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Political funding Musk's rumoured millions for Farage may spur real reform
The Guardian|December 09, 2024
Elon Musk has denied he is gearing up to chuck $100m at Nigel Farage's Reform UK party, as it pushes to take on the Tories.
- Heather Stewart
Political funding Musk's rumoured millions for Farage may spur real reform

But the fact the question arose is a reminder of the pressing need for political funding reform on this side of the Atlantic.

Musk is the embodiment of economic power in the modern US: a multibillionaire, with spicy political views, who has bought his way into a role as Donald Trump's costcutter-in-chief.

Part of his motivation seems to be not just slashing spending, but dismantling regulators that his companies have found irksome. He had previously joined legal action, alongside Amazon's Jeff Bezos, aimed at having the National Labor Relations Board declared unconstitutional. This is the body, created in 1935, that enforces workers' rights. It ensured staff at Amazon's Staten Island warehouse were able to ballot successfully for union recognition.

The owner of X has also said he wants to "delete" the Consumer Financial Protection Agency. Musk et al's affront at federal agencies having oversight of business is reminiscent of the fury faced by President Theodore Roosevelt and his allies during the so-called Progressive Era, at the turn of the 20th century, when they fought to bust vast monopolies and tame the worst excesses of capitalism.

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