By Ben Bisbach
Mabel, MN
I work for an agricultural services company that, among other things, contracts with the USDA to administer certain USDA programs for farmers. When the Musk/Trump administration enacted their funding freeze, they blocked reimbursement to my company of about $70,000, for services we have already performed. $70,000 might not sound like a lot to the billionaire duo running our country, but for us, it’s a make or break amount of money.
Its obvious that the federal government could be more efficient, but Musk’s approach is so sloppy and arbitrary, its like cutting off your arms to lose weight. Add in the promise of massive new taxes on food, energy, cars, cloths, and raw materials, and you see consumer confidence falling, inflation expectations rising, and hopes for any more interest rate cuts fading away.
But it’ll be you and me who suffer from degraded services and a more dysfunctional economy. The billionaires making these decisions for us will be just fine.
If the “Department of Government Efficiency” wants to have credibility they should look at the tens of billions in federal contracts that Elon himself has with the government. Or, imagine if they took a look at the tax code. They could root out all the deductions, credits, and other mechanisms that corporations and the ultra-rich use to avoid paying taxes. Remember when Trump’s tax returns leaked, and we learned he didn’t pay income tax for 17 years? For normal people that sounds like fraud, but it was a perfectly legal loophole that he used. We could fund a lot of services and pay off a lot of debt by finding and closing those types of loopholes.
Instead Trump and Musk think its regular people who should make the sacrifices.
They say the only option is to take a chainsaw to agencies like the VA, post office, national parks, weather service, Dept. of Education and Department of Agriculture. To cut billions from cancer research. To gut Medicaid, which huge numbers of rural workers rely on for health insurance.
I think they’re lying to us.
I reached out to our U.S. representative, Brad Finstad, to try and get some answers. He proudly touts his support for rural America, and his website shows him standing next to a tractor. But his office hasn’t bothered to get back to me yet. Has anyone had any luck getting a response from this guy? His social media shows him doing events, but they’re never disclosed to the public. He seems afraid to defend his actions to his own constituents.
I wonder why that is?
Kim Wentworth says
If I may:
We are in total agreement that to most everyone we know $70,000 is a HUGE amount of money and I hope as of this letter that it has been straightened out. I think it’s safe to say we both totally agree that ALL of our representatives need to be responsive to their constituents.
Now, let’s get to the rest of your letter: “waste, fraud, and abuse” is originally a dem used phrase used in the 1990’s. Clinton, Pelosi, Shumar, Barry O, used it often. They only did lip service, today we have a President that is actually doing something about it.
As of 4/16/25 DOGE is doing an outstanding job and to correct a talking point from the left, DOGE is the most transparent agency in the history of this great nation, fact
Tariffs are one tool, a great tool to help America. Tariffs are not a tax on us. It’s the overall change in trade policy and a way to bring jobs back to America. Remember, the same people that claim we need illegals to harvest our lettuce are the same people that think they know more about trade policy, tariffs and the SUPER ace in the hole we have with the entire world, leverage. In the short term we are going to see some volatility to benefit the middle class in the long term. If you are only a short term thinking person you will have trouble understanding.
Elon pays his loans back ahead of time with a penalty for doing that, do you? Your paragraph that talks about “cuts” to the VA and other programs, cancer research ending is so funny and silly. But with some of the low voltage voter it works I guess, fear mongering. Cleaning up waste, fraud and abuse is not (cuts). Seeking justification for expenses is never a “cut”.
One quick point, in the beginning of your letter you referenced the USDA. If you are of the mindset that everything USDA is great then you have a severe disconnect with reality or you are too close to the teat of the federal government. Brad Finstad had better be doing what we elected him to do. Put America first!! Sometimes that means NOT bringing home the “bacon”.
Todd French says
I’m so sorry that you find yourself in this predicament, Ben. I’ve tried calling all the phone numbers for Rep. Finstad’s office. I might as well have called a fence post because I couldn’t get a response. Email is responded with a form letter. I’m just so disappointed in him. I think it’s time to vote him out of office.
Ruth Peterson says
I have contacted Mr Finstad twice via email. He responded to my first comments and concerns about the pardoning of the Jan 6 criminals with what I thought were very condescending remarks. I emailed again a few weeks later about my concerns over Elon Musk his unfair tactics. I haven’t received any response.
Star Ostgard says
I get responses – all ignoring the questions I ask and instead ‘bragging’ about the wonderful things trump is doing. No one wants to see the all too-obvious “shut down agencies that are investigating me” tactics of Musk, nor those huge contracts. There are people who still support these scam artists – and will, until those cuts hit them.
But I also blame Congress – BOTH parties. The Right for handing over their sworn duties for administering and funding these agencies, being complicit in the destruction of the Constitution and spreading bigotry and lies; the Democrats for being so complacent and full of excuses over the last many decades. If they were the party they used to be, trump and his billionaire cronies wouldn’t have gotten in the first time, let alone a second.
Erika Haugerud says
I call daily. No response.