If I say that Elon Musk is the smartest, boldest, most creative entrepreneur in the world, I don't think I will get pushback.
President Donald Trump's move to bring him to Washington and put him at the top of a new Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE, to do the seemingly impossible -- to streamline a vastly outsized government spending behemoth -- injects hope that yes, maybe there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Musk, the world's richest man, is not beholden to anyone, and so there is little danger of him getting bogged down and imprisoned in the Washington culture of politics and quid pro quo.
He can stand above it all and turn the Titanic around before it hits the iceberg for which it's clearly headed.
There's a lot of talk that almost 75% of the federal budget is untouchable, mandatory spending.
The top of that list is the largest, and oldest, entitlement program, Social Security -- 21% of federal spending. Short of passing a law to change it, it is on automatic pilot.
After reading Walter Isaacson's biography of Musk, I see him as uniquely qualified to lead an historic, essential transformation of Social Security.
When Trump noted, in his inaugural speech, his commitment "to give the American people back their faith, their wealth, their democracy and, indeed, their freedom," I believe him.
But these ideals cannot be achieved without taking on our broken Social Security program.
Even the rhetoric surrounding this discussion is not American in character. "Saving the system." We don't serve systems in our free country. We preserve the freedom and integrity of individuals.
The nation's founders, who pledged "our lives, our fortunes, our sacred honor" for the ideals of the Declaration of Independence would be aghast that today practically every young American is forced to pay a tax into a Social Security program that cannot fiscally honor its promised benefits.
They would also be aghast that the pedigree of the largest federal program is not American. The first social security system -- where citizens were taxed by government, which then promised to take care of them -- was introduced in 1889 by German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. This was the beginning of the modern welfare state, which inspired Franklin Roosevelt to sign America's social security system into law in 1935.
Immediately after Roosevelt signed Social Security into law, its constitutionality, appropriately, was challenged. Transfer payments -- taxing one set of citizens to pay for benefits for another set of citizens -- never existed in America and were not viewed as constitutional.
However, the Roosevelt-era Supreme Court, by vastly expanding understanding of the Constitution's "general welfare" clause, opened the door to German socialism in America.
The massive growth of entitlement and welfare spending -- transfer payments -- goes back to that 1937 court decision Helvering v. Davis, which deemed transfer payments, and Social Security, constitutional.
While Jefferson and Lincoln look out onto the national mall in Washington, the spirit of German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck hovers over the whole city.
To succeed at this transformational opportunity, I hope Musk will appreciate that first and foremost, this is not about budgeting and accounting but about ideas and principles.
No one proposes to threaten Social Security benefits current retirees receive. That is sacred.
But we must free young Americans, our future, from failed German socialism, and return them to American capitalism.
At least give them a choice -- a choice to take ownership of the funds, now being taxed and forced into a broken system, and invest them, over a working lifetime, in the American economy.
Washington is now so jaded, our establishment now so confused and corrupt, no one believes it can be done.
But it can be done, and Elon Musk can do it. I pray he'll step up to this historic leadership challenge and save our nation.
Star Parker is founder of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education. Her recent book, "What Is the CURE for America?" is available now.
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