Musk, Ramaswamy Explain How DOGE Will Clean Up the Government

Musk, Ramaswamy Explain How DOGE Will Clean Up the Government

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy detailed how their Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) will reduce government waste in a Wall Street Journal op-ed.

Musk and Ramaswamy are correct: unelected bureaucrats passing “rules and regulations” have detracted America from what the Founders framed in the Constitution.

DOGE is there to stop it.

“The entrenched and ever-growing bureaucracy represents an existential threat to our republic, and politicians have abetted it for too long,” the entrepreneurs wrote. “That’s why we’re doing things differently. We are entrepreneurs, not politicians. 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.”

Might I suggest you start with the Department of Education?

DOGE will work with the White House Office of Management and Budget to target three reforms:

• Regulatory rescissions
• Administrative reduction
• Cost savings

Instead of new laws, existing legislation will lead DOGE to make the changes.

Musk and Ramaswamy will use the Constitution and two recent SCOTUS decisions:

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.

DOGE will work with legal experts embedded in government agencies, aided by advanced technology, to apply these rulings to federal regulations enacted by such agencies. DOGE will present this list of regulations to President Trump, who can, by executive action, immediately pause the enforcement of those regulations and initiate the process for review and rescission. This would liberate individuals and businesses from illicit regulations never passed by Congress and stimulate the U.S. economy.

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 were never authorized by Congress. The president owes lawmaking deference to Congress, not to bureaucrats deep within federal agencies. The use of executive orders to substitute for lawmaking by adding burdensome new rules is a constitutional affront, but the use of executive orders to roll back regulations that wrongly bypassed Congress is legitimate and necessary to comply with the Supreme Court’s recent mandates. And after those regulations are fully rescinded, a future president couldn’t simply flip the switch and revive them but would instead have to ask Congress to do so.

The government is the largest employer in America. That should not happen. It has over two million Americans.

The largest employers are:

• Department of Defense: 1.3 million military service members, 825,000 Reserve and National Guard members, and 600,000 civilian employees
• Department of Veterans Affairs: 371,000 healthcare professionals and support staff
• Department of Homeland Security: 260,000 employees
• Postal Service: As of 2022, 635,350 employees

“DOGE intends to work with embedded appointees in agencies to identify the minimum number of employees required at an agency for it to perform its constitutionally permissible and statutorily mandated functions,” explained Musk and Ramaswamy.

Honestly, when you cut down the size of departments and agencies, the jobs should also go away.

People think public sector workers have safe jobs due to civil-service protections. That only applies against retaliation. The government can reduce jobs if the firing doesn’t target specific employees, such as whistleblowers.

They also want federal employees to return to the office five days a week. Musk and Ramaswamy think the requirement would lead to “voluntary terminations.”

“If federal employees don’t want to show up, American taxpayers shouldn’t pay them for the Covid-era privilege of staying home,” they stated.

However, the men promised to help those who lost jobs transition into the private sector:

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. Employees whose positions are eliminated deserve to be treated with respect, and DOGE’s goal is to help support their transition into the private sector. The president can use existing laws to give them incentives for early retirement and to make voluntary severance payments to facilitate a graceful exit.

Then, we have the procurement process. The Pentagon failed its seventh audit.

The 1974 Impoundment Control Act states that the president cannot stop “expenditures authorized by Congress.” Musk and Ramaswamy implied that Trump will take the act to the Supreme Court since he has said it’s unconstitutional.

They think, though, they could target the spending without undoing the act:

But even without relying on that view, DOGE will help end federal overspending by taking aim at the $500 billion plus in annual federal expenditures that are unauthorized by Congress or being used in ways that Congress never intended, from $535 million a year to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and $1.5 billion for grants to international organizations to nearly $300 million to progressive groups like Planned Parenthood.

DOGE will also examine federal contracts since many “have gone unexamined for years.”

Many people brush aside the deficit by yelling about Medicare and Medicaid. You care about poor people and old people, right?!

Well, you can cut spending elsewhere.

“But this deflects attention from the sheer magnitude of waste, fraud and abuse that nearly all taxpayers wish to end—and that DOGE aims to address by identifying pinpoint executive actions that would result in immediate savings for taxpayers,” said Musk and Ramaswamy.

Look, by now you guys know I’m a libertarian. Slash it all. Start with the Department of Education and the Department of Homeland Security.

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