Can DOGE succeed? What about Congress and the budget?
Buried under the blizzard of actual and potential new Trump administration cabinet
appointments last week was news from the president-elect himself (Donald J. Trump) that he’d decided to appoint both Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk to a new federal entity (the Department of Government Efficiency (‘DOGE’)) tasked with examining the entirety of the government and make recommendations on where the behemoth could begin to be cut.
Or trimmed, or reduced, or whatever nice sounding word you come up with to suggest that Washington and its hopelessly bloated bureaucracy is about to be placed on the diet of all diets starting next January 20th.
Trump’s announcement was the partial fulfillment of another campaign promise, one that included tapping the most talented of private industry titans to toil for the new government and do so for free (or at least this is what it sounds like). As most people know, Trump served the entirety of his first four-year term without being paid – or more accurately, he donated his salary to worthy charities of his choosing.
That’s what I call giving back.
At any rate, it sounds like Trump is planning to up the proverbial ante on government size and he’s isolated a couple brilliant minds to “fix” the federal government in areas where it badly needs fixing. In an article titled “Trump Names Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy to Lead New Government Efficiency Department”, Caden Pearson reported at The Epoch Times:
“Trump suggested that the proposed department would create an entrepreneurial approach to government ‘never seen before’ and would send shockwaves through Washington. The department would have the edict of providing advice and guidance from outside the government, working in step with the White House and Office of Management and Budget ‘to drive large scale structural reform.’
“’I look forward to Elon and Vivek making changes to the Federal Bureaucracy with an eye on efficiency and, at the same time, making life better for all Americans,’ Trump said.
“’Importantly, we will drive out the massive waste and fraud which exists throughout our annual $6.5 Trillion Dollars of Government Spending. They will work together to liberate our Economy, and make the U.S. Government accountable to ‘WE THE PEOPLE.’’”
Trump is certainly feeling it after his massive win. But it also should be remembered that he achieved such a significant margin by competing against a badly flawed Democrat party and awful, once-in-a-generation pathetic candidates. Who would be thought of as worse than cackling Kamala and “Tampon Tim” Walz, with bumbling idiot senile Joe Biden as the backdrop?
I don’t want to be a Debbie Downer here, or least of all, to rain on anyone’s parade, but someone should point out that Musk and Ramaswamy’s Government Efficiency Department won’t be able to accomplish their big goals without a compliant Congress to go along with it. The Constitution still places the power of the purse with the swamp lizards that inhabit the legislative branch, and most of the forked-tongued losers up on Capitol Hill have not exhibited much stomach for eliminating anything, much less making wholesale improvements just for the sake of fiscal health.
What was it that Ronald Reagan said about the permanency of government?
“No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth!”
― Ronald Reagan
Truer words were never spoken, but Reagan had the matchless ability to conceptualize complex concepts into brief soundbites. He wasn’t called “The Great Communicator” for nothing.
Trump is not in Reagan’s league in that respect, but where Trump probably exceeds Reagan’s abilities is in the area of political courage and getting things done. As just demonstrated, Reagan was terrific at advocating for the limited government/libertarian (small “l”) cause but fell far short of perfection when push came to shove.
Yes, Reagan submitted a balanced budget to Congress every year, and then proceeded to permit the representatives and senators to blow the lid off the Treasury can, often under the auspices of essential spending or the like. Reagan couldn’t have it both ways – he couldn’t just talk a good game and then fail to veto what Congress sent him.
Trump can’t have it both ways either, and in his first term, Trump was hardly a budget cutter or earnest advocate for reducing the size of government. And Trump’s 2024 campaign wasn’t centered on government efficiency of any kind. In fact, Trump was insistent that none of the gargantuan entitlement programs would be touched, much less targeted for reform. Trump’s answer to debt questions often included allusions to economic growth – it would create more taxpayers and hence, more revenue – and the use of tariffs to narrow the spending/borrowing gap.
Would it be enough? Reagan’s incredible economic growth doubled tax revenues in the eighties, but Congress essentially tripled the amount of spending in the same time frame. That’s why the deficits and debt grew so remarkably in good economic times.
Here it appears as though Trump is counting on Musk’s and Ramaswamy’s good names to purchase the goodwill necessary to do difficult things. Musk tossed out the figure of $2 trillion when asked how much waste and fraud that could be isolated from the overall federal budget and therefore eliminated.
Wow, that’s a hefty chunk. It got a lot of people excited, didn’t it?
But reality says Congress will meet in a couple weeks to wage the next funding battle where there will be serious strife over the size of the government, budgeting, continuing resolutions, “kicking the can down the road”, lifting the debt ceiling (if it’s up this time, not sure) and piling everything into omnibus spending packages that no one – and I mean NO ONE – understands what’s in them.
In passing the job to Musk and Ramaswamy without getting into specifics in the areas that can be examined, politically, Trump is delegating authority in the usual way – basically assigning something with instructions to “get it done” and not worrying about the fallout before it even happens. This is Trump’s leadership style that has paid dividends for him throughout his life and occasionally has gotten him in trouble.
Here, however, you can’t promise large reforms without a buy-in from the legislative branch and the swamp creatures whose livelihoods depend on fattening the federal pig – and keeping it hungry. Trump can trim up the executive departments, but with baseline budgeting and a non-compliant civil service resisting him at every step, by how much? How about the special interests and the armies of lobbyists who want their cut? Is there a will in Congress to go along with Trump and crew?
Illegal immigration might be the most salient crisis to tackle as the new Trump government convenes next year, but Musk and Ramaswamy have their work cut out for them in their endeavor, for sure.
Expectations are extremely high for Trump. They’re right where he wants them.
In looking at president-elect Trump’s first round of cabinet selections (and non-cabinet picks, too, like Susie Wiles, Stephen Miller and Musk and Ramaswamy), it’s clear Trump is moving towards selecting people who are implementers, not ideologues.
With the senate elevating Mitch McConnell protégé John Thune to replace the elderly Kentuckian, there’s only so much cooperation the new Trump designees can expect from the Congress critters, too.
Donald Trump’s tapping of two of his favorite business people – Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy -- to take charge of his effort to bring efficiency to the government is a hopeful sign that something will be done to balance the federal budget before Trump leaves office. The question is, will he succeed? Is success even possible? As Ronald Reagan said, “eternal life”. Indeed.
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