The efforts of the geniuses working for President Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have already, according to the U.S. Debt Clock (https://www.usdebtclock.org/), saved American taxpayers $94 billionby eliminating wasteful, irresponsible, and sometimes ludicrous spending, freeing up cash that can now be used to either reduce our national debt or address other critical priorities.
Not everyone is happy about this, which is entirely understandable.
No one likes having their money taken away (even if the spending is wasteful, irresponsible, and sometimes ludicrous). Unsurprisingly, those whose spigots of cash have been abruptly turned off are guaranteed to have a sympathetic ear in Congress because the spending that was sloshing into their districts was creating lots of lovely local jobs that were blissfully divorced from marketplace realities.
All the arguments/tantrums now blasting through social media and the rapidly dying house media of Democrats (CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC, CBS, Politico, etc.) about President Trump and Elon Musk “usurping” the budgetary authority of Congress are simply laughable. Our elected officials in the House and Senate long ago abandoned any pretense of managing our nation’s budget and have, instead, resorted to spraying cash everywhere, hoping to win votes and garner campaign contributions. Regularly and rigorously auditing all government agencies and making decisions about the effectiveness and propriety of their spending is exactly what needs to be done if we are to ever have a chance to dig ourselves out of the runaway federal debt that is destroying our nation’s future.
Of course, the human-scale consequence of this effort to align revenues and expenditures is that hundreds of thousands of jobs working directly for the federal government—as well as those of the army of contractors and suppliers servicing the programs disappearing right from under these federal employees—will be lost forever, and the aftereffects of this will ripple through families and communities for many years to come. There are no words that can comfort those whose careers will be disrupted by budgetary math and sane policies.
An abrupt introduction to the profit and loss imperatives of the private sector will be a shock to those previously working in jobs where such considerations were virtually non-existent. I remember talking to an executive recruiter when I worked in Manhattan many years ago. She explained that one of the toughest challenges she dealt with was finding suitable positions for those who had spent many years working in the non-profit sector. These individuals were typically focused on processes rather than results, so they had tremendous difficulty adjusting to working at “business speed” rather than at the ponderous pace of a staid bureaucracy.
Although targeted retraining could help some with a career switch, the real issue will be one of mindset. Having worked in both the private and public sectors myself, I can guarantee that the endless—and often pointless—committees that are the darlings of the public sector universe, which typically concentrate on taking months or even years to produce studies and reports that few will ever read, are poor preparation for jobs where alacrity, adaptability, and profitability are valued and rewarded by employers.
A rapid retooling is, to be both blunt and honest, in store for those who have long been ensconced in the cozy confines of government service, and the transition will not be successful for all. Therefore, the dislocation and changes ahead will produce understandable anger and distress, particularly in those regions packed with federal government employees. It should also be remembered that the termination of the private contracts associated with the closure of government programs and agencies will spread this same pain across our country as we collectively readjust to both living within our means and working smart.
None of this, however, explains the howling emotional breakdowns now being displayed by so many in our nation’s Capitol and beyond. A shocking number of our elected officials and those working in the upper echelons of federal agencies are losing their collective minds as the curtain is pulled back by the staff at DOGE to reveal the hidden inner workings of our government.
What you are seeing today from so many of our national leaders is fear—pure and simple. Fear of public exposure. Fear of media ridicule. Fear of career suicide, Fear of angry voters. Fear of private lawsuits. Fear of public arrest. Like cockroaches that scamper for safety when the lights are switched on, so are those who were certain their secrets would remain hidden now frantically racing for a dark corner—while obfuscating furiously.
Will misdirection, lies, feigned outrage, and empty sloganeering prove to be sufficient defenses against truths long withheld from Americans about the idiocy, graft, and outright theft that has characterized the operations of our government for (too) many decades? My guess would be that we have, thanks to the sheer brilliance and persistence of the DOGE team, entered an entirely new phase that will finally fulfill Abraham Lincoln’s vision of a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.
Nonetheless, it would be foolish to underestimate the greed and mendacity of the equally brilliant and persistent crooks who have robbed our nation to the very brink of insolvency. We likely have a rocky road ahead before we finally know whether America can be saved from those career criminals who have enriched themselves and their co-conspirators at our expense.