Elon Musk predicted he could cut at least $2 trillion from the U.S. federal budget, a lofty goal that would require a level of austerity unprecedented since the winding down of World War II.
His target, mentioned at Donald Trump's Sunday rally in Madison Square Garden, exceeds the amount Congress spends annually on government agency operations, including defense.
It would likely require making significant cuts to popular entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and veterans' benefits.
In short, it's easier said than done — even for the world's richest man, who Trump has said he'd appoint to lead a government efficiency commission should he win a second term in the White House.
Last fiscal year, the government spent more than $6.75 trillion, with more than $5.3 trillion of that coming from Social Security, health care, defense and veterans' benefits — all of which are politically fraught and notoriously difficult to convince Congress to cut — as well as interest on the debt.
Musk's own companies — including Tesla Inc. and SpaceX — have billions of dollars worth of federal contracts and have benefited from government spending, including electric vehicle tax credits and infrastructure investments, further underscoring the difficulty of implementing a $2 trillion cut.
Trump's first term showed just how elusive spending cuts can be. His efforts to slash spending on Affordable Care Act insurance subsidies failed in the Senate, and Congress rejected many of his other proposed spending cuts to domestic agencies.
Trump eventually agreed to major increases in discretionary spending followed by trillions in pandemic-era relief in a series of bipartisan deals that ballooned the deficit.
