By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-11-20 21:02:49 | Updated at 2024-11-23 21:15:04
3 days ago
Late Nobel Prize laureate Milton Friedman supported the abolition of most government departments, as seen in a resurfaced video shared by Elon Musk.
The legendary economist, who identified as a libertarian, explained his vision for a government that is less intrusive but able to keep citizens safe in a 1999 interview.
When asked which government cabinet departments he would abolish, Friedman replied that he would get rid of all of them except the departments of Defense, State, Treasury and Justice.
Musk shared the clip after he and Vivek Ramaswamy was tapped by president-elect Donald Trump to 'dismantle' the $6.5 trillion bloated U.S. bureaucracy by spearheading the new 'Department of Government Efficiency' (DOGE).
Friedman said he would get rid of the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Interior, Education, Labor, Transportation and Veteran Affairs.
He also recommended axing the department of Housing and Urban Development, which he said 'has done an enormous amount of harm' and has 'destroyed parts of cities under the rubric of eliminating slums.'
Friedman the Department of Energy should also be abolished - 'except when it ties in with the military.'
In terms of the National Institute of Health, Friedman said 'There is room for some public health activities to prevent contagion,' but he would abolish the agency, which he claimed 'was mostly a research agency.'
Late Nobel Prize laureate Milton Friedman supported the abolition of most government departments, as seen in a resurfaced video from 1999
Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk speaks during a rally for Donald Trump, at the site of the July assassination attempt against the former president, in Butler, Pennsylvania, Oct. 5, 2024
'That's a question of whether the government should be involved in financing research, and that's a very complicated issue and it's not an easy answer,' Friedman added.
Friedman was one of the most influential economists of the 20th century.
He headed the Chicago School of Economics, a group of economic thinkers associated with the work of the faculty at the University of Chicago.
Friedman was a strong advocate of economic liberty, free markets and free enterprise, and opposed the interventionist Keynesian economic policies of the US government in the 1960s.
He received a Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 1976 for his work.
'Milton Friedman was the best,' the SpaceX founder said of Milton's take on government size and spending.
It comes after Trump made the bombshell announcement last week, saying Musk and Ramaswamy will co-lead the 'Manhattan Project of our time.'
Musk has been spending time with Trump following his electoral win, acting as the president-elect's counsel.
Trump made the bombshell announcement last week, saying Musk and Ramaswamy will co-lead the 'Manhattan Project of our time'
Vivek Ramaswamy was named as the co-chief of the Department of Government Efficiency with Elon Musk
At Trump's Madison Square Garden rally in October, he said he would cut $2 trillion in spending from the federal budget to save taxpayer funds.
He told the roughly 20,000 attendees of Trump's MSG rally: 'Your money is being wasted. We're going to get the government off your back and out of your pocket book.'
Howard Lutnick - chairman and CEO of financial services company Cantor Fitzgerald, who also helms the Trump 2024 Transition Team - introduced the X owner to the stage at the conclusion of his speech.
Lutnick said Musk would soon become the head of a newly-created Department of Government Efficiency, an agency whose initials spell out DOGE, the cryptocurrency Musk once promoted.
Musk's cuts would shrink the budget by nearly a third and would be more than this year's deficit spending.
