Looting The Public: Corporate Parasites And The Fake War Against “Government Waste”

Talk of “government waste” has become a ritual chant from billionaires and their media mouthpieces. From Donald Trump’s guttural growl to Elon Musk’s snide tweets, we are told that the state is a bloated carcass sucking the lifeblood from society. The solution? Slash social spending, deregulate, and let the benevolent market work its magic. This story is a lie—a cover for a decades-long heist in which public wealth has been siphoned into private hands under the guise of efficiency.

Waste? No—Plunder

Government waste is real. But it is not the pensions of teachers or the healthcare of the elderly. The true waste is the systematic looting of public resources by corporations, facilitated by politicians who drift seamlessly from public office to private boardrooms.

1. The Revolving Door: Corruption by Design

Defense officials retire into arms company executive suites, only to return to government to sign off on the next round of weapons contracts. The military-industrial complex is not a metaphor; it is a functioning system of legalized corruption.

In 2021, the top five U.S. defense contractors received $166 billion in government contracts.

The F-35 fighter jet program, a $1.7 trillion debacle, has produced planes so flawed that military pilots joke about its built-in ejection seat feature as the primary defense mechanism.

Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, a Raytheon lobbyist before joining the Trump administration, oversaw arms deals that directly benefited his old employer.

2. Corporate Subsidies: Socialism for the Rich

While Americans ration insulin and choose between rent and groceries, corporations gorge on government handouts.

Tesla received over $4.9 billion in government subsidies.

ExxonMobil receives an estimated $20 billion in annual U.S. subsidies while contributing massively to climate collapse.

Agribusiness giants like Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland receive billions in subsidies while small farmers are crushed under debt.

3. Military Spending: The Budgetary Black Hole

Pentagon auditors have failed five consecutive audits, with over $6.5 trillion in expenditures unaccounted for. The military budget is sacrosanct—a feeding trough for contractors who inflate costs with impunity.

The U.S. spends more on its military than the next ten countries combined—$886 billion in 2023.

Halliburton overcharged the government by $61 million for fuel transport in Iraq, while soldiers lacked basic protective gear.

4. Privatization: Public Wealth into Private Coffers

Essential services are sold off to private interests, leading to price gouging, deteriorating infrastructure, and human suffering.

Flint, Michigan’s water crisis was a result of cost-cutting under emergency management aimed at pleasing bondholders.

Private prison operators like GEO Group rake in billions as incarceration rates soar, exploiting predominantly Black and Brown communities.

Toll roads in states like Indiana, once public assets, have been handed to private firms, leading to soaring fees.

5. Tax Evasion: Corporate Patriots?

While ordinary citizens face audits for minor errors, multinational corporations stash profits offshore.

Amazon paid $0 in federal income taxes in 2018 despite $11.2 billion in profit.

Apple uses Ireland as a tax haven, avoiding billions in U.S. taxes.

In 2020, 55 of the largest U.S. corporations paid no federal income tax despite collective profits exceeding $40 billion.

Neoliberalism: The Hollowing Out of the State

Since Reagan, the neoliberal project has gutted public institutions under the pretext of efficiency. What remains is a skeletal state that serves only capital. Schools crumble, hospitals close, yet stock markets flourish. This is not an accident; it is the end goal.

The 2008 financial crisis was precipitated by deregulation and speculation, but the bailout went to banks, not homeowners.

Deregulation under Clinton facilitated corporate monopolies in telecommunications and finance, dismantling worker protections.

DOGE and Musk: Plunder with a Smirk

The second Trump regime introduces the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a dystopian joke wrapped in Musk-brand snark. It is not about efficiency—it is about accelerating the neoliberal dismantling of the state, handing what remains to Musk, Bezos, and their class.

Musk’s SpaceX received billions in NASA and Pentagon contracts but now positions itself as a private pioneer of space exploration.

Starlink, under Musk, is becoming a global communications monopoly with disturbing military implications.

Twitter (rebranded as X) under Musk has devolved into a tool for spreading technofascist propaganda while suppressing labor organizing.

Tesla factories violate labor laws with impunity; workers report unsafe conditions and racial abuse.

DOGE is the final insult—a billionaire and a twice-impeached demagogue promising to save the state from itself, while sharpening their knives to finish what neoliberalism started.

The Real Efficiency We Need

The problem is not government inefficiency. The problem is a system designed to enrich the few at the expense of the many. We need to reclaim public institutions, restore social spending, and end the corporate stranglehold on democracy.

Efficiency is not measured in shareholder returns but in clean water, living wages, and a future where billionaires like Musk no longer dictate the terms of our survival.