President Donald Trump has tasked Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk, (the X-Men), to head the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Their mission is to brainstorm ways to streamline the government and save the country trillions of dollars. The X-Men have been all over the internet and in media outlets. Musk asserting that he will trim two trillion dollars off the budget, while Ramaswamy states that he will use new Supreme Court decisions and constitutional law to cut spending and eliminate duplicative, ineffective government agencies. If they had private-sector CEO authority, they would undoubtedly be successful. Musk’s takeover of Twitter is a case in point. Using Musk’s rules of maximizing efficiency/profitability 80% of the Twitter workforce was let go, and the company continued to thrive.
The problem is that Musk and Ramaswamy have no CEO authority over government agencies and the Swamp creatures lie in wait.
Despite Vivek Ramaswamy’s opinion that Supreme Court precedent will allow executive action to cut appropriated spending, eliminate government agencies, or terminate unionized civil servants, it is more likely that ACLU-like lawsuits will empower “woke” DEI judges to rule against any such action and hobble any cost-cutting initiates.
Swamp Creatures come in a variety of forms, including the government alphabet agencies. Protected by their bloated government agencies these swamp creatures lay in wait, knowing that if the battle is fought inside their swamp, Vivek and Elon will be eaten alive.
The only way to win is for Musk and Ramaswamy to create a dynamic where Swamp Creatures fight each other for limited resources. Once such a dynamic is set in motion, institutional change will automatically happen.
During the 1990s, Bill Clinton instituted a rudimentary example of this concept. He declared that the era of big government was over, encouraged early retirement, and mostly froze government hiring. Due to attrition government employees dropped by around 10% and the remaining employees were forced to up their game. Musk and Ramaswamy postulate a similar executive action. If Donald Trump issued an executive order forcing government workers to return to on-site work (90% work at least partly from home) and mostly freezes government hiring, a domino effect would immediately start. Many government workers would either quit or take early retirement. The remaining workers would have to up their game or find the door. Although not as quick or dramatic as Elon Musk cutting Twitter by 80%, it is probably as good as can be done with government agencies. Over time the swamp creatures’ numbers would significantly decrease and those left would be forced to be more efficient. This example of how to manipulate the swamp to turn on itself is instructive but to harvest real significant savings the X-Men will have to leverage every bit of their genius IQs. Because they are going to need the help of an even more self-centered Machiavellian group of Washington D.C. beasts, the United States Congress.
It is well-known that the federal government does not have well-described limits or penalties for deficit spending and that most politicians will say or do anything to get re-elected. Whenever it is politically expedient to do so, politicians disregard long-term fiscal consequences, opt not to increase unpopular taxes, preserve expendable constituent-like programs, add on more expensive programs, and spend more than the tax revenue available.
So how do the X-Men get the politicians to work for the good of the people and not just for themselves?
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