DOGE; Dog or God

 


   It’s safe to say that Elon Musk and DOGE (the Department of Government Efficiency) have occupied more of our collective conscious thought in the last month than could have ever been predicted.  Check out national news, there they are.  Local news, there they are.  Twitter (X), same.  Facebook, Instagram, etc.  He’s at CPAC, the Oval Office, the Cabinet meeting, Joe Rogan.  He’s ubiquitous, and for good reason.  Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency has been tasked with cutting the fat in the federal budget.


     And for some reason, whenever I read about Musk and DOGE, this is the image that pops in my head:


 


     A more apt analogy might be Freddy Krueger performing dental work. There are issues in your mouth that need to be taken care of, but the lack of subtlety and precision by Dr. Krueger’s scissor hands ultimately do more damage to the healthy parts of the mouth in order to eliminate the damaging dark spots. And seemingly, in this case, without anesthesia.  “We did get that pesky cavity, Mr. Silbor, but we’ll reattach that tongue as soon as we can.  Make an appointment at the front desk.” 

     My usual default is to question myself.  Am I being unfair?  Do I know enough to understand?  Does the media skew my take?  Maybe. 

But, let’s be honest.  His gleeful chainsaw act at CPAC does make one wonder what is happening.


 


      To be clear:

             - I do believe there is much government waste

             - I would love to see the actual corruption and waste removed

             - The older I get, the less I want to see the federal government 

               run large scale programs in the social areas

             -  I understand cuts to programs cause pain

             -  Yet, I will always believe that the U.S. needs to have 

                compassionate programs that give some chance to people 

                who are struggling


     As a teacher of social studies, including AP U.S. Government, I have been challenged with finding the most balanced approach to teaching modern politics.  In order to achieve this, I’ve done my best to eliminate any personal feelings (even hinted at) and instead find any historical examples to create a context.  It has not been easy.

     To be sure, if President Trump’s intent is to stop the insane avalanche of debt and deficit that the US is currently experiencing ($36.5 trillion and counting.  Check out the US debt clock at https://www.usdebtclock.org/.  It’s not for the weak of heart), then it is a laudable endeavor.  Godspeed.


  

 

     The questions that will persist involve the implementation.  Is Elon Musk, who is the most successful and richest businessman in the world, the right person for this?  Does business savvy equate to successful fiscal policy for the government?  Is he starting his cuts in the right areas, or is Freddy Krueger missing the mark?

      There are inevitable conversations about conflicts of interest.  According to ABC News, Tesla and SpaceX received $18 billion in government contracts. Yet, many of the position budget cuts were happening at USAID, FDA, Department of Ed, FAA, FEMA, IRS, NIH, and NOAA.  Today, the administration announced that it planned to cut 80,000 workers from Veterans Affairs.  NASA and the Department of Defense were also on the list of agencies to be audited.  It will be interesting to see if the two agencies funding his companies will see the same kind of scrutiny. 

     Government and business have always been interlinked, and there are many examples of people who left lucrative jobs to become Cabinet members or to run an agency.  John F. Kennedy tapped former Ford Motor CEO John McNamara as Secretary of Defense. Even JP Morgan was asked twice by the US government to use his massive wealth to bail it out of two economic panics in 1893 and 1907.  Morgan, of course, profited off of each deal.  The Gilded Age was filled with corporate leaders running government programs to their benefit (see Credit Mobilier), which led to massive amounts of corruption.  Lest we forget (and he probably wouldn’t let us forget), the current president is a lifelong businessman with varying degrees of success. 

      But, this is different.  The richest man in the world has been put in charge of an agency that never existed before to take his massive chainsaw to do a near impossible task.  It feels like he’s down 100-0 in the ninth inning and is trying to tie the game up with one swing.

     All of this will ultimately challenge our system of separation of powers and checks and balances.  If federal courts (and possibly the Supreme Court) put a stay on the firings or order rehirings, will the administration challenge their authority and just ignore the rulings, i.e., Andrew Jackson?  Can DOGE stop payments to USAID after Congress already authorized and appropriated the money, and would the administration, again, challenge the authority of Congress and just ignore the laws?  Are screaming matches in Cabinet meetings, like the one reported between Musk and Secretary of State Marco Rubio while Trump looked on, healthy and forward thinking for the US?

      Most importantly, who runs DOGE??  We are often told Musk is, and he is the face on TV and social media, but then we are told it is a woman named Amy Gleason, who seemed just as surprised, as many others, when she found out it was her.  If Musk is the unconfirmed leader of a new agency not officially authorized by Congress, how is he held accountable for anything?

      Any budget has questionable line items, and often beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  We’ve seen fierce debates at Uxbridge town meetings over a new school that eventually took many years to get done and nearly caused a civil war in town. Town budgets, state budgets, school budgets, and small business budgets all need a healthy level of scrutiny, with a good balance between optimistic ideology and cold fiscal reality.  Hell, home budgets are probably still the number one reason for divorce.  More than one household has had a knock-down, take no prisoners fight over whether or not to cancel Netflix.   But, canceling the cable, internet, and phone to make a point and see what happens would be a staggering overreaction.




     I also do not love the idea of a person who has everything empowered to decide where cuts in other people’s lives are made.  A hungry person should never do the grocery shopping for the household, but probably neither should the person who just had a huge steak meal with champagne.  Neither would come home with adequate groceries for the household to run on, and adjustments would have to be made. Cuts to government programs should be done with someone who is not desperate for those programs to exist, but also have some skin in the game.

     Can Musk successfully run a country’s budget the same way he does with his company’s?  If he is finding, over and over again, that mistakes are being made and rehires need to occur, what other mistakes are being made?  What short and long term problems will they create?  How widespread are the consequences? 

Will the federal employees who were cut receive unemployment in a time of terrible inflation of groceries, health insurance, etc.?

     A colleague of mine shared a loopnet.com link that showed that the federal government has been leasing 4,852 square feet on the second floor of the Stanley Woolen Mill for the US Department of Agriculture Regional Veterinary and Plant Health Services.  Neither of us knew it existed.  I’m not sure if that means we are uninformed or not, but it is now (according to masslive.com) a DOGE cut despite being under contract until 2029.


 


     I’ve lived here my whole life, and could not begin to tell you the wisdom or consequence of this decision.

     So, I’ll leave you with this.  I’m not an exceptionally smart person, but I do my best to read and stay informed.  The political landscape feels next to impossible to navigate due to its complications and misinformation.  If someone like myself, who is consciously attempting to keep up with current events is this lost, how many others fall into the same category


     One last though. For good or bad, right or wrong, elections have consequences.  We all need to own what we did or did not vote for.

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