5 Former Treasury Chiefs Are Worried About ‘Our Democracy’

Five former treasury secretaries have written an op-ed in the New York Times warning about the aggressive tactics of Elon Musk’s “so-called” Department of Government Efficiency. The piece by Robert Rubin, Lawrence Summers, Timothy Geithner, Jacob Lew, and Janet Yellen takes issue with DOGE’s access to the federal payments system.

• “While significant data privacy, cybersecurity and national security threats are gravely concerning, the constitutional issues are perhaps even more alarming,” they write. “We take the extraordinary step of writing this piece because we are alarmed about the risks of arbitrary and capricious political control of federal payments, which would be unlawful and corrosive to our democracy.”

The Treasury Department cannot decide to withhold funds already allotted by Congress, as stipulated by law. If the Trump administration wants to change the law, that’s one thing—but it can’t simply ignore it, write the former secretaries. They are heartened that current Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has made clear that no such federal payments have been stopped so far. “We hope this commitment stands,” reads the op-ed. “It is how the framers intended it when they designed a government with checks and balances that gave the executive branch a host of powers, but provided for elected members of Congress, and Congress alone, the authority to levy taxes and spend federal funds.” (Read the full piece.)