train wreck for almost three decades due to socialist mismanagement and out of control debt spending. The country has been indebted to the IMF for many years and was suffering from multiple bouts of hyperinflation since 2001. Milei ran on a Libertarian platform and his campaign promise was to eliminate government waste. He went on to reduce spending by 30% and cut monthly inflation from 25% down to 2.7%.
By all accounts, Milei's administration has been a resounding success in terms of economic reform and he has proven that Austrian economics work in practice and not just in theory. His open disdain for the political left was refreshing to see in a political candidate - Much like Trump, he has not been afraid to say what he really thinks of progressives.
After a decade of woke authoritarianism (much of it funded with American tax dollars) it's hard to argue with anything he says here. Milei's disdain for the political left is only matched by his disdain for big government. His favorite campaign prop was a chainsaw, representing his intent to chop the fat off the bureaucracy.
Elon Musk's DOGE group under the direction of President Trump is seeking to top Javier Milei's cost cutting accomplishments with the rapid exposure of wasteful government agencies like USAID. To celebrate Musk's efforts, Milei arrived at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington DC with a gift for Musk - A giant chrome "chainsaw for bureaucracy".
The saw blade is engraved with Milei’s catchphrase, “Viva la libertad carajo!,” which roughly translates to “Long live freedom, Goddammit!” Musk wielded the chainsaw on stage at CPAC, swinging it wildly. Thankfully the machine appeared to be inert, otherwise Musk probably would have cranked it into action and run around the stage with it.
Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer recently stated that though cuts to government might be necessary, Musk was taking a "meat axe" to the system and chopping everything. Chuck is right, a meat axe is not the proper tool, a chainsaw is much better.