(LifeSiteNews) — President-elect Donald Trump announced that Elon Musk will lead a new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) with businessman and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
“Together, these two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal agencies — Essential to the ‘Save America’ Movement,” Trump announced Tuesday on Truth Social.
Trump explained that the agency will “provide advice and guidance from outside of government and will partner with the White House and Office of Management & Budget to drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to government never seen before.”
The president assigned the duo a deadline of July 4, 2026, to “drive out the massive waste and fraud” that plagues our government budget, which has reached a mammoth size: $6.5 trillion per year.
Mogul and X owner Musk, who has been outspoken about the big problem of government waste, noted Tuesday that if the government is not made efficient, the country will go “bankrupt.”
Either we get government efficient or America goes bankrupt.
That’s what it comes down to.
Wish I were wrong, but it’s true. https://t.co/HkCEe40xc0
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 13, 2024
He reposted a clip from a recent talk he gave in which he explained that not only is our defense budget “pretty gigantic” — a trillion dollars —but the interest the U.S. now owes on its debt is higher than this.
“This is not sustainable. That’s why we need the Department of Government Efficiency,” Musk said.
The U.S. debt has doubled since 2015 to reach $35.46 trillion, according to statistics shared by investor Mario Nawfal.
Musk has also shared to X reports that the Government Accountability Office “estimates the federal government wastes $247B in taxpayer money each year,” and that the Department of the Treasury reported $24.5B in “unreconciled transactions” — which means unknown items — in the past.
In an October interview with Tucker Carlson, Musk proposed that the amount of federal agencies should be cut from about 428 to 99.
99 Federal agencies is more than enough https://t.co/OmWmfEHqyv
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 13, 2024
Ramaswamy has similarly called for a “massive downsizing” of government bureaucracy after his appointment to DOGE.
Over the last 2 years, the Supreme Court has ruled that the administrative state is behaving in wildly unlawful ways. But slapping the bureaucracy on the wrist won’t solve the problem, the only right answer is a massive downsizing. https://t.co/EfdJzd9XuT
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) November 13, 2024
Musk responded on X, “This is the only way.”
Ramaswamy has made clear, as has Musk, that cutting regulations is a key part of their mission at DOGE. Ramaswamy maintains that “eliminating bureaucratic regulations isn’t a mere policy preference” but “a legal *mandate* from the U.S. Supreme Court.” He cited on X the Supreme Court decision that, for example, “agencies cannot decide major questions of economic or political significance without ‘clear congressional authorization.’”
Musk shared Tuesday that all DOGE actions “will be posted online for maximum transparency,” adding, “Anytime the public thinks we are cutting something important or not cutting something wasteful, just let us know!”
Commentators have observed that Musk has already demonstrated a knack for organizational efficiency through his streamlining of the social media platform Twitter, which Musk rebranded as X.
When @elonmusk took over Twitter, he fired 4 out of 5 employees in a fortnight, and remade X to be the number one social media and news app on the globe. Adopt that model for the US government and he and @VivekGRamaswamy will make history and kick of a new era of liberty.
— Jeffrey A Tucker (@jeffreyatucker) November 13, 2024