Senator Murkowski Issues Comments On Social Media About Musk Accountability Email
Alright, folks, let’s break this one down, because it’s a doozy. Over the weekend, federal workers got an unexpected email that sent certain corners of Washington into a frenzy. The email? A simple directive asking employees to reply with a list of bullet points outlining the work they did over the past week. Sounds reasonable, right? Well, not if you ask some members of Congress, who are absolutely losing their minds over the idea of accountability.
Now, here’s where it gets interesting. If you didn’t reply to the email? Elon Musk—yes, that Elon Musk—said it would “be taken as a resignation.” Boom. Just like that, the federal bureaucracy, which has been expanding like a slow-motion explosion for decades, got a wake-up call. And of course, some politicians couldn’t handle it.
Take Senator Tina Smith of Minnesota. Her response? A profanity-laced personal attack on Musk. Real professional, Senator. Musk, to his credit, didn’t take the bait. Instead, he hit her with a simple question: What work did YOU do last week? And let’s be honest, that’s a question a lot of voters would love to ask their elected officials.
The reason this matters is that a significant number of people who are supposed to be working for the government are doing so little work that they are not checking their email at all!
In some cases, we believe non-existent people or the identities of dead people are being used… https://t.co/Rj5Xe6vYZB
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 23, 2025
But the fireworks didn’t stop there. Enter Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who took to X (formerly Twitter) to complain about how the email was unfair to federal workers. According to her, if Musk really wanted to understand what government employees do, he should sit down and get to know each department before making cuts.
Now, let’s pause for a second. Does anyone really believe that every single person on the federal payroll is busy saving the world every minute of the workday? No wasted time, no redundant jobs, no unnecessary roles? Of course not. And that’s exactly the problem.
If Elon Musk truly wants to understand what federal workers accomplished over the past week, he should get to know each department and agency, and learn about the jobs he’s trying to cut.
Our public servants work hard to ensure that our national security is protected; that…
— Sen. Lisa Murkowski (@lisamurkowski) February 23, 2025
Murkowski went on to list all the wonderful things federal employees do—protect national security, land planes safely, fight forest fires, send Social Security checks, research medical cures, and more. And listen, nobody is saying there aren’t critical government roles. But let’s not pretend that every federal employee is solving the country’s biggest problems every single day. The whole point of this “pulse check” was to find out who’s actually doing meaningful work and who’s just cashing a taxpayer-funded paycheck.
And here’s the kicker: Murkowski completely misses the power dynamic at play here. Federal employees—including senators like her—exist at the pleasure of the American taxpayer. Their salaries? Paid for by us. Their benefits? Funded by our hard-earned dollars. So, is it really unreasonable to ask them to jot down five bullet points on what they did in a week? In the private sector, that’s called basic job accountability.