So, it seems like the highlight of November 2024 is Donald Trump’s victory over Kamala Harris to be the 47th POTUS. Amidst the cheers, the groans, the vows by some to leave for Canada and the calls for the unification of the US, Donald began to start picking members of his cabinet.
Then, it was announced in November 2024 that a whole new government would be created in the US: DOGE. The Department Of Government Efficiency. Who’d be heading it? A key Donald backer and tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, who contributed close to $135 million to Donald’s campaign, and former Republican Presidential Candidate and BioTech businessperson Vivek Ramaswamy.
If you saw the department name “DOGE” and then read that Elon would be one of the people heading it, you’d suspect he was integral in naming the department. After all, DOGE is also the name of a cryptocurrency that Elon seems to have had a playful relationship with, even temporarily changing the X logo to the Doge dog symbol and calling himself the “Dogefather”.
On the other hand, Vivek Ramaswamy ran to be the 2024 US President as a Republican, gained some popularity, but dropped out when it seemed like Donald Trump would clinch the Republican nomination. Interestingly, on William Maher’s podcast, Vivek Ramaswamy, kind of, asserted that he wasn’t looking to be Donald’s VP or part of his Cabinet, but he was running to win. Yet, after dropping out of the race, Vivek seemed to throw his support behind Donald, with the President-Elect mentioning beforehand that Vivek would be working with him when he won. And when Vivek was running, he mentioned plans to even shut down a couple of federal government agencies, like the IRS and the FBI, if it’s determined that they’re redundant. Whoa.
And what even is DOGE, besides a fun name for a government department that alludes to cryptocurrency? The mission is said to be to dismantle unnecessary government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditure and make the US government a lean mean fighting machine. The economic conservatives might be probably salivating at the idea. A smaller government? Slashed regulations? Less government reach? Anyone? Bueller? No more “bloated government”? Now, that’s probably left both Ronald Paul and Ronald Swanson satisfied and smiling. Interestingly, in December 2023, the US Pentagon was said to have failed 6 audits with about 60% of its $3.5 trillion in assets that couldn’t be properly accounted for.
It might remind people of the promise Donald made in 2016 to drain the swamp of Washington bureaucracy. Maybe, that’s a goal he’s looking to fulfill in his second term. Donald was said to have dubbed DOGE as a potential Manhattan Project of our time. If that term seems familiar to you, you may be a history buff or you may have come across this in the 2023 Hollywood movie “Oppenheimer”, where this was a top-secret research programme during WWII to create atomic bombs. Boom!
The US is all set to celebrate its 250th anniversary in 2026. Donald might be looking at that as a deadline for a perfect gift to America: a smaller government with more efficiency and less bureaucracy. His words. Since 2026 seems pretty close, is this a cool ambition that could be actually pulled off in this period of time? A government overhaul of that magnitude? During the election campaign, Elon had boldly claimed that he could cut over $2 trillion in state spending. That’s crazy ambitious, but intriguing. At the same time, Elon’s had some prior experience doing this. After acquiring X, formerly known as Twitter, in October 2022, he implemented major layoffs and reduced the workforce by about 80%. Though, later on, there was news that he reached out to some of those laid-off employees to call them back.
Elon’s someone who might be considered a disruptor at heart with some ambitious visions, so he might be really enjoying this. Amidst plans to colonize Mars and change the EV game worldwide, creating government efficiency just might be a natural extension of his to shake things up. Interestingly, Elon’s company SpaceX is said to have received billions of dollars in federal contracts. And he has a couple of other businesses in the US, as well. So, could this be a bit of a conflict of interest if his businesses benefit from a lighter regulatory touch with fewer teeth? It might be the same for Vivek, who has businesses and an investment firm. Maybe, the appointments of Elon and Vivek might be a reward for their loyalty.
And there might be a bit of public consensus that could shape decisions. Elon might be considering crowdsourcing examples of government waste and anytime the public thinks something important is being cut or if something wasteful is not being cut, they could let Elon and Vivek know. Elon’s, also, proclaiming full transparency by posting all actions online with a leaderboard for “the most insanely dumb spending of people’s tax dollars”. It might be a fun way to gamify the system.
Now, Elon’s remarking that Vivek and he won’t be getting paid for any of this, but if their businesses substantially benefit from the changes they make, it could be a worthy investment, but might be a bit unfair.
Or is the idea to go the automation route? Replace people with machines and AI? That might receive some pushback. But, could it create the desired efficiency? Could substantive change be actually delivered?
To some extent, from a business perspective, this kind of deregulation might reduce some of the compliance costs that businesses and startups have to deal with. Assuming there’s follow-through by Elon and Vivek, this could mean more innovation in the US, quicker time-to-market and a bit more profitability. But, if there’s a sense that consumers might be impacted if there’s a relaxation of restrictions, hopefully, Elon will close the feedback loop.
This kind of mindset isn’t new: the private sector ethos for public governance. A couple of businesspersons, like Donald Trump, Vivek Ramaswamy, Andrew Yang, Mitt Romney, Herman Cain and others, have run for US President with very little success, except for the first name.
But, it’s interesting to wonder if streamlining agencies would be as easy as it sounds, especially when there are lobbying groups who might not want certain departments or functions to be gutted.
There have been times when the US Federal Government went the technology route, but had some hiccups. Barack Obama rolled out HealthCare.gov in website form, which was said to have gone down within 2 hours of launch with technical problems and supposed incorrect user data. So, sure, Elon’s at the helm of DOGE, but hopefully, there are no failed implementations here.
Because, yep, there’s the whole move-fast-and-break-things mindset with tech startups, but it might be intriguing to see how that plays out, when it comes to national security, public health, disaster management and more. At the same time, a business in the private sector might be great at identifying inefficiencies and cutting waste, but how much could business principles be applied to government operations? Yet, maybe, the primary mandate of the US government may be to serve the public good, not generate profit. So, if a business is optimized to scale or be profitable, its justification for prioritizing cost-cutting and efficiency might be different. Maybe, there are services that are critical, but not financially lucrative.
So, will DOGE trim the fat and create true government efficiency? Or would it be another case study on the limits of government reform?
