"Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, is raising alarms about the influence that billionaire Elon Musk is wielding inside the Trump administration and across federal agencies.

"There's no doubt that the president appears to have empowered Elon Musk far beyond what I think is appropriate," she told reporters Wednesday.

"I think a lot of it is going to end up in court."

'

Musk has helped orchestrate a de facto shutdown of the U.S. Agency for International Development and gained access to the Treasury Department system that controls trillions of dollars in federal payments.

Collins also repeated her unease Wednesday that the White House is undermining Congressional spending power.

"I am concerned if the Trump administration is clawing back money that has been specifically appropriated for a particular purpose," she said.

'

"Collins leads the Senate's efforts on writing spending bills and is in ongoing negotiations over "topline" funding levels with House and Senate colleagues ahead of the March 14 government shutdown deadline.

Unlike many Senate Republicans, Collins has been vocal about her discomfort with the White House usurping Congress' constitutional power of the purse."

Yeah, she's not 'going all the way' on this one; still voting for Trump's pick:

"She still plans to vote to confirm Russ Vought, Trump's pick for White House budget chief, who is expected to play a key role in the administration's larger efforts to wrest spending power away from congress. Vought is expected to be confirmed on Thursday."

She's got an ugly Patriotic streak, though, that Trumpers hate. Also it's her job as Chair to make sure the money is there, and it's going to end up in Herr Musk's pockets instead, so she's pissed.

- dumber and dumber segments of America to join the Republican Party and now those segments have taken over.

aka The H L Mencken Proposition.

Most politicians 'concern' is for their job and their retirement, which by law now they need to take money from Oligarchs and others to keep.

Which is why that won't change until we make said Oligarchs do what they are already doing; paying politicians to write laws and loopholes for them.

Just with taxes this time, not direct bribes.

Speaking of Herr Musk going too far.....

"Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wash.) introduced a bill Wednesday named Eliminate Looting of Our Nation by Mitigating Unethical State Kleptocracy (ELON MUSK) Act seeking to ban special government employees from obtaining federal contracts.

"Elon Musk gets more than $20 billion in contracts from the US government and bought his way into a new role in the government where he can direct even more money to himself. Enough," Pocan wrote in a post on the social platform X, which Musk owns.

"My new bill, the ELON MUSK Act, will end this grift!"