Donald Trump is moving fast, but Swamp Empire is on the offensive return.
The president-elect has asked two of his key supporters, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, to lead the Department of Government Efficiency. doge. Their mission: Cut federal spending by $2 trillion.
In response, those who maintain the status quo are preparing to counterattack. washington post Snipe “We will apply the ideology of the slash-and-burn business to the U.S. government,” Musk said. the hill ran heading “Musk's bold plan for a 'Department of Government Efficiency' faces obstacles,” the paper said, citing four D.C. experts who said it can't or shouldn't be implemented. Other publications refer to DOGE as “a”. “joke,” and “It's stupid and dangerous.”
Elon Musk's post about DOGE on X appears on your iPhone. (Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
The broadcast will feature MSNBC's Alex Wagner and George Conway. laughed DOGE is a “Fantasy Football League.”
Indeed, postwar history is replete with well-intentioned groups attempting to shrink or at least streamline the federal government. hoover commission, ash council, grace committee, Gramm Rudman, reinventing governmentand simpson bowls. Some have had some success, but Steady increasing trend line in federal spending The results show that it was quite different from what DOGE had in mind.
Trump, on the other hand, has proven to be a master of social mobilization. overton window. Additionally, polls show that Americans very dark vision of the federal government.
Additionally, the winds of technological change are blowing at DOGE. VEntrepreneurial capitalist Marc Andreessen graphic Indicates that the price of some products is decreasing. For example, over the past quarter century, televisions have become 98% cheaper. “The main mission of technology and economic policy is to move everything onto the TV price curve,” Andreessen says.
Indeed, television and other digital technologies have benefited from the quantum leap of Moore's Law, which applies to electrons rather than people and their politics.
Still, Musk has proven that he can significantly reduce costs over a wide range of areas. For example, over the past 15 years, SpaceX has reduced the cost of lifting a kilogram of cargo into orbit by: 90 percent. And in just the past two years, Musk has reduced the number of employees at Twitter (now X) by one. almost 90%Even as the site grows and improves.
With enough justification, Mr. Musk can Tweet Critics of DOGE: “A threat to democracy? No, it’s a threat to the bureaucracy!!!”
But opponents will point out that even if all the bureaucrats in Washington were fired, DOGE would still fall short of its $2 trillion goal. why? because, large sum of money There is income transfer programThis includes paying for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and, yes, the national debt, which accounts for about 10 percent of the budget. Defense spending is about 13%.
In total, the federal government spends nearly $7 trillion a year, and there's certainly a lot of waste, fraud, and abuse (I'm looking at you here, corona money). But history shows that many in Congress will oppose any program cuts because it's money for voters back home, whether it's earned illegally or not.
Both within and outside the Belt and Road, these conflicts have ways of overlapping and synergistic effects. So there is a possibility all spending program survive.
Such multilevel resistance explains why President Ronald Reagan was unable to eliminate obvious targets like the National Endowment for the Arts, National Public Radio, and the Department of Education—he simply sought votes in Congress. I didn't have it.
In fact, even larger social forces are supporting spending. One of them is Baumol's cost diseasewhich explains why labor-intensive organizations cannot be automated and are therefore increasingly incurring costs. Schools are one example, and the military is another. Yes, AI and robots may replace teachers and soldiers, but are we ready for that? Do we have that much trust in machines and the people who program them?
Another deep power is wagner's lawThis is because over time, as countries industrialize and people move to cities, government just gets bigger. People on farms may be able to feed themselves if they want, but people in cities cannot. The ministers in the Marble Palace may not care that the yoke of villainy is recalcitrant, but when a mob gathers outside their office windows, they have to. Money will be spent on both police and sedation.
Taken together, these two rules remind us that whatever a government does, there is an organized, closely coordinated, and lobbied constituency.
These factors do not make DOGE's cause hopeless. they get it done difficult. So, fOr most of the reductions sought by DOGE. alternative model;that is, a better way to achieve your goals. For example, if we want to abolish the Department of Education, and for that abolishment to stick, we must show that local solutions, including school choice, actually educate our children better.
Moreover, if DOGE turns its attention to the supply side, that is, to economic growth and prosperity, it will find plenty of sugar to effectively deliver the often bitter medicine of spending cuts.
Notably, President Trump has proposed using “liquid gold,” or the oil under our feet. WIn addition, we can add the “steam gold” of natural gas and the “solid gold” of coal. Adding up all these carbon fuels, we arrive at: Energy Research InstituteIt can be measured with A thousand trillion of dollars.
(Of course, this carbon energy can be purified to recover the carbon. In fact, the by-product is carbon circular economycreating a new industry in plastics and nanotubes. )
If these massive amounts of wealth are foreign to most Americans, it's because MMSM (malthusian The mainstream media has conspired with Big Green to hide the truth about God-given abundance.
Trump always dismisses small ideas, but he has a point when he says America can enjoy deep energy dominance. That was what Trump said. capitalization When he announced that he was appointing North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum as interior secretary and energy czar, if only we had the will to keep drilling. So DOGE can Reduce spending on “green energy” to zero, including last-minute spending $145 billion The Biden-Harris administration wants to give it to its friends.
As a side note, oil is not the only thing we have in abundance. allinclude rare earth;The more you look, the more you discover. surely, The deepest mine we've ever dug is only 4.5 miles long. By the way, the Earth's core is 1800 miles away, so there's plenty of room to go even deeper. In the most literal sense, we've only scratched the surface. There is much more to do, exploration, discovery, and drilling.
Such wealth opens up new ways of thinking about shrinking the federal government while preserving faith in the people's goals.
One method is: Entire spending categories could be moved off the federal ledger by allowing funding to come from the new extrabudget Natural Resources Trust Fund.
For example, Uncle Sam spends $1 trillion a year on Medicare. This program is so popular that it is considered almost untouchable. In fact, there's nothing wrong with helping seniors stay healthy.
Is it possible that Medicare, which accounts for 15% of annual spending, will be strengthened? of course. However, as is often said, one person's waste is another person's work, and the health care of the elderly. So there will be a fight over every nickel. It's good to fight the good fight, but it's also good to be realistic about what's possible and popular.
So even if you can't cut Medicare significantly, you can at least move it around. That means taking the program out of the state budget and making it directly funded by Natural Heritage, just as the University of Texas receives support. oil revenue.
A dedicated Medicare fund would be a win-win-win. It's a win for senior health care, a win for tax cuts, and a win for natural resource production, because producers can get the older voter base firmly on their side. .
This kind of creative thinking allows DOGE to achieve its goals and MAGA to move forward.
