I'm not going to waste a penny.
I'm a zero tolerance. And Congress should want me to ensure that there's accountability and oversight. The way the agreements were written, when the money goes through the eight primary recipients, eight primary recipients receiving $20 billion as a pass-through, when it goes to the sub-grantees, the EPA isn't even a party to those account control agreements. So that is some of the outrageous things EPA Director Lee Zeldin has found. He found $20 billion at a pass-through when it goes to sub-agreements, guarantees. The EPA is finding a whole bunch of money, some of which, get this, is going to Stacey Abrams.
It's just two things that happen. It's DEI and it's green technology. All these green projects are the two motivating factors in all the Biden years. Joining us now is Theresa Payton, who used to do this cybersecurity once she worked for George W. Bush. Theresa, your take on the role of these investigations into where this money's going?
This is long overdue. I mean, we know as a nation that we're broke. So it's really important to follow the money. And, you know, our taxpayer dollars need to be spent on things like infrastructure, cybersecurity, modernization, innovation. And when you see it being spent on things that don't align with those strategic goals of the United States and its citizens, you have to wonder and ask yourself why. So it's great that we now have this transparency so we can do something about it.
Here's more from Lee Zeldin and what he found. Cut 20. So this is $2 billion of that $20 billion that was parked at this bank outside of government towards the end of the Biden administration. Power Forward Communities, which Stacey Abrams is part of, only received $100 in 2023. They then got $2 billion in this grant in 2024. Now I was just reading over the grant agreement, Laura. It gives the organization, this nonprofit 21 days to distribute $2 billion.
But this is the crazy part. And it's giving the entity 90 days to complete a training called how to develop a budget. If an organization needs to take a training on how to develop a budget, one, they should be taking the training before they're spending a dollar, but they definitely shouldn't be getting $2 billion.
What are your thoughts about the way government works? By the way, Lee describing it, he seems outraged by it. Are you surprised by it? I am surprised. I mean, we do know that we've had over the years where budget dollars get earmarked for pet projects at different states and things like that. I mean, that's been happening for a very long time.
But to hear something like that is really disappointing. I mean, I've got kids, you've got kids. I mean, we teach them at home how to do a budget and how to spend within their means and to achieve their goals. We do it as a family.
We do as a family, Brian. And so to hear that is really dismaying. And when I see numbers trending in the wrong direction, so I see technology innovation in this country trending in the wrong direction.
I see us right now. I think it's a very long race, but we're behind China in our AI and quantum computing. I look at the numbers from OMB on cyber incidents in fiscal year 2022. OMB reported over 30,000 cyber incidents happen at federal departments and agencies in fiscal year 2023.
Brian OMB reported over 32,000. The numbers are going in the wrong direction. We need to find out where this money is going and redirect it to the right priorities.
I would certainly help. So we're getting the money, we're getting the savings. How do you feel about, I want to pare down the debt and then president Trump is considering getting certain percentage and giving it to the American people, giving them $5,000 each. Your thoughts?
Yeah. Hey, look, anytime hard working taxpayers can get their money back, I think is a great day. I don't pretend to understand whether or not that's going to have a significant impact on inflation. But the one thing I do know is America's broke. We've got a debt and a deficit that need attention. So whether it goes directly in our pockets, helping hard working people every day who deserve to have as much of their money as possible that they earned or if it goes to pay down the debt or the deficit, I'm going to leave it to kind of the big thinkers and policy people to make that decision. But I think it's a step in the right direction. And what I love about this is regardless of what that final decision is about giving the money back to the people, which I think is a great idea, what I love about this is we now have the transparency. We have to remove the complexity of the budget and have transparency. So on the going forward, less of our money is required from us. And Americans can keep more money in their pockets every day to raise their families and to achieve the American dream.
Yeah, I think so. But some people aren't impressed like that Texas Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett cut 19. Now President Trump says he likes the idea of giving some of the savings from Doge back to Americans as kind of a dividend. Would you support that? No, we are not in the business of giving out money. And honestly, I don't know what $5,000 will do for you if you are unable to find a job, because I am telling people we are headed towards a recession. I don't you're not an economist, but that's an interesting take. Heading towards a recession, $5,000 doesn't mean much that someone is pretty much out of touch. I mean, I'd gladly take her $5,000 if she doesn't want it.
Yeah. And I again, I think, you know, there's different ways for the cost savings to be distributed. At the end of the day, who did the cost savings belong to?
It belongs to the American people. It was out of their pockets to fund budgets that they did not have. They thought they were voting for people that were voting on budgets, but they didn't have transparency into all of this. And so I would send a strong message to all elected officials who have responsibility for our nation's budget. We now have transparency.
We see you. We've been heard and we don't agree with how you've been spending our money and they can vote differently. And giving $5,000 back, whether it goes towards the debt, the deficit or back in Americans pockets is never a bad idea.
Where would she prefer the money to go? Great point. So you don't have a problem with these 20-somethings going through education, the Treasury, the Pentagon, looking at budgets and trying to find structural problems. What what skill set do they bring to government?
You've been on the inside, now you're on the outside. Yeah, so there's a couple of things. First, what I want people to hear is from having had a seat on the inside. I'm going to assume that White House counsels on their job made sure people are in the right positions as contractors, consultants, special employees, whatever it is, and that everybody's been read into what their access and responsibilities are and that that's all been set up properly. There's plenty of federal mandates. The Privacy Act of 1974, which predates iPhones, which came out in 2007. But there's plenty of mandates that are in place that have strict safeguards for PII. The other thing I would say is like if Musk and these 20-somethings had unfettered access, everyone's Roomba would be driving a Tesla by now.
So, you know, we need to like stop with the histrionics. We've not seen any proof that people are looking at individual records. And Doge has actually confirmed they're looking at aggregate data, not personal details. Here's what these young people bring. First of all, they are unfettered by all the things that you can't do, that won't happen, that won't be successful. They've got optimism. They've got cutting edge skills. They're innovative.
They're creative and really emotionally detached from these systems. So they are going in and doing what I like to refer to as data classification, data mapping. They're basically saying, what does this system hold in it? And then how do I data map it?
How do I data classify it? And then how do I produce reports from it so I can get the transparency? That's really what they're doing. They're like tabulating results, almost like, you know, geniuses creating these statistical models and being able to create traceability to these very complex systems. And Brian, if we want our systems to be safe, we have to know what we need to retire. We have to understand the complexity because the enemy, our nation states and cyber criminal syndicates hide in the complexity. We have to remove it.
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Download the Redfin app to get started. Theresa Payton with us. So, Theresa, you point out some of these people on the Trump, on the, on the, on the Musk team. One of the kids won a $250,000 prize, dollar prize for an AI to reveal hidden contents of an ancient Roman, ancient Roman document. Another was given $100,000 in seed money by OpenAI to found his own startup. So, these guys have, and women, have already separated themselves and impressed one of the smartest men in the world, Elon Musk. They're not just pulled off the street. Yeah, you're, you're right about that. And they would have gone through some type of a background check, again, given the rules of the road.
And there was somebody at each department and agency who was there, who was working with them. And, you know, so there, there is oversight. People, I think people misunderstand when you see a team moving at sort of just the speed of, you know, kind of the processing speed that they're moving at. They assume it's because they're not being careful about privacy and security. You shouldn't assume that. You should assume they're coming in unencumbered by, well, everything has to be done this way because it's been done this way since the Privacy Act of 1974. So, don't assume they're breaking all the rules and regulations just because they're moving at a speed and a pace that you haven't seen before. The bureaucracy is out of their way and they're taking this opportunity to use modern technology and innovative, creative thinking and design to get to the answers they're seeking. And they're really doing an investigation. That's the other thing I want people to understand is in the early days of an investigation, my team and I, we will have early findings. And we always tell people these are not the final findings. And a lot of times what you find in the early days, it actually gets worse the further along your investigation gets. So the numbers are going to change.
The things that we're learning today are going to change over time because these investigations are ongoing. All right. Lastly, I want to hear what Elon Musk said about one of his approaches. He was a rich guy. He's basically donating his time. Cut to the fundamental goal of our immigration policy, of our border policy, of Doge saving taxpayer money. The fundamental goal is we want your children and grandchildren to be able to raise a family in security and comfort in the country that we all love. That is the whole goal of President Trump's agenda. Yeah, so that that is that's his whole goal. Here's what Elon Musk said on this other sheet that I had for my interview with President Trump coming up last hour. This is what this is what he said.
Yeah. And moment he basically Elon Musk came out and he expressed an urgency that we don't have the luxury anymore of just going on with the big deficit, that the deficit is taking so much money, so much money away that we can it's it's actually outstrapped. Yeah, outstrapped the the defense spending. Here's what he said about rich people. Because there's a lot of rich people out there. They should be caring more about the country because the reason they should be caring about more about the countries of America falls.
What do you think is going to happen to your business? The ship of America must be strong. So America cannot sink.
If it sinks, we all sink with it. You think so? You agree? Yeah, we need everybody to care about America. And we and certainly people who are well off. We do need everybody to contribute here. And I'm just so grateful. We are so fortunate that we have people like Elon Musk.
You also have Bill Ackman. You have so many people who have come to the table and said, I want to be a part of making making sure that America is great, continues to be great and is always great in the future. So you have a lot of people coming to the table who are saying, I want to contribute and I want to participate in this. And it's amazing to me that I mean, I've heard that Elon is sleeping on the floor. He's working around the clock. He's also got businesses that he runs.
And I think it's incredible. You may not agree with everything that's coming out of this. And I do know people are getting laid off. And my thoughts and prayers are with everybody who's going through layoffs. I've gone through it in corporate America.
I've had to lay people off in the past and corporate America. There's a real human impact to this. But we have to make these tough decisions now.
It's only going to get worse. The longer we wait, the more people will be impacted. And so this is a tough time for those people who are losing their jobs. But, you know, at the end of the day, new doors will open for them and the economy will be better. It's just a tough time.
There is there is a human element to this. But I'm just so glad. And his statement is exactly right. Everybody in America, rich, poor, everybody needs to focus on what needs to be done next. Gotcha. Teresa, thanks so much.
