How fun it will be to watch Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy over the next few months take the ax A bloated and inefficient federal government. After all, their threat to do just that has already caused a massive collapse on the left, and they haven't fired a single person.
Sure, it's fun, but shrinking government and cutting unnecessary regulations can also be deadly serious.
Elon Musk lately Posted: “Excessive government spending causes inflation!” He's right, and recent events have shown that. consumer price index and PPI It reports that the fight against inflation has stalled. Expenses must be reduced.
Massive federal spending has increased prices and undermined fiscal health. regulatory blitz Policies initiated by President Joe Biden's administration are hindering the growth needed to dig out from under the government debt.
of CBO report “The budget deficit in fiscal 2024 will be equivalent to 6.4% of gross domestic product,” higher than the 50-year average of 3.8%. This 6.4 percent rate has been “exceeded only six times since 1946 (2009-2012, 2020 and 2021)” – when experiencing national emergencies. Deficits have skyrocketed over the past two years. 1.4 trillion dollars in 2022 to 1.8 trillion dollars in 2024Even though it's not an emergency (except for the fact that the Democrats are desperate to stay in power).
This is why President-elect Donald Trump is calling the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE, of course) the thing of the moment. Manhattan Project. DOGE must stop the gravy train, and it will.
Democrats hate this idea. For them, big government is the solution to all woes.
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren mocked President Trump's appointment of two billionaire outsiders to oversee DOGE on the X show. She posted: “The Office of Government Efficiency has gotten off to a great start with split leadership, where we have two people doing one person's job. Well, I think that's really efficient.”
Unfortunately for Warren, who shouldn't be matching wits with Elon Musk, the SpaceX founder couldn't help but ignore her cruel post. retort“Unlike you, neither of us are.” [sic] It's really efficient because you get paid. DOGE will do great things for the American people. Let history decide. “touch! (Well, except maybe for grammar.)
In the coming months, citizen investigators will be mobilized on a large scale to uncover vast amounts of federal waste and fraud, and voters will join in the mission.
It's already started. People are already posting examples of fraud on X, like the Illinois man who pleaded guilty to defrauding the Department of Health and Human Services. $14 million This is for a new coronavirus infection test that his lab has never actually conducted.
Other examples of wasted funds will also flow in. New York Post contributors Michael Kaplan and James Franey recently published the following summary: “$386 Billion in Government Waste.” This horrifying overview includes $1.3 billion in checks sent to deceased people by the IRS, Medicare, and veterans organizations in 2023 alone. $171 million in unemployment benefits, or Social Security, given to criminals who the government thought were unemployed but were actually in prison. And $15 million a year is reportedly spent on personal protection for Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Open the Books, a watchdog group that annually reports on stupidity funded by our tax dollars, reports that the Department of Health and Human Services, for example, provides significant funding. The company pays its 294 employees approximately $40 million annually. She is tasked with overseeing diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the Biden-Harris White House. My guess is that taxpayers will get back about $40 million a year.
Some of the New York Post's revelations are priceless. For example, the report states that in 2021, the National Institutes of Health $549,000 A Russian lab performed an operation to see if a cat could still walk on a treadmill after having part of its brain removed. It also involves the State Department spending $20,600 to produce 12 drag theater performances in Ecuador in 2022.
Even though it's a little funny to read that $7 billion is spent on federal office space each year. About 88 percent of that space is unused; But it's not humorous to discover the coronavirus relief program is somewhere between $200 billion and $5 trillion essentially stolen. Funds were transferred quickly to prevent economic downturn during the pandemic shutdown, but oversight was non-existent.
This is the main reason why DOGE is so important to our future. Huge government spending fuels massive theft and corruption. It is true that “all government spending is tax” Musk says.. But stolen government spending is a particularly harmful tax because it does nothing and takes away programs that are meant to help people.
So are the regulatory burdens created by excessive government red tape on businesses and individuals. Competitive Enterprise Institute estimate “The burden of federal regulations costs the average household more than $15,000 a year, which is more than any other household expense except food, clothing, education, and housing.In total, regulations cost the average household more than $15,000 a year. ” DOGE is committed to undoing that harmful bureaucracy.
Unlike past efforts to streamline government, such as the Ronald Reagan administration. grace committeeThe result is a massive report that is not read by Congress, but DOGE's activities are made public and posted on X for public comment (and scrutiny). That would make it impossible for Congress to ignore.
Ramaswami promise On July 4, 2026, America's 250th anniversary, “DOGE will give our nation the birthday present of a government that is actually responsible to its people, rather than the other way around.” What a gift that is. And what a victory for President-elect Trump!
liz peakHe is a former partner at Wertheim & Company, a major Wall Street firm.
