The Department of Government Efficiency Is Not Necessarily an Oxymoron
To the chagrin of most federal bureaucrats, Americans on the dole, and politicians who love spending other people’s money, President-elect Donald Trump has officially announced the creation of a Department of Government Efficiency.
According to Trump, the DOGE will “dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies.”
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 13, 2024
To lead this long-overdue and urgent project, Trump has tapped Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, two highly intelligent individuals with ample experience in the private sector.
Unlike past blue-ribbon panels and various commissions that have been charged with downsizing the federal budget in recent memory, which have all failed, the DOGE will take a decidedly different approach.
First and foremost, the DOGE will be run as an entity “outside of government,” with an emphasis on injecting “an entrepreneurial approach to government never seen before.” In other words, this is not another iteration of the 2010 Simpson-Bowles Commission, which was full of career politicians and resulted in zero tangible solutions or a single penny in spending cuts.
Second, the DOGE will be totally transparent. “All actions of the Department of Government Efficiency will be posted online for maximum transparency,” Musk recently posted to X.
Third, and perhaps most importantly, the DOGE will not solely focus on austerity measures. Instead, its mission is to “liberate” the U.S. economy from superfluous red tape while ensuring the federal government is “accountable to ‘WE THE PEOPLE.’”
Clearly, Musk and Ramaswamy have their work cut out for them.
At present, the U.S. national debt has ballooned to nearly $36 trillion. This year alone, the federal government has already run a $2 trillion deficit with approximately $1 trillion in debt interest payments. Even worse, for the next several years, the federal government is forecast to run trillion-dollar deficits.
Musk has said that the DOGE could easily cut $1.8 trillion in government spending. In 2024, the federal government spent around $7 trillion in total. However, the vast majority of that spending went to the big three programs (Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid) on autopilot. Only about 25 percent of the federal budget ($1.7 trillion) includes all discretionary spending. This means difficult decisions will need to be made. It may also mean that major reforms for the big three could be on the way, finally.
Of course, cutting federal spending will result in a federal government with a newly limited size and scope. By slashing spending to the degree that the DOGE has targeted, the federal government’s ability to regulate the economy and micromanage the lives of everyday Americans will be significantly constrained.
This is a huge win for those who cherish individual liberty, federalism, and private property rights.
By nature, these actions will have a deleterious effect on some of the nearly three million Americans who comprise the federal government’s workforce. However, it is plainly obvious that the federal workforce has become bloated and redundant. Transferring non-essential government workers to the private sector will be a tall task with plenty of pain, but it is entirely necessary and will be a boon for the economy over the long-term. It is also worth noting that Musk has raised the idea of giving all terminated federal workers a generous two-year severance package.
While it is certainly true that a portion of the federal workforce will be out of a job if the DOGE is successful, it is also true that the benefits will far outweigh the costs. This is especially true for the millions of hard-working Americans who will pay less in taxes and business owners who will spend less time filling out government forms and more time focusing on business ventures.
While it is way too early to tell whether the DOGE will actually result in a fundamental transformation of the federal government, it is absolutely fantastic that this conversation is actually taking place.
For far too long, politicians of all political stripes have promised to cut spending and reduce the leviathan that is the federal government. Although almost all of these noble efforts have failed, I have confidence that this time things will be different.
In 2015, Donald Trump pledged to drain the swamp. In 2025, it may finally happen thanks to the DOGE.
The views expressed in this opinion article are those of their author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by the owners of this website. If you are interested in contributing an Op-Ed to The Western Journal, you can learn about our submission guidelines and process here.
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