The Department of Government Efficiency has started making moves.
The D.C. media are furious about his attempts to cut government agencies.
But I take Elon Musk’s side.
More efficient government has been promised often. It’s never happened.
Instead, government just grew.
Sen. Rand Paul showcases stupid government “investments” like the $118,000 study of finger snapping, which the National Science Foundation said was “inspired by the infamous finger snap of the (comic book) villain ‘Thanos.'” The government concluded that “varying degrees of friction between the fingers alters … performance of a snap.”
Gee, thanks.
They even spent thousands of dollars to study whether Neil Armstrong, landing on the moon, said: “One small step for man,” or “one small step for a man.”
NASA says no “a” is audible in the recordings, and I never heard an “a,” but we all paid for an expensive study in which the Science Foundation concluded, “Ambiguity exists.”
Gee, thanks.
They also spent $1.5 million to study ways to improve the taste of tomatoes. Researchers found that sugar helps.
America is going broke. Silly rich people should fund such frivolous research. Taxpayers shouldn’t.
But each special interest will fight for its life, and even if Musk cuts all such funding, it would barely affect our ever-increasing deficit.
Let’s look at bigger cuts:
In my new video, Chris Edwards, editor of the Cato Institute’s “Downsizing Government” website, says, “The first thing I would cut is over a trillion dollars in subsidies to states and local governments — K-12 school funding, school lunch funding, food stamp funding.”
Giving people food stamps sounds kind, but Edwards notes that, “Taxpayers fund candy and cake,” and when “state governments ask to eliminate junk food … they aren’t allowed to.”
Really. States aren’t allowed to limit welfare payments for junk food.
Edwards also proposes cuts to corporate welfare: “Federal government spends $180 billion a year subsidizing corporations … but that doesn’t help the average person.”
More could be saved by selling the government’s stockpile of “an unbelievable 300,000 buildings.”
Many sit empty. The ones in my video look first-class, but government still won’t sell them.
Nor do bureaucrats sell land they don’t use. The federal government owns a lot, including most of the land in America’s west.
“We don’t know the market value,” says Edwards, “It is in the trillions.”
Instead of selling, politicians print more money and use it to buy even more land, like Biden’s recent purchase of 640 acres in Wyoming.
President Donald Trump says he will make cuts. Will he? Last time he didn’t.
This time he seems more serious about it.
He recently moved to end DEI programs, telling federal DEI workers, “Don’t come in.”
But he’s still paying them!
“It’s very difficult to fire federal workers,” Edwards points out.
Also, even if Trump managed to fire every federal employee, it still wouldn’t eliminate the deficit.
It’s almost impossible to do that, without cutting the biggest spending — Defense, Medicare, Social Security. So far, Trump says he won’t touch those.
“Trump does not have to solve the entire deficit problem in his four years in office,” says Edwards, “but he’s got to get the ball rolling.”
Government doesn’t need to balance the budget. If it just slowed spending growth, the private economy might grow enough to reduce our debt.
But how can the private sector grow when there are so many regulations?
“SpaceX had to do a study to see if Starship would hit a shark,” Musk complains. He says he told the regulators, “It’s a big ocean, you know? There’s a lot of sharks. It’s not impossible … “
When regulators finally dropped their shark objections, Musk thought the Space X launch was approved. “We said, ‘OK, now we’re done.’ And they said, ‘What about whales? … If the rocket goes underwater, then explodes, and the whales have hearing damage?’ This is real! It goes on and on.”
Maybe Musk will change that. Hope so. To overcome our ruinous deficits, we need growth. To get that, we need less government spending and fewer rules.
Photo by Crystal Mapes on Unsplash
Please video these stories. Have been following you for a long time.
I say, go for it. I may not like it but I’ve been hoping for a statesman that would do what he thinks is best and not worry about what people think or losing votes. Trump doesn’t have to think about either one. It’s going to hurt and make people mad, ( even me, maybe) so be it. I just hope he listens to sound advice fore a change
The bold moves that are occurring would be more palatable to the American people if they were done a little more slowly. It appears to me that “stuff” is being thrown against the wall just to see if it sticks….change for the sake of change my friend is chaos.
Slowly doesn’t work. Resistant resources can be pooled. Media resilience can be planned and protests organized. In the end nothing gets done.
Get in. Tear it up and make sure it can’t be put back together like it was. The media, which was so resistant to Trump last time, can’t keep up. The headlines change everyday, so any resistance can’t be sustained. It’s interesting to witness.
I totally agree with what DOGE is doing. But I hope some caution will be observed. There are valuable medical studies that are being halted. Time and money will be lost and results skewed. There are very likely to be many long term unintended consequences. A large number of research scientists suddenly flooding the market looking for work? I am confident the system will self correct. Somehow many young people don’t understand the urgency. I do. But I’d like to bring them along for the ride. And I’d like to see some building. It’s super easy to tear things down.
Hey John , thank you very much for your research and post. I wish more people in the media. Had the common sense that you do. Government is not the answer. It’s the problem.
Certainly appreciate your reasoned opinions and fact based presentation. The term you used regarding the democrats histrionics around DOGE reflected taking a side. I understand you always reflect human dignity no mater how absurd the issue maybe. Just reminding myself that the other side is apoplectic because their chronic and formerly clandestine misuse of tax $’s is being exposed rapidly by DOGE. Thank you Trump, Musk & DOGE!
Some of the so called studies and projects are so ridiculous that it’s easy to believe they are just the means to funnel money into greedy pockets. Dragging them out from under their rocks is entertaining for now but if nothing changes for the future, Mr Trump will have a big red X in the failure column. I understand that it’s just a start but I’m looking forward to seeing the recommendations for the ones to cut out. I hope the left won’t embarrass themselves by defending the stupid stuff, but I won’t hold my breath.
Okay, let’s say we eliminate, eliminate, eliminate. Then what? We’re still paying our taxes. The average person MAY see a tiny tax cut but that’s unlikely. The billions of dollars going in to the government will continue. The federal government isn’t going to send it down to the states. What do we do with the poor? They do exist whether we like it or not. Snap benefits are meager for needy families. Children need care. The cost of living is absurd. And I’m so tired of the whole Social Security narrative. We have a whole society of immigrants contributing to Social Security that won’t be collecting a penny of it. People die before collecting it. Not to mention Social Security is paid for in a separate account and should never be lumped in with governments spending.
None of what they are cutting helps the poor. Let’s stop pretending that anything the government does fixes anything. It doesn’t. It creates ways to hide money and distribute it to organizations design to bring the fall of America. Stop lying to yourself and others.
I am with you. But DOGE needs a suggestion box. They are only scratching the surface.
Hopefully 100% of Republicans support this
If they do then they’ll be in power for 50 years and America will be GREAT AGAIN
Donald Trump is the GOAT
What I don’t like about Elon Musk is he was rewarded with a cabinet position for donating to Trump’s campaign. That’s just wrong. There’s probably someone other than Musk who can do just as good of a job.