To the editor:

In a recent guest essay by Thomas B. Edsall in the New York Times, Laurence Tribe, an emeritus professor of constitutional law at Harvard, wrote to Edsall in response to an inquiry: “I can think of no precedent in American history of such enormous power being entrusted to a private citizen. To say that this delegation of unsupervised authority by President Trump to Elon Musk is an unprecedented violation of the appointments clause of Article II of the Constitution, which at a minimum would demand the Senate’s advice and consent to the appointment of anyone exercising the kind of power, would be an understatement. Our Constitution rebels against the idea of empowering any individual, neither elected nor officially appointed pursuant to law, with the sweeping power to control the expenditure of public funds, the hiring and firing of public officials, the deployment of public force and the organization of public agencies. This is brute dictatorship of the worst kind.”

Elon Musk holds $20 billion in government contracts. He is a walking conflict of interest. Donald Trump and Musk et al are committing brazen crimes on a daily basis. Getting into the Treasury Department accounts is a federal crime. Why are the Republicans sitting quiet about all this? Where is Chip Roy? As someone who paid into and now lives in retirement on Social Security, will I, will we be next on the chopping block? How will we live? We won’t. Thousands are losing their government jobs. Distraught, frightened. Medicaid is reportedly being slashed. Healthcare for the poorest among us, and nursing home care. USAID bought billions of food and grain from our farmers. Musk shut it down. It’s rotting. Talk about waste. He called them criminal. He has shut down all the agencies that were looking into his businesses. He isn’t looking for fraud and waste.

The plan is to increase the debt limit by $4.5 trillion so Trump and Musk and all the billionaires and corporations can have a huge tax cut. This may make it through the House with only GOP votes, but when it gets to the Senate, they can’t pass it without Democrats to get the required 60 votes. I can foresee a major financial crisis coming. What happens if the US can’t make their interest payments on the national debt? China holds the most debt.

All of this should send shivers up our respective spines. Dare we say recession or worse? Beware the Ides of March. The new budget must pass by March 14.

Elon Musk is lying about all the “dead” people on Social Security so he can get his fingers into it. That’s what the Inspectors General were for, and why Trump fired them (also illegal). Their jobs were to root out waste, fraud and abuse.

Why would anyone trust a man who was convicted of fraud in conducting his business in New York to our country and our national treasury? He owes millions in fines and back taxes. He is a conman, and he is perpetrating the greatest con on America. He must be stopped.

Jennifer Zahn

Saranac Lake