President-elect Donald Trump has appointed Elon Musk and Vivek to lead the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an effort to reduce federal labor bloat: a sprawling bureaucracy and runaway government spending.・Mr. Ramaswamy was appointed.
Musk originated the idea for the division and offered to lead it in X-Space with President-elect Donald Trump. return In August. On Tuesday, President Trump authorized DOGE. I'm saying The statement said it would “dismantle government bureaucracy, cut excessive regulation, reduce wasteful spending, and reorganize federal agencies” and give the government an “entrepreneurial approach.”
“This could potentially become a modern-day 'Manhattan Project,'” Trump said.
The new division has already sparked endless memes. The acronym DOGE comes from the cryptocurrency Dogecoin. Musk is such a fan that he briefly replaced the X logo with a coin dog meme last year. Another viral meme features Musk and Ramaswamy as downsizing consultants in the movie “Office Space.” listen Employee: “What are you going to do here?”
Bureaucrats be careful 😎 pic.twitter.com/zfSRjttv2s
— Fight with Memes (@fightwithmemes) November 13, 2024
Despite its name, DOGE actually functions as an outside government commission that works with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to advise the president on ways to reduce government bloat.
DOGE operates on a time-limited basis. President Trump said the work would be completed by July 4, 2026, the nation's 250th birthday.
The mask is ready.
Since Tuesday's announcement, the SpaceX founder and Tesla CEO has been posting excitedly about how he will work to reduce federal waste, while also calling DOGE's efforts “very open. He promises to be transparent.
One of his main goals is regulation.
“The world is suffering a slow suffocation from overregulation. Every year, the noose gets a little tighter,” Musk said. Posted Wednesday. “We finally have an obligation to remove a mountain of stifling regulations that do not serve the greater good.”
Read more: Transgender monkeys and Barbie doll scam: Here's some of the government waste DOGE could target
He wants a broader review of regulations to determine “what is prudent and what is not.”
Musk personally experienced the disastrous regulations when trying to launch a SpaceX rocket. In October, he sued California regulators, accusing them of “shamelessly violating the law” after citing his political views in a decision to refuse to launch more rockets.
He also wants to close hundreds of more than 400 federal departments. Musk pointed out in an interview last month that the United States creates, on average, several federal agencies a year.
“That seems like a lot. That seems crazy. I think we should be able to ignore 99 agencies,” Musk said. said.
Elon Musk explains the importance of creating a Department of Government Efficiency.
“There are about 428 federal agencies. There are so many that people have never even heard of. I think we should be able to get away with 99.”
— Doge Designer (@cb_doge) November 13, 2024
Elon on Doge: “We're going to cut spending. And if anyone has a good idea about how to cut spending, please let us know. But if we don't, the country will go bankrupt.'' It will be put away.”
— America (@america) November 13, 2024
Cutting spending is another big goal of Mr. Musk.
“We're going to cut spending. If anyone has a better idea of how to cut spending, please let us know. But if we don't, we're going to bankrupt the country.” “So we have to do something, and it has to be a pretty big move,” Musk said at a town hall in Pennsylvania last month.
“Drain the swamps. There are a lot of swamps,” he added.
He joked that he would probably need a sizable security team because “someone could literally send me mail from the post office.”
Ramaswamy is taking a similarly proactive approach. The technology entrepreneur and former Republican presidential candidate said Tuesday that DOGE will soon begin crowdsourcing “instances” of government waste, fraud and abuse.
“Americans voted for fundamental government reform, and we deserve to be part of fixing it,” Ramaswamy said. Posted Tuesday.
Ramaswamy also said he wanted to resolve the issue. more More than $5 billion a year goes to about 500 lapsed federal programs.
“This is just crazy. We can and should save hundreds of billions of dollars each year by defunding government programs that Congress no longer authorizes. Agree to defend the other side. We will challenge politicians who don't,” he said. Posted Wednesday.
In September, President Ramaswamy announced that the idea of immediately terminating 75% of federal employees, using “some metric that actually selects those who have both the greatest ability and the greatest dedication and knowledge of the Constitution.” An experiment was announced.
Vivek's “thought experiment” of cutting 75% of the federal workforce while avoiding wrongful termination lawsuits for discrimination.
pic.twitter.com/FWgvcBeATm— Steve Hou (@stevehouf) November 13, 2024
“Nothing will change for ordinary Americans, except that the government will be much smaller, much more restrained, and will have much less money to run,” Ramaswamy said in a podcast interview. “What we need is to get in there and actually do the things that conservative presidents have probably been gesturing and talking about, but that haven't really been done in modern history. , just leadership with a backbone.”
Ramaswami said Government agencies are “no different” from private companies in that “80 to 90 percent of the useful work is done by 25 percent of the people.”
When Musk took over X, he laid off about 80% of the company's workforce, or more than 6,000 people.
The decision was “not fun at all,” but Musk said said The company was facing a “$3 billion negative cash flow situation” and had “only four months left to live,” so “drastic action” was needed.
DOGE is already recruiting employees, and Musk and Ramaswamy plan to personally screen the top 1% of applicants.
“We don’t need any more part-time idea generators” new DOGE official account Posted Thursday of X. “We need ultra-high IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours a week to cut costs modestly.”
Mr. Musk and Mr. Ramaswamy have jobs that are right for them. The federal government spends $6.75 trillion annually. Already this year, federal spending has increased An increase of $114 billion. Among that vast sum is a seemingly endless list of eyebrow-raising expenditures.
Sen. Rand Paul's (R-Ky.) annual tally of government waste, the Festival Report, totaled nearly $900 billion in wasted taxpayer money last year, highlighting glaring and often humorous examples. It has become.
Among the larger expenditures, the report notes that in fiscal year 2023, the Treasury Department will spend $659 billion on debt interest alone, much of it borrowed from China. Taxpayers are paying to keep the lights on in federal government buildings, many of which are nearly empty, according to one report. Found.
