Musk and Ramaswamy’s Federal Cost-Cutting Initiative: What We Know

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are present on Capitol Hill to discuss their recently announced advisory team, which the two billionaires state will reduce regulations, expenditures, and personnel within the federal government. “The taxpayers deserve better,” House Speaker Mike Johnson stated on Thursday, prior to a meeting with Musk and Ramaswamy. He added, “They deserve a more responsive government, a more efficient government.” The Department of Government Efficiency, or “Doge”—a name that appears to be a subtle nod to dogecoin, Musk’s preferred cryptocurrency—was initially unveiled by Donald Trump last month. “It will become, potentially, ‘The Manhattan Project’ of our time,” the president-elect wrote on his social media platform, referencing a top-secret World War Two program for developing nuclear weapons. He further stated, “Republican politicians have dreamed about the objectives of ‘DOGE’ for a very long time.” Despite Trump’s expressed enthusiasm, many aspects of Doge’s operation and structure remain undefined. As Musk and Ramaswamy engage with legislators, details regarding their emerging agency are being examined. Although Doge enjoys Trump’s explicit backing and includes the term “department” in its title, it does not constitute an official government department, which typically requires congressional legislation for establishment and employs thousands of personnel. Instead, Doge is expected to function as an advisory entity, managed by two key allies of Trump and maintaining direct communication with the White House. Last month, in an opinion piece featured in the Wall Street Journal, Musk and Ramaswamy indicated their intention to “serve as outside volunteers, not federal officials or employees”. They stated that the duo would aid the Trump transition team in assembling the Doge team, which will offer advice to the White House on reducing expenditures and create a compilation of regulations they deem to exceed agencies’ legal authority. They further wrote, “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.” For some proponents of this new entity, Doge’s position as an external body—along with its somewhat undefined scope—is seen as an advantage. Republican Senator Kevin Cramer of North Dakota informed the BBC on Thursday, “They’re a little more untethered to the bureaucracy itself and to the systems that slow processes down around here.” He added, “I think the lack of parameters is part of what will make them effective.” While the precise details appear to be unsettled, the overarching objective is evident: Doge’s leadership aims for substantial government reform through significant reductions. In the Journal, Musk and Ramaswamy asserted that the federal bureaucracy “represents an existential threat to our republic.” They also stated, “Unlike government commissions or advisory committees, we won’t just write reports or cut ribbons. We’ll cut costs.” Musk, identified as the world’s wealthiest individual, has claimed the ability to identify over $2tn in savings, which constitutes approximately one-third of the federal government’s yearly expenditures. Both individuals have indicated their intention to drastically reduce federal regulations, manage extensive layoffs, and completely dissolve certain agencies. On Thursday, en route to a private meeting with incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a Republican from South Dakota, Musk remarked, “I think we should be spending the public’s money wisely.” Ramaswamy, a financier who sought the Republican presidential nomination earlier this year, pledged during his campaign to close the Education Department, the FBI, and the IRS—commitments he has reiterated recently. During a gala held last month at Mar-a-Lago, Ramaswamy expressed gratitude to Trump “for making sure that Elon Musk and I are in a position to start the mass deportations of millions of unelected federal bureaucrats out of the DC bureaucracy”. Ramaswamy also stated, “And I don’t know if you’ve got to know Elon yet, but he doesn’t bring a chisel, he brings a chainsaw, and we’re going to be taking it to that bureaucracy.” He concluded, “It’s going to be a lot of fun.” Musk has sought employees via X, the social media platform he owns, previously known as Twitter. Prospective Doge team members have been instructed to submit their resumes directly to the recently established Doge account on X. A post from Doge indicates that applicants should anticipate workweeks exceeding 80 hours, dedicated to “unglamorous cost cutting”. Furthermore, Musk has stated that no salary will be provided for work at Doge. He posted on X, “This will be tedious work, make lots of enemies & compensation is zero.” The Doge account indicated that only the “top 1% of applicants” would be reviewed by Musk and Ramaswamy, without detailing the method for ranking applicants. Doge has an established expiration date of July 4, 2026, even prior to its full operational launch. Upon announcing the new entity, Trump stated, “A smaller Government, with more efficiency and less bureaucracy, will be the perfect gift to America on the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.” Some allies of Trump anticipate that Doge will resemble the Grace Commission, a private-sector body formed by President Ronald Reagan in 1982 with the aim of reforming the federal bureaucracy and managing expenditures. Over its two-year existence, the Grace Commission presented more than 2,500 recommendations to both the White House and Congress; however, the majority were not put into practice. The ambitious pledges made by Musk and Ramaswamy have been met with skepticism by some experts, who contend that the scale and breadth of their proposed mandate are nearly unattainable. Elaine Kamark, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution, informed the BBC that initiatives to optimize government spending “can be done”. Kamark referenced her involvement in overseeing the Clinton Administration’s National Performance Review, a 1990s initiative aimed at decreasing government spending, which resulted in savings exceeding a billion dollars and a reduction of 250,000 federal employees. However, she stated that Musk and Ramaswamy’s project, to date, “is not a serious effort.” She described the concept of reducing one-third of government spending, as Musk has promised, as “ridiculous.” She explained that approximately two-thirds of the overall budget is mandatory, encompassing widely supported programs such as Social Security and Medicare. She elaborated, “You cannot touch people’s social security payments or their veterans retirement payments or people’s medicare reimbursements without getting statutory changes… they don’t have the power to enact any of those.” Nevertheless, certain aspects of Doge have garnered unexpected commendation. This week, Bernie Sanders, an independent Senator from Vermont who aligns with Democrats, stated that Musk “is right” concerning proposed reductions to the defense budget. Sanders wrote on X that the Pentagon has “lost track of billions,” noting the department’s seventh consecutive audit failure. Other Democratic figures have expressed comparable indications of support. Representative Ro Khanna of California affirmed his backing for cuts to Pentagon expenditures. Furthermore, this week, Democratic Representative Jared Moskowitz of Florida became the initial member of his party to join the House Doge caucus, a Congressional group focused on decreasing government spending, yet operating independently of the Doge advisory board. In a statement, he asserted, “Reducing ineffective government spending should not be a partisan issue.” Additional reporting was contributed by Jessica Parker and Cai Pigliucci. This report includes copyright information from 2024 BBC, with all rights reserved. The BBC disclaims responsibility for the content of external websites and provides information on its external linking policy.