Many Americans who have longed for a watchdog to slice through all of the immense wasteful spending in the federal government have been excited about the concept of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) headed by Elon Musk. There is so much waste out there, and so much potential to save billions of dollars.
Musk is a good choice because he has valuable experience in creating lean private sector companies that have been run very efficiently. A prime example is his having taken over Twitter and finding that 80% of the workers there were not contributing at all to the company’s mission. They were let go, and the company is running as efficiently, if not more, than before.
That kind of common sense is desperately needed in the federal government. The left is going apoplectic over the Musk appointment in part because they don’t want anyone uncovering the fact that they have been spending like drunken sailors, including all kinds of crazy, radical and wasteful programs into omnibus bills such as Build Back Better and the so-called Inflation Reduction Act.
They also hate Musk because he purchased Twitter and exposed their obvious bias against conservative posters. He leveled the playing field and the left just can’t stand it.
They’re also furious that he sided with Trump in this last election. But let’s be clear: he was a Democrat-voting billionaire for years. It’s only when the party went so woke and crazy and suppressing so much speech that he felt he had to switch lanes to protect the future of free dialogue.
They claim Musk has conflicts, but it’s not clear what they are referring to. If he has a government contract, he would simply abstain on anything in that lane. And really, does anyone believe that this guy worth hundreds of billions of dollars is putting himself on the line like this to eke out another billion or two? That’s chump change to Musk.
With all that said, it is important that Musk and this agency get congressional approval.
Conservatives rightly railed against Joe Biden having appointed John Kerry as a climate czar. He was given resources on a departmental level, yet reported to no one in Congress. It was wrong for Kerry and it shouldn’t be that way for Musk either.
We strongly support DOGE and Musk’s involvement, but we believe that Trump should put his agency through Congress and allow for proper oversight. Then let’s go get onto the job of cutting out all this waste and abuse.