The political height of Musk's fiscal sequestration team

Source: Zhou Ziheng

Donald Trump put Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy in charge of cutting federal spending. Their so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is not actually a government department, but a consulting body, but it can still change the government. Or it will eventually disappear without a trace, as many blue-ribbon committees have done before.

The Washington Post said Musk and Ramaswamy want to use a "chainsaw" to cut the federal budget. Possible budget cuts include everything from veterans' health care and education spending to NASA and international aid. Ramaswamy said on Fox News that Trump "demanded that we make a complete and thorough reform of the federal bureaucracy." It can be said that the federal government needs to tighten spending because the national debt is approaching $3.6 trillion. But the Washington Post said that deep cuts "may be more difficult than the chainsaw wielders expect."

Musk has set a goal of cutting $2 trillion from the federal budget. The New York Times calls it a "daunting task." There is certainly waste in the federal budget—Medicare and Medicaid spent a combined $100 billion on fraud last year. But the Times says it will be "tricky" to achieve Musk's goal without "cutting programs that Congress or Trump wants to protect."

"It just doesn't make sense"

The Department of Government Efficiency is actually "the Department of 2025—but worse," Michael Enbridge said in Rolling Stone. Musk and Ramaswamy had proposed to achieve the $2 trillion goal by firing up to 95% of government employees, but "the math just doesn't work." Worker wages typically account for 80% of private sector costs, but less than 4% of the federal budget goes to civilian employees. Firing all those workers would save a relatively paltry $271 billion. Musk and Ramaswamy say they want to run the government like a business, but "their analogy doesn't hold up," Enbridge said.

Putting the onus on cost-cutting to "a couple of rich tech bros might work when all else fails," JD Tuccille said on Reason. Given that the federal government "hasn't balanced its books in decades," the unlikely duo "may be our only hope of avoiding disaster." Tuccille said DOGE's proposal would likely face "a complete lack of political will in Washington." “But what are the alternatives?”

“It’s going to cost a lot”

“Politicians like to give, not take,” Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen said on Axios. Musk wants to be a “pathfinder” for Trump, and the president-elect’s aides are looking for ways to “bypass Congress” and unilaterally adopt DOGE’s proposal. But “legally, Elon can’t stop cutting checks.” After all, Congress holds the power of the purse, and elected officials are unlikely to approve cuts to Social Security, Medicare or defense spending. “Politically, it’s going to cost a lot,” VandeHei and Allen said.

But Musk and Ramaswamy don’t have to worry about voters, they have big ambitions. “We expect certain agencies will be completely eliminated,” Ramaswamy told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo. He doesn’t expect that opportunity to come again. “If we don’t reduce the size of the federal government now,” Ramaswamy said, “it’s not going to happen in the future.”