Oh boy are we screwed!!! Although it is something that
should be looked at, putting Musk in charge is like
putting the fox in the hen house.
"President-elect Donald Trump named tech billionaire
Elon Musk and conservative activist Vivek Ramaswamy on
Tuesday to head up a new Department of Government
Efficiency, fulfilling a campaign pledge to give Musk
sweeping oversight of government spending.
Trump said in a statement on to social media that the
department will help "dismantle Government Bureaucracy"
and slash excess regulations. The name of the agency,
DOGE for short, is a reference to a meme and a
cryptocurrency associated with Musk.
"This will send shockwaves through the system, and
anyone involved in Government waste, which is a lot of
people!" Musk said in the statement released by the
transition team.
On X, he added: "Threat to democracy? Nope, threat to
BUREAUCRACY!!!"
Musk has said he wants to cut $2 trillion from the
federal budget, which is more than the discretionary
budget of $1.7 trillion. He has provided few details
about what he'd like to cut, though he has attacked
relatively small recipients of federal money, such as
the Education Department and NPR.
On the campaign trail, Trump vowed to get rid of the
Department of Education.
Musk has said the cuts would mean "temporary hardship"
for some people.
Ramaswamy has called for mass layoffs at federal
agencies, a tactic that could sidestep legal
protections that otherwise insulate the federal civil
service from targeted political cuts.
He said on X this week with former Fox News host Tucker
Carlson that “If you simply mandated federal employees
to work Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., like
most Americans, you’d see a mass exodus — probably a
25% thinning of the bureaucracy right there.”
Ramaswamy campaigned for president in the Republican
primaries on eliminating federal agencies, and his
initial targets included the FBI; the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the
Education Department; the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission; and the Food and Nutrition Service within
the Agriculture Department.
Trump said Tuesday that the new department would exist
"outside of Government," giving advice to those in the
White House about overhauling federal agencies. The
arrangement would also be likely to allow Musk and
Ramaswamy to continue working in the private sector and
serve without Senate approval.
Trump said he wanted the department to help deliver
"drastic change," and he compared its ambitions to
those of the World War II project to develop atomic
weapons.
"It will become, potentially, 'The Manhattan Project'
of our time," Trump said. "Republican politicians have
dreamed about the objectives of 'DOGE' for a very long
time."
He gave a deadline of July 4, 2026, for the department
to conclude its work.
In his broader efforts to pare down the government,
Trump could seek to ask Congress give him “presidential
reorganization authority” under the Presidential
Reorganization Act to permit him to consolidate,
reorganize or eliminate agencies within the executive
branch. The last time Congress gave a president such
authority was during the Reagan administration.
Trump could also take steps to eliminate federal worker
jobs by re-signing his “Schedule F” executive order,
which would reclassify tens of thousands of federal
civil workers as political at-will positions as a means
of either installing politically aligned workers or
removing a chunk of the federal workforce altogether.
Trump signed that executive order in October 2020;
President Joe Biden rolled it back.
The Government Accountability Office, the main federal
government watchdog, indicated it would provide any
necessary information to Trump's new entity.
“GAO has cooperated and shared information in the past
when presidential or congressional commissions have
been established to address the federal government’s
programs and operations, as well as fiscal and other
challenges. We will take that same approach with any
new commissions formed and stand by ready to assist the
new Congress and the Executive branch," Gene. L.
Dodaro, United States Comptroller General and head of
the GAO, said in a statement.
"As the investigative arm of Congress, GAO continues to
examine how federal dollars are spent and provide
lawmakers and agency heads with objective, non-
partisan, professional, fact-based recommendations to
help the government save money and work more
efficiently,” Dodaro added.
During an interview with NBC News last week, Robert F.
Kennedy Jr., who could play a key role overseeing
public health issues in the next Trump administration,
said he intends to disband numerous health departments
in the executive branch.
He singled out “the nutrition departments” at the Food
and Drug Administration, saying they “have to go.”
Trump's announcement Tuesday brings together two of
Trump's highest-profile surrogates from the tech
industry, who have vastly different backgrounds.
Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, is among the
wealthiest people in the world and the owner of the
social media platform X. Even though he is a newcomer
to electoral politics, his super PAC spent more than
$152 million to elect Trump and other Republicans this
year.
SpaceX has $3.6 billion in contracts with federal
agencies this year, according to government data. It's
not clear whether that spending is on the table for
possible cuts.
Ramaswamy ran for the 2024 Republican presidential
nomination against Trump and dropped out in January
after he finished fourth in the Iowa caucuses. He's the
founder of a biotech company, Roivant Sciences.
Trump didn't immediately provide details about how the
two men would work together or who might pay for the
operations of the department if it operates outside the
federal government."
|
|