🔥🔥 FIVE ALARM FIRE: ELON MUSK COUP 🔥🔥

After consulting with former Treasury officials, we have sent this "worst case scenarios" memo to members of Congress. We wanted to share – and encourage you to share with others.

One person responded, "Brilliant memo! This is material and scenarios I have not seen anywhere else. Thanks for being vigilant."

It shows the potential impacts of Elon Musk's hostile takeover – including his ability to strangle Social Security, trigger the debt ceiling, and enrich himself with your money.

Read it below.

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Yesterday, 22 Democrats voted for a Trump nominee! You can also sign this petition to Senate Democrat "Leader" Chuck Schumer telling him to SHUT DOWN THE SENATE until Elon Musk’s coup ends.

(Please also consider donating to our work engaging Congress about the dangers of Trump/Musk and pressing Democrats to fight with BACKBONE. Donate here.)

A Layman’s Explainer on Elon Musk’s Seizure of the Bureau of Fiscal Service, and Some Worst-Case Scenarios

Elon Musk and his associates from the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have gained control of the federal payment system at the Treasury Department, seizing access from David Lebryk, a longtime career civil servant, who has now departed.

This memo offers a layman’s explainer on how the system now in Musk’s possession is the “Financial Nuclear Codes.”

The system that Musk seized is a computer system that receives files of everyone who should be paid by the government and the amount that they should be paid, and then processes those payments. The system is designed to process funding allocated by Congress and by the agencies.

We spoke with several former Treasury employees to understand the extremely dangerous impact of placing this system — responsible for over $6 trillion in annual payments, including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, veterans’ benefits, and tax refunds — along with the private data of hundreds of millions of Americans, under Musk’s control.

Here is a quick layman’s explanation of what’s possible under the worst-case scenarios:

• Elon Musk now has the ability to choose what government bills to pay and what not to pay. He can cut off spending to any federal program, from Social Security to Head Start to SNAP. He can achieve the same aims as the “funding freeze” memo from the Office of Management and Budget — but at the source, and without a paper trail. This is functionally an impoundment, but he can do it without transparency, without involving the agencies, and without the evidence of a memo. Keep in mind that the Treasury Department — and the people running this system — do not have the legal authority to decide what should or should not be paid.
• Elon Musk can gain access to sensitive data about almost every American. When the Treasury payment system receives files from agencies, the data includes millions of people’s information, including their bank account and home address. IRS data includes a wealth of identifying and financial information about almost every American. Musk and his corporate allies will now have access to this data, which creates massive privacy concerns in terms of how this data could be used, and whether it will be stored and accessed in ways that make it vulnerable to hackers and identity thieves.
• Elon Musk could implement a new list of individuals or organizations who would not receive Treasury payments. There is currently a “Do Not Pay” master system, which draws from a number of different government lists — there are lists of individuals who have died or been sanctioned, for example, or lists of businesses with outstanding tax liens which are ineligible for government contracts. Before new payments are processed, the computer system "pings" these lists to ensure the government isn't paying anyone that it shouldn't. With OMB’s cooperation, individuals and organizations could be added to “Do Not Pay” for improper reasons.
• Elon Musk could damage or break the payments system by giving access to unqualified associates. This system is incredibly complex, and interference in the code could threaten the federal government’s ability to make payments reliably and on time. A 25-year-old Musk associate reportedly has "read and write" access, meaning he has the ability to rewrite the code on the Payment Automation Manager (PAM) and the Secure Payment System (SPS).
• Elon Musk can make political, damaging, or self-dealing decisions around the debt ceiling, potentially destroying the full faith and credit of the U.S. Treasury. David Lebryk and his team have been the ones who monitor the U.S. debt and run Treasury auctions and redemptions in ordinary times, who work closely with the Treasury Secretary when the debt ceiling is approaching, and who run extraordinary measures to create more space for negotiations when we’ve reached our limit. This close monitoring and prudent planning ensures that the full faith and credit of the United States is never questioned and that the U.S. Treasury’s status as the world’s reserve currency is protected.
• Elon Musk can implement new forms of payment. A large part of running the payments system is making decisions about how payments are made, in order to actually get the money into people’s hands — through everything from direct deposit to prepaid debit cards to Direct Express for unbanked beneficiaries. Elon Musk could (in theory) send payment to VA beneficiaries in a bitcoin wallet through a random private Fintech company with inadequate operational security.
• Elon Musk may be able to cut off payments to specific destinations, including specific states. He can cut off important benefits to blue states, for example, immediately crashing the economies of those states. This creates a form of economic warfare that can be weaponized by the federal government against the states.
• Elon Musk can choose not to pay his competitors. Musk is the beneficiary of billions of dollars in government contracts, and he competes against other companies for billions more. In theory, he could use this enormous power to exert leverage, extract concessions, and even disrupt the operations of his competitors through non-payment.
• Even amidst the economic catastrophe caused by a debt ceiling breach, Elon Musk will stand to profit. If Elon Musk is running this system, in a scenario in which the U.S. Treasury is running out of money, he could choose to pay SpaceX before paying veterans benefits or Social Security. Federal transfers also have an enormous impact on the American economy, as money from programs like veterans benefits and Social Security circulate immediately back into the economy. Disruptions to our payment systems can reverberate across the economy and the globe.

Recommendations for Elected Officials, and What the Grassroots Should Demand:

1. No political interference with payments — hands off the payment system. Any permissions given to Elon Musk’s cronies must be reserved and the payment system must be continued to be controlled by experienced career civil servants.

2. The Fiscal Assistant Secretary of the Treasury must continue to be a career position. The lives and livelihoods of millions of Americans — not to mention the full faith and credit of the United States — depend on it. If he is willing, David Lebryk must be reinstated, or another career executive must be brought into this position.

This development is a serious national emergency, and we call on every elected official from both political parties — as well as anyone invested in the U.S. financial markets — to take immediate action.

Share this memo on Facebook, on Instagram, on Bluesky, on Twitter (X), and please forward it to as many people as you can. (Get a PDF version to share here.)

You can also sign this petition to Senate Democrat "Leader" Chuck Schumer telling him to SHUT DOWN THE SENATE until Elon Musk’s coup ends.

(Please also consider donating to our work engaging Congress about the dangers of Trump/Musk and pressing Democrats to fight with BACKBONE. Donate here.)

Thanks for helping spread the word.

-- The PCCC Team (Follow us on BlueSky: @BoldProgressives.org)

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