Elon Musk and his Doge Nerds revealed plans on Thursday to make the US government an 'Apple Store-like experience', in their first joint sit-down interview, with Fox News' Bret Baier.
Musk trotted seven men who have been behind the controversial efforts of Doge to close the federal workforce and to root waste, fraud and abuse.
Much of what they concentrated was how outdated government technology was, including how the retirement of federal government workers on paper is processed in an old limestone mine in Pennsylvania.
Joe Gebbia, a co-founder of Airbnb, told Baier that he joined the Doge attempt to hear the mine, dating from the 1950s.
“I loved the challenge, so I jumped on board,” said Gebbia. “And it turns out that there is actually a mine in Pennsylvania who houses every paper document for the pension process in the government.”
Gebbia, a billionaire such as Musk, noted that the cave '22, 000 archive cabinets stacked 10 high home 400 million pieces of paper. '
He said he hoped to convert the pension process, which lasts for months, into one that takes place on a matter of days.
“So we really believe that the 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 evening with Bret Baier from Fox News Channel
Co-founder of Airbnb Joe Gebbia said that Doge wanted to turn the government into an 'Apple Store-like experience', while explaining how federal employees are currently being done on paper and stored in a mine in Pennsylvania
Musk said that the mine did when they tried to force federal employees to retire voluntarily.
'They said that the most could do you is 8,000 a month. And even under normal circumstances it can take six to nine months to have your pension paper work processed. And they often get the calculations wrong, “said the billionaire Tesla Executive. 'And such as:' Why would it take so long to retire? “And they are” because of mine. ” And you are like: “What do you mean by the mine, what does a mine have to do with retiring?” '
Gebbia said he hoped to streamline the process during the 'coming months'.
Regarding the pension reports of everyday Americans, Musk promised that DOGE's efforts would not mean that social security benefits are reduced.
“No, in fact, what we do will help with their benefits,” said Musk. “Legitimate people will, as a result of the work of Doge, receive more social security, no less.”
“I want to emphasize that. As a result of the work of Doge, legitimate recipients of social security will receive more money, no less money, “Musk continued. “And show the record that I said this and it will be proven to be true. Let's look back at this in the future. '
Musk said that the biggest problem he found in the government is that 'computer systems do not talk to each other'.
“A very kind of thorny problem, really a difficult problem, it is honestly a kind of painful homework to reconcile all government databases to eliminate the waste and fraud,” said Musk.
Elon Musk promised that beneficiaries of social security would receive more money after DOGE's efforts to reduce fraud
“These databases do not talk to each other and that is really the source of – that is the greatest vulnerability for fraud – the fact that these databases do not talk to each other.”
Anthony Anderson, a former banker of Morgan Stanley who helped Musk to acquire Twitter, explained that he discovers that the system of small business administration is not referring to the social security database.
Anderson and Musk, SBA -Loingen, went 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 that he approached 'fire, ready and then aimed'.
'Well, I agree that we really want to be careful in the cuts. So we want to measure twice, if not cut three times and once, “he said. “And actually that is our approach.”
'They can characterize it as shooting the hip, but it's anything but that. That does not mean that we ensure that we do not make mistakes, “he added.
Baier also asked Musk if he was planning to stay in his contract after the 130 days as a special government employee.
“I think we have completed most of the work that is needed to reduce the shortage with a trillion dollar within that time frame,” Musk replied.
“I think we move in the context of the government as lightning,” he said too. “In the context of what I am used to moving, it is slower than I want.”
'So what looks like incredibly fast action by government standards is slower than I want, to be completely honest. But we make solid progress, “recognized Musk.
