World's richest man Elon Musk endorses Warren Buffett's five-minute plan to fix US debt now at $40 trillion. Here's what 'Oracle of Omaha' suggested

Elon Musk, the world's richest man, has endorsed ace investor Warren Buffett's five-minute plan to tackle the growing America's debt crisis. The national debt in the United States of America is set to reach $40 trillion in the near future if it continues to grow at its current pace and Elon Musk has endorsed the proposal after he shared a 2011 CNBC interview with Buffett in June and wrote: “This is the way.”

“I can end the deficit in five minutes,” Buffet said in a 2011 interview with CNBC. “You just pass a law that says that anytime there’s a deficit of more than 3% of the GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for reelection. Now, you’ve got the incentives in the right place.”

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The clip recently went viral again and gained fresh support from high-profile personalities. Senator Mike Lee of Utah reposted the video on X (2), asking the public, “Would you support this amendment?”

The question sparked a wave of responses, including one from Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and owner of X, who replied: “100%. This is the way (3).”

“I’m drafting a constitutional amendment to oust every member of Congress whenever inflation exceeds 3%. It’s better to disqualify politicians than for an entire nation to suffer under the yoke of inflation,” he wrote on X.

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US national debt stands at $38.9 trillion

Last year, the national debt increased by $2.6 trillion, reaching a total of $38.9 trillion, which is about 124% of the US economy, according to the U.S. Treasury.

Recently, the country’s public debt, referring to the money owed by the federal government to external creditors, surpassed the size of the economy for the first time since World War II. On top of this, interest payments have also surged, costing over $22 billion every week, as per the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

Relationship between Elon Musk and Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett and Elon Musk, two of the world’s most influential and wealthiest businessmen, have long been perceived as having a strained relationship. However, at Berkshire Hathaway’s shareholder meeting on May 6, Buffett offered notably positive remarks about Musk, calling him a “brilliant, brilliant guy” and praising his commitment to tackling extremely difficult challenges.

Buffett also highlighted Musk’s appearance on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” which aired on April 29. He said, “Elon does a terrific job toe-to-toe with Bill Maher,” adding that Musk “dreams about things and his dreams have got a foundation,” acknowledging both his vision and ability to execute ambitious ideas.

Over the years, Elon Musk has taken jabs at Warren Buffett calling his style of capital allocation “boring” and questioning the relevance of reading financial reports all day.

In 2020, Musk appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience and openly criticised Warren Buffett’s approach to investing, saying, “To be totally frank, I’m not his biggest fan.” He mocked Buffett’s routine of reading company reports, describing it as “super boring.”

He repeated the remarks in 2021, and he stated that Buffett’s job “doesn’t sound fun,” but acknowledged that Buffett does “a useful job for the economy” and is “very skilled at it.”