Elon Musk could also be gone from the Trump administration — and his friendship standing with President Donald Trump could also be at greatest unsure — however his whirlwind stint in authorities definitely left its imprint.
The Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE), his pet government-slashing venture, stays entrenched in Washington. Throughout his 130-day tenure, Musk led DOGE in eliminating about 260,000 federal worker jobs and gutting businesses supporting scientific analysis and humanitarian support.
However to this point, DOGE claims to have saved the federal government $180 billion — effectively wanting its bold (and admittedly by no means real looking) goal of chopping at least $2 trillion from the federal finances. And with Musk’s departure nonetheless recent, there are stories that the federal authorities is making an attempt to rehire federal staff who give up or had been let go.
For Elaine Kamarck, senior fellow on the Brookings Establishment, DOGE’s techniques will possible find yourself being disastrous in the long term. “DOGE got here in with these large cuts, which weren’t connected to a plan,” she instructed In the present day, Defined co-host Sean Rameswaram.
Kamarck is aware of all about making authorities extra environment friendly. Within the Nineteen Nineties, she ran the Clinton administration’s Reinventing Authorities program. “I used to be Elon Musk,” she instructed In the present day, Defined. With the good thing about that have, she assesses Musk’s document at DOGE, and what, if something, the billionaire’s loud efforts at chopping authorities spending added as much as.
Beneath is an excerpt of the dialog, edited for size and readability. There’s far more within the full podcast, so take heed to In the present day, Defined wherever you get podcasts, together with Apple Podcasts, Pandora, and Spotify.
What do you suppose Elon Musk’s legacy is?
Effectively, he is not going to have completely, radically reshaped the federal authorities. Completely not. In reality, there’s a excessive likelihood that on January 20, 2029, when the subsequent president takes over, the federal authorities is about the identical dimension as it’s now, and might be doing the identical stuff that it’s doing now. What he did handle to do was insert chaos, worry, and loathing into the federal workforce.
There was reporting within the Washington Publish late final week that these cuts had been so ineffective that the White Home is definitely reaching out to numerous federal staff who had been laid off and asking them to come back again, from the FDA to the IRS to even USAID. Which cuts are sticking at this level and which of them aren’t?
Initially, in a variety of circumstances, folks went to courtroom and the courts have reversed these earlier choices. So the very first thing that occurred is, courts mentioned, “No, no, no, you may’t do it this fashion. It’s important to carry them again.”
The second factor that occurred is that Cupboard officers began to get confirmed by the Senate. And keep in mind that a variety of essentially the most spectacular DOGE stuff was occurring in February. In February, these Cupboard secretaries had been getting ready for his or her Senate hearings. They weren’t on the job. Now that their Cupboard secretary’s dwelling, what’s occurring is that they’re these cuts they usually’re saying, “No, no, no! We will’t reside with these cuts as a result of now we have a mission to do.”
As the federal government tries to rent again the folks they fired, they’re going to have a tricky time, they usually’re going to have a tricky time for 2 causes. Initially, they handled them like grime, they usually’ve mentioned a variety of insulting issues.
Second, most people who work for the federal authorities are extremely expert. They’re not paper pushers. We’ve got computer systems to push our paper, proper? They’re scientists. They’re engineers. They’re folks with excessive abilities, and guess what? They will get jobs outdoors the federal government. So there’s going to be actual lasting harm to the federal government from the best way they did this. And it’s analogous to the lasting harm that they’re inflicting at universities, the place we now have prime scientists who used to invent nice cures for most cancers and issues like that, deciding to go discover jobs in Europe as a result of this tradition has gotten so dangerous.
What occurs to this company now? Who’s answerable for it?
Effectively, what they’ve achieved is DOGE staff have been embedded in every of the organizations within the authorities, okay? They usually mainly — and the president himself has mentioned this — they mainly report back to the Cupboard secretaries. So in case you are within the Transportation Division, you must be sure that Sean Duffy, who’s the secretary of transportation, agrees with you on what you need to do. And Sean Duffy has already had a combat throughout a Cupboard assembly with Elon Musk. You realize that he has not been thrilled with the recommendation he’s gotten from DOGE. So any further, DOGE goes to need to work hand in hand with Donald Trump’s appointed leaders.
And simply to carry this round to what we’re right here speaking about now, they’re on this large combat over wasteful spending with the so-called large, lovely invoice. Does this simply appear like the federal government as ordinary, finally?
It’s really worse than regular. As a result of the deficit impacts are larger than regular. It’s including extra to the deficit than earlier payments have achieved.
And the second cause it’s worse than regular is that everyone remains to be residing in a fantasy world. And the fantasy world says that in some way we will cope with our deficits by chopping waste, fraud, and abuse. That’s pure nonsense. Let me say it: pure nonsense.
The place does a lot of the authorities cash go? Does it go to some bureaucrats sitting on Pennsylvania Avenue? It goes to us. It goes to your grandmother and her Social Safety and her Medicare. It goes to veterans in veterans advantages. It goes to People. That’s why it’s so exhausting to chop it. It’s so exhausting to chop it as a result of it’s us.
And persons are residing on it. Now, there’s a complete different subject that no person talks about, and it’s referred to as entitlement reform, proper? May we reform Social Safety? May we make the retirement age go from 67 to 68? That may save some huge cash. May we alter the price of residing? No person, no person, no person is speaking about that. And that’s as a result of we’re on this loopy, polarized setting the place we will not have critical conversations about critical points.
