Laying Out the Vision for DOGE
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy explain what they hope to accomplish and how it can happen.
By: Nate Jackson for The Patriot Post November 25, 2024
With the possible exception of further Supreme Court picks, the facet of Donald Trump’s incoming administration that most excites me is the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. Advocating to reduce the size and scope of the federal government is pretty much the core of our mission and work here at The Patriot Post.
As a side note, there’s also the hugely entertaining proposal floating around — fed by Musk’s own trolling — that the billionaire entrepreneur might buy MSNBC and turn it into a legitimate news channel as he did with Twitter, now X. But I digress.
Our Emmy Griffin previewed the idea of a government efficiency commission in September, and Thomas Gallatin analyzed its post-election announcement. Today, Musk and Ramaswamy wrote a joint op-ed for The Wall Street Journal outlining their vision.
They begin with a statement that would be music to the Founders’ ears: “Our nation was founded on the basic idea that the people we elect run the government.” Indeed, the Constitution establishes three branches of government, but our nation today is primarily governed by a fourth — the administrative state.
Most legal edicts aren’t laws enacted by Congress but “rules and regulations” promulgated by unelected bureaucrats — tens of thousands of them each year. Most government enforcement decisions and discretionary expenditures aren’t made by the democratically elected president or even his political appointees but by millions of unelected, unappointed civil servants within government agencies who view themselves as immune from firing thanks to civil-service protections.
This is antidemocratic and antithetical to the Founders’ vision.
It’s also costly. The federal government confiscates trillions of our hard-earned dollars every year and yet runs deficits into the trillions anyway. We just surpassed $36 trillion in national debt. None of that includes the cost of regulations that hamper economic growth.
Three men know about the burden of government as well as anyone: Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Vivek Ramaswamy. “We are entrepreneurs, not politicians,” the latter two wrote.
“We will serve as outside volunteers, not federal officials or employees. Unlike government commissions or advisory committees, we won’t just write reports or cut ribbons. We’ll cut costs.”
If they are not elected and not even serving within the government, the question is how they’ll achieve their promised cuts. They explain:
This team will work closely with the White House Office of Management and Budget in the new administration. The two of us will advise DOGE at every step to pursue three major kinds of reform: regulatory rescissions, administrative reductions, and cost savings. We will focus particularly on driving change through executive action based on existing legislation rather than by passing new laws. Our North Star for reform will be the U.S. Constitution, focusing on two critical Supreme Court rulings issued during President Biden’s tenure.
In West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency (2022), the justices held that agencies can’t impose regulations dealing with major economic or policy questions unless Congress specifically authorizes them to do so. In Loper Bright v. Raimondo (2024), the court overturned the Chevron doctrine and held that federal courts should no longer defer to federal agencies’ interpretations of the law or their own rulemaking authority. Together, these cases suggest that a plethora of current federal regulations exceed the authority Congress has granted under the law.
The plan might work — at least for the next four years — because presidents control the executive branch and, thus, most of the administrative state. Trump’s critics will scream about such “fascism,”but as usual, they will be turning that word on its head. Musk and Ramaswamy put it this way:
“When the president nullifies thousands of such regulations, critics will allege executive overreach. In fact, it will be correcting the executive overreach of thousands of regulations promulgated by administrative fiat that Congress never authorized.”
The duo plans to cut the federal workforce, as well:
“The number of federal employees to cut should be at least proportionate to the number of federal regulations that are nullified: Not only are fewer employees required to enforce fewer regulations, but the agency would produce fewer regulations once its scope of authority is properly limited.”
That’s not heartless, and it’s not even something Musk and Ramaswamy don’t envision for DOGE itself. “Our top goal for DOGE is to eliminate the need for its existence by July 4, 2026 — the expiration date we have set for our project,” they promise. They’ve hit the floor running, interviewing job candidates for this temporary but critical venture and taking suggestions for cuts.
As I often joke with my family and friends, Eeyore is my spirit animal. I routinely find the humor in life, but I tend to see the glass as half empty. In this case, I’m realistic enough to know that government inertia is almost insurmountable. Even the eternal optimist Ronald Reagan saw that famously quipping, “A government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth.”
That said, I hope Musk and Ramaswamy — and Trump — can realize the vision with which they conclude their op-ed:
“There is no better birthday gift to our nation on its 250th anniversary than to deliver a federal government that would make our Founders proud.”