THE DOGE PLAN TO REFORM GOVERNMENT

[bklynboy68]

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL


Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy: The DOGE Plan to Reform Government
Following the Supreme Court’s guidance, we’ll reverse a decadeslong executive power grab.

By Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy
Nov. 20, 2024 12:33 pm ET



Our nation was founded on the basic idea that the people we elect run the government. That isn’t how America functions today. Most legal edicts aren’t laws enacted by Congress but “rules and regulations” promulgated by unelected bureaucrats—tens of thousands of them each year. Most government enforcement decisions and discretionary expenditures aren’t made by the democratically elected president or even his political appointees but by millions of unelected, unappointed civil servants within government agencies who view themselves as immune from firing thanks to civil-service protections.

This is antidemocratic and antithetical to the Founders’ vision. It imposes massive direct and indirect costs on taxpayers. Thankfully, we have a historic opportunity to solve the problem. On Nov. 5, voters decisively elected Donald Trump with a mandate for sweeping change, and they deserve to get it.

President Trump has asked the two of us to lead a newly formed Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, to cut the federal government down to size. The entrenched and ever-growing bureaucracy represents an existential threat to our republic, and politicians have abetted it for too long. That’s why we’re doing things differently. We are entrepreneurs, not politicians. We will serve as outside volunteers, not federal officials or employees. Unlike government commissions or advisory committees, we won’t just write reports or cut ribbons. We’ll cut costs.

We are assisting the Trump transition team to identify and hire a lean team of small-government crusaders, including some of the sharpest technical and legal minds in America. This team will work in the new administration closely with the White House Office of Management and Budget. The two of us will advise DOGE at every step to pursue three major kinds of reform: regulatory rescissions, administrative reductions and cost savings. We will focus particularly on driving change through executive action based on existing legislation rather than by passing new laws. Our North Star for reform will be the U.S. Constitution, with a focus on two critical Supreme Court rulings issued during President Biden’s tenure.

In West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency (2022), the justices held that agencies can’t impose regulations dealing with major economic or policy questions unless Congress specifically authorizes them to do so. In Loper Bright v. Raimondo (2024), the court overturned the Chevron doctrine and held that federal courts should no longer defer to federal agencies’ interpretations of the law or their own rulemaking authority. Together, these cases suggest that a plethora of current federal regulations exceed the authority Congress has granted under the law.

DOGE will work with legal experts embedded in government agencies, aided by advanced technology, to apply these rulings to federal regulations enacted by such agencies. 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. This would liberate individuals and businesses from illicit regulations never passed by Congress and stimulate the U.S. economy.

When the president nullifies thousands of such regulations, critics will allege executive overreach. In fact, it will be correcting the executive overreach of thousands of regulations promulgated by administrative fiat that were never authorized by Congress. The president owes lawmaking deference to Congress, not to bureaucrats deep within federal agencies. The use of executive orders to substitute for lawmaking by adding burdensome new rules is a constitutional affront, but the use of executive orders to roll back regulations that wrongly bypassed Congress is legitimate and necessary to comply with the Supreme Court’s recent mandates. And after those regulations are fully rescinded, a future president couldn’t simply flip the switch and revive them but would instead have to ask Congress to do so.

A drastic reduction in federal regulations provides sound industrial logic for mass head-count reductions across the federal bureaucracy. DOGE intends to work with embedded appointees in agencies to identify the minimum number of employees required at an agency for it to perform its constitutionally permissible and statutorily mandated functions. The number of federal employees to cut should be at least proportionate to the number of federal regulations that are nullified: Not only are fewer employees required to enforce fewer regulations, but the agency would produce fewer regulations once its scope of authority is properly limited. Employees whose positions are eliminated deserve to be treated with respect, and DOGE’s goal is to help support their transition into the private sector. The president can use existing laws to give them incentives for early retirement and to make voluntary severance payments to facilitate a graceful exit.

Conventional wisdom holds that statutory civil-service protections stop the president or even his political appointees from firing federal workers. The purpose of these protections is to protect employees from political retaliation. But the statute allows for “reductions in force” that don’t target specific employees. The statute further empowers the president to “prescribe rules governing the competitive service.” That power is broad. Previous presidents have used it to amend the civil service rules by executive order, and the Supreme Court has held—in Franklin v. Massachusetts (1992) and Collins v. Yellen (2021) that they weren’t constrained by the Administrative Procedures Act when they did so. With this authority, Mr. Trump can implement any number of “rules governing the competitive service” that would curtail administrative overgrowth, from large-scale firings to relocation of federal agencies out of the Washington area. Requiring federal employees to come to the office five days a week would result in a wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome: If federal employees don’t want to show up, American taxpayers shouldn’t pay them for the Covid-era privilege of staying home.

Finally, we are focused on delivering cost savings for taxpayers. Skeptics question how much federal spending DOGE can tame through executive action alone. They point to the 1974 Impoundment Control Act, which stops the president from ceasing expenditures authorized by Congress. Mr. Trump has previously suggested this statute is unconstitutional, and we believe the current Supreme Court would likely side with him on this question. But even without relying on that view, DOGE will help end federal overspending by taking aim at the $500 billion plus in annual federal expenditures that are unauthorized by Congress or being used in ways that Congress never intended, from $535 million a year to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and $1.5 billion for grants to international organizations to nearly $300 million to progressive groups like Planned Parenthood.

The federal government’s procurement process is also badly broken. Many federal contracts have gone unexamined for years. Large-scale audits conducted during a temporary suspension of payments would yield significant savings. The Pentagon recently failed its seventh consecutive audit, suggesting that the agency’s leadership has little idea how its annual budget of more than $800 billion is spent. Critics claim that we can’t meaningfully close the federal deficit without taking aim at entitlement programs like Medicare and Medicaid, which require Congress to shrink. But this deflects attention from the sheer magnitude of waste, fraud and abuse that nearly all taxpayers wish to end—and that DOGE aims to address by identifying pinpoint executive actions that would result in immediate savings for taxpayers.

With a decisive electoral mandate and a 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court, DOGE has a historic opportunity for structural reductions in the federal government. We are prepared for the onslaught from entrenched interests in Washington. We expect to prevail. Now is the moment for decisive action. Our top goal for DOGE is to eliminate the need for its existence by July 4, 2026—the expiration date we have set for our project. There is no better birthday gift to our nation on its 250th anniversary than to deliver a federal government that would make our Founders proud.



Mr. Musk is CEO of SpaceX and Tesla. Mr. Ramaswamy, a businessman, is author, most recently, of “Truths: The Future of America First” and was a candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. President-elect Trump has named them co-heads of the Department of Government Efficiency.

[seenbad]

I'm more excited about this for us than just about anything government related than I have been in a very long time. Thanks for starting the thread. This is going to be a pretty big journey.

[CaboChris]

Here's my question, though. This will save the country millions or billions? What could be the benefit to the average Joe? Debt reduction?

[bklynboy68]

Here's my question, though. This will save the country millions or billions? What could be the benefit to the average Joe? Debt reduction?

They’re shooting for 2 trillion.

[edwardv]

Here's my question, though. This will save the country millions or billions? What could be the benefit to the average Joe? Debt reduction?

Only one person on this board who can speak with authority on this.

[CaboChris]

Only one person on this board who can speak with authority on this.

Rchop?

[edwardv]

Rchop?

DD

[CaboChris]

This DOGE stuff is beyond my pay grade, but I agree with Seen. It's exciting. The selection of Musk (ugh) and Vivek is brilliant. This, AG, and Defense Secretary is also very exciting. I so badly want to see Washington/Armed Forces shaken up. It's way past time. We should all be rooting for this potential for full-scale change. This is how you kill what's left of the establishment.

[bklynboy68]

This DOGE stuff is beyond my pay grade, but I agree with Seen. It's exciting. The selection of Musk (ugh) and Vivek is brilliant. This, AG, and Defense Secretary is also very exciting. I so badly want to see Washington/Armed Forces shaken up. It's way past time. We should all be rooting for this potential for full-scale change. This is how you kill what's left of the establishment.

This is outstanding.

[Daisy Hill]

I think we would all like to see government bloat disappear. If Trump is able to slash thru this mess I think most Americans would approve. Once the benefits of these departments and functions are cut, it might be another story but short term, I think most people realize that the federal ( and most state) governments have been out of control

If you take a look at this chart of federal civilian employees thru out the country and territories you will be amazed. or sickened. 162,000 in DC and 144,000 in Virginia and another 143,000 in Maryland. OK that is the seat of the Federal government but 147,000 in California? 93,000 in Florida? 50,000 in Ohio?

And that is just the tip of the iceberg as the sub contracting of government work bloats those figures even more. DD is obviously way more qualified to speak to this. I don't know how much they can carve out in a 4 year term without doing serious damage to the economy. but I have a feeling that the only way to eliminate these federal jobs and not just turn then into contracted out work is to completely dismantle entire departments and I don't know that if that is even possible because Congress will get in the way. None of them want to see lucrative positions or federal benefits cut in their districts

I don't know if I trust Musk to head up this endeavor, but damn, something has to be done.

I swear, if we got a candidate for Ohio governor who would do the same, I would vote for him/her no matter what party, based on just that one promise

https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R47716

[lovemachine97(Version 2)]

Welp, all that has come out shows they aren't that serious or haven't actually looked at the budget.

They are aiming for $2 trillion. That's a third of all non-interest spending. Three-quarters of all federal spending is Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid, defense, veterans, and interest. The other quarter is infrastructure, law enforcement, border security, disaster relief, unemployment benefits.

Trump has vowed the vast majority of that is totally off limits for any cuts.

Musk touted Rand Paul's Festivus 2023, which is good, But that's not even halfway to their goal. He also said he would "fix" the interest payments on our debt, but the only way to really do that is to run a significant budget surplus.

Ramaswamy promised to eliminate over half a trillion on programs whose authorizations are expired...but neglects to mention (or doesn't know) that this would necessarily end funding for veteran's health care, the DOJ, NASA, and all US embassies in the world.

They talk about eliminating 75% of 2 million civilian federal employees, but that employment number has been static since I have been alive, despite the government growing. Targeted cuts, yes. 75% ain't gonna happen. Besides, these salaries only equal $300 billion, and if they don't do it in a smart way, then you'd pay contractors to take their place.

What you need is a total reworking of Medicare and Social Security, for several reasons, as well as attacking the fraud in those programs, which the OMB has already laid out. But Trump says this is off the table.

This is going to be one big overpromise.

[Dave's Dreidel]

They’re shooting for 2 trillion.

To do that they will have to hit entitlements, there is no other way.

[Dave's Dreidel]

I think we would all like to see government bloat disappear. If Trump is able to slash thru this mess I think most Americans would approve. Once the benefits of these departments and functions are cut, it might be another story but short term, I think most people realize that the federal ( and most state) governments have been out of control

If you take a look at this chart of federal civilian employees thru out the country and territories you will be amazed. or sickened. 162,000 in DC and 144,000 in Virginia and another 143,000 in Maryland. OK that is the seat of the Federal government but 147,000 in California? 93,000 in Florida? 50,000 in Ohio?

And that is just the tip of the iceberg as the sub contracting of government work bloats those figures even more. DD is obviously way more qualified to speak to this. I don't know how much they can carve out in a 4 year term without doing serious damage to the economy. but I have a feeling that the only way to eliminate these federal jobs and not just turn then into contracted out work is to completely dismantle entire departments and I don't know that if that is even possible because Congress will get in the way. None of them want to see lucrative positions or federal benefits cut in their districts

I don't know if I trust Musk to head up this endeavor, but damn, something has to be done.

I swear, if we got a candidate for Ohio governor who would do the same, I would vote for him/her no matter what party, based on just that one promise

https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R47716

If Trump can fix the budget, he will go down as a great POTUS.

He won't go down as a great POTUS, because no one is willing to do what needs to be done.

[BREW CREW]

They’re shooting for 2 trillion.

If they could cut even 1/3 of that, it would be a win. Just don't fuck with Social Security (unless there's legitimate waste.) Don't cut Americans Medicare/Medicaid unless there's fraud (like our money going to illegals, dead people and even those that don't deserve it like very well off people that don't absolutely need it.) There's a lot of things they can cut immediately like testing sea animals reaction to drugs or monkey sex changes..... the list of shit goes on and on. Americans first with this new department. Period.

[edwardv]

To do that they will have to hit entitlements, there is no other way.

I'm sure Ron Johnson and others are hoping for that. If so I'll vote D next time Shapiro and hit my reserves. I figured no party would want to commit suicide before 11:55 PM Dec 31,2033. Personally I think they just let it go insolvent so the mandatory cuts kick in and everyone's neutral.

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