President Trump and one of his chief butt kickers, Elon Musk, have roared to a start with the vital DOGE — Department of Government Efficiency. Not surprisingly, they have quickly identified billions in wasteful spending.
I might quibble with the idea this spending is “wasteful,” as from the left’s perspective it all has a very specific goal — a jobs program for those who will vote and donate 90+% for the party of government, the Democrats.
Their real goal of forever expanding government must never be forgotten. This is why Democrats are having a collective breakdown over any cuts in spending. It’s a machine designed to ensure them forever power.
As for DOGE, it is a grand beginning, but it is only the beginning, for as management guru Peter Drucker once noted, “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.”
Tie this with a quote from Milton Friedman, “One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results,” and you have the foundation for DOAR.
Pretty much any area; local, state, or federal, is ripe for DOAR analysis but since Friedman was especially interested in K-12 education let’s start there with some simple DOAR observations.
Years ago, we were told technology was going to revolutionize K-12 education. Now almost every child across the land has a Chromebook. Even in math class, paper and pencil became verboten. I challenge any of you to attempt to do even simple math without them. And you already know how to do simple math. What if you’re just learning?
My wife and her generation’s math skills were terribly damaged by another earlier dubious experiment called “new math.”
It would seem any plan like this — basically experimenting on other people’s children — would include a D.A.R.E. program were actually more likely to use drugs.
Recently they did the same with bullying with the same opposite results. Now they are going to “help” those students who might be experiencing issues regarding their sexuality. Again, with life-destroying results. As the band Pink Floyd sang, “hey teacher, leave them kids alone.”
Ignoring actual results while experimenting on other people’s children like this is an obscenity. Yet there is not an area of government that is innocent of this insanity.
Yes, we need DOGE to save the country from mathematically certain doom if the national debt is not addressed but we also need to ensure actual results — not talk, not dreams, not desires, but results — are what drives our collective efforts in all public policy.
As noted by Aldous Huxley, “Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.”
Continuing our childish, willful disregard for actual results will sooner or later be our doom. Long live DOAR!
John Conlin is an expert in organizational design and change. He also holds a BS in Earth Sciences and an MBA and is the founder and President of E.I.C. Enterprises. He has been published in American Greatness, The Federalist, The Daily Caller, American Thinker, Houston Chronicle, Denver Post, and Public Square Magazine among others.
Image: DOGE
Jesus Christ is King
Comments are closed.