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Elon
We understand that your relationship with ProPublica got off to a rocky start when we contacted you about an article you were writing about federal taxes. You responded with just one punctuation mark, “?”. And then later called the article that referred to you “a mass of misleading content.”
We can agree to disagree on that story and many others. However, we thought it might be useful to contact you again in view of your role as joint director of the Ministry of Government Efficiency along with Mr. Vivek Ramaswamy.
Simply put, if you’re looking to identify wasteful practices and spending by federal agencies, you’ll find a wealth of actionable problems that our reporting has uncovered over the past 16 years. In a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed on the DOGE plan, you and Vivek pointed out that “the federal government’s procurement process is also deeply broken.”
Our reports over the years provide some strong illustrations in that regard. ProPublica’s commitment to combating the Navy’s cost overruns and ship design flaws is second to none. We recently revealed how Microsoft eliminated competitors from providing cybersecurity software to the largest government agencies, including the Department of Defense. (Microsoft defended its actions in a statement, saying, “The sole purpose of this period was to support the government’s urgent call to strengthen the security posture of federal agencies that continue to be targeted by advanced nation-state threat actors.”) (It was to be done.)
Perhaps the most direct connection between our journalism and your work comes from your reported interest in creating a phone app that most Americans can use to do their taxes.
Good journalism makes a difference.
Our nonprofit, independent newsroom has one job: to hold those in power accountable. Here’s how our research is driving real-world change.
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No national news organization focuses on this topic more than ProPublica. We have thoroughly documented why the United States is one of the only developed countries in the world that does not offer free filing to its citizens. Companies like Intuit, which makes billions of dollars selling tax preparation software, have persuaded Congress to block free filing and continue filing. Business is alive.
Be sure to read the article “Inside TurboTax’s 20-year fight to stop Americans from filing their taxes for free.”
Since you’re a busy person, I’ll give you the TL;DR version: The tax preparation industry is bipartisan, dominated by House Republicans but also including Democrats like Silicon Representative Zoe Lofgren. They stopped free filing by organizing in the Capitol a coalition of valleys.
The industry has also been criticized by longtime Republicans like Grover Norquist, who branded free-filing proponents as “high-spending Washington D.C. spenders” and sought to “socialize all tax preparation in America.” is also gaining support.
As you know (or you will soon find out if you pursue this topic), despite decades of resistance, the IRS recently launched a pilot program for free filing. It’s working pretty well, but unless something changes with the current status quo in Washington, it will likely remain small.
That is where the historic opportunity lies for you and Vivek.
What has always struck me about Washington is its ability to resist fundamental change. People come with big plans for reform, but often end up being part of the problem.
I began my career as a Washington reporter in 1983, two years after President Ronald Reagan took office promising to change the way business was done in the nation’s capital. President Reagan seriously came up with concrete ideas for saving money and reducing waste. He created a presidential commission of business executives and urged its members to work like “tireless hounds.”
“We must do everything we can to eradicate inefficiency,” the president said.
Two years later, the commission proposed a 47-volume reform proposal that it said would save the government $424 billion over three years. Most of the proposals required Congressional action, a difficult task at a time when the Senate was controlled by Republicans and the House of Representatives by Democrats. Ultimately, only 27% of the recommendations were implemented. By the end of Reagan’s term, government spending had increased and the budget deficit had widened.
I believe that with Republicans controlling the president and the House and Senate, you and Vivek have a better chance at tackling issues such as free tax filing, which have long been dismissed as lost causes. I believe it. There is a broad coalition of Americans who voted for Donald Trump, many of whom feel the government cares little about their problems. Politicians of both parties understand that the future may depend on taking real, measurable steps to address those concerns.
Eliminating the annual ritual of paying a third party to tell the government what it already knows about an individual’s financial situation is common and could become more efficient. there is.
There is a lot of skepticism about whether the goal of cutting trillions of dollars from the federal budget can be achieved. It seems like we can build up that level of savings only by cutting everything from Medicare to military spending. I think the president’s political advisers will take the ax out of your hands before you reach your first trillion dollars.
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This is not to say that there aren’t many government programs that could be done better. We believe it is our job to be responsible, and the waste of the public’s money is one of the focuses of our reporting. That’s why we’ve written repeatedly about waste and fraud in the government’s two largest health care programs, Medicare and Medicaid. (We also covered how cuts to these programs are harming people.)
There’s little doubt that over the next few years we’ll be writing stories that will infuriate people you know. Some of our work is focused on you or your company. With great power comes great oversight. (As we have in the past few years, we will always contact you and ask for answers before disclosing any information about you.)
And yet, if you didn’t publish an article or two that would have you storming into Vivek’s office and saying, “Damn, this is outrageous. This is outrageous.” I’m going to be disappointed.” This can be fixed. ”
The best,
Steve Engelberg
