Editor, The Beacon:

We live in the wealthiest country that has ever existed. Our federal budget takes 0.22 percent of our country’s annual income to provide aid for other countries. I am glad to see some of our wealth go to famine relief, basic medical care and assistance to refugees fleeing violence or natural disasters.

Morally, I think we should do more. The United States gives the lowest percentage of its gross domestic product (GDP) to foreign aid among all rich countries.

Elon Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, want us to give less, and have taken actions in the past few weeks to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Aside from the moral obscenity — the world’s richest man stopping what little aid the world’s richest country gives to others — Musk and DOGE lack the legal authority to close an agency that was created and funded by Congress. That detail has not stopped him from trying and creating a chaotic mess of lawsuits in the process.

More lawsuits have been filed over Musk’s and Russell Vought’s moves to halt operations of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. This government agency, with an annual budget of around $800 million, has effectively returned more than $21 billion to consumers since its founding after the 2008 financial crisis. Notably, it brought Wells Fargo to heel when that massive bank was caught opening accounts, moving money, and charging fees to consumers without their knowledge or consent.

It’s not really surprising that the world’s richest man wants to stop financial protections for people like you and me. The question is why our elected representatives in Congress and the Oval Office are just cheering him on.

President Donald Trump seems confused these days, ranting about tariffs, but then pulling most of them back; tossing out wild ideas about a U.S. occupation in the Middle East, of all places, and being weirdly obsessed with renaming bodies of water.

Most notably, however, he has been consistent in deferring to Musk on everything. If the president is submitting to a private citizen, what can the rest of us even do?

Congress could still act. After all, the U.S. Constitution clearly gives Congress the “power of the purse,” and both existing laws and Supreme Court rulings have made clear that the president and his appointees cannot halt or redirect money that Congress has approved.

But here’s the thing — Congress only has that power if they actually assert it. If Congress stands by while the president lets a private citizen access taxpayer funds and redirect them, all the legal precedent in the world means very little.

There are laws against someone breaking into your house and taking your valuables, but if you open the door and show them where everything is, those laws aren’t going to stop them.

These are frustrating times for us regular Americans. The chaos in Washington, which is beginning to impact the stock market, our friends and neighbors whose jobs are tied to government funding, and even prices at the grocery store that are going up once again, seems impossible to rein in.

But we can do something here in Florida’s 6th Congressional District. We have a special election Tuesday, April 1, and we can send a Democrat to Washington to replace our Republican representative who has joined the Trump administration.

Even if you are a registered Republican, consider voting Democrat just this once. It is a two-year position, and if you are unhappy with Josh Weil after that, you can vote for a Republican in the next election. Flipping this seat now sends a message to our president and our Congress that nobody last November voted for Elon Musk to stop this great nation from helping others, dismantle rules that protect us so corporations can commit fraud, and bypass the Constitution itself. We need checks and balances in Washington as our Founding Fathers intended, not the richest man in the world running roughshod over the government.

Alan Green

Professor of Economics

Stetson University