The dynamic duo: Musk and Ramaswamy
They explain their plans for government efficiency (sounds like the oxymoron to end all oxymorons, doesn’t it?):
Musk and Ramaswamy are correct: unelected bureaucrats passing “rules and regulations” have detracted America from what the Founders framed in the Constitution.
DOGE is there to stop it.
“The entrenched and ever-growing bureaucracy represents an existential threat to our republic, and politicians have abetted it for too long,” the entrepreneurs wrote. “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.”
And before Trump was a politician, he was a real estate developers and TV personality.
Musk and Ramaswamy say that they want to concentrate on three areas: regulatory rescissions, administrative reduction, and cost savings. They also plan to help transition the workers whose jobs are eliminated into the private sector.
It’s nothing if not ambitious, and also needed. Will they succeed? I haven’t a clue.
In the weeks since the election, it occurs to me that Trump and the people he’s recently surrounded himself with must have thought there was an excellent chance he would win. They seem to be ready with Cabinet appointments and lots of plans.
I believe Musk made reference today to this video interview with Milton Friedman
https://youtu.be/aZ8LkRLuEDk
Which is all the reason I needed to vote for Trump.
My initial reaction to this effort is, “good luck; no way”.
But then I pause and think, ‘Musk’.
I wouldn’t bet against Musk and his brilliant, and unconventional, ally.
It remains to be seen what weapons they will have at their disposal. They will need formidable ones. Watch for monumental court battles. But Trump didn’t dream this up to be jeered for a losing effort.
Trump has gone beyond bold, and this is the boldest move so far. It is a legacy creating initiative.
It’s real easy to see how the administrative state became as bloated and large as it is today.
It is the US Congress that has brought into existence the many hundreds of federal agencies and it is the US Congress that, realistically speaking, prefers this arrangement because it allows them to fob off onto these agencies the lawmaking duties that they , the Congress, are constitutionally mandated to perform.
Further, when some agency issues edicts , rules, regulations, (i.e., laws, for all intents and purposes), etc., it allows those in Congress to say, “hey, don’t look at me, it’s the …….( EPA or Dept of Educ. or …)…….that made that decision; don’t blame me.”
If you wish to raise your blood pressure without increasing your salt intake, just watch on youtube congressional committee hearings where agency heads and their top officials are questioned by committee members. In a nutshell, the agency personnel, for all intents and purposes, could respond to each question by stating, to the committee members “go F yourself.”
It’s totally clear that these agencies are not accountable to anybody and they do whatever they damn well please; and Congress does nothing at all to hold them accountable. . And yes, none of the agency heads are in danger of losing their jobs.
Many, if not most, of the federal agencies need to be totally abolished. If they are just shrunk in size, they will grow back when the demonkrats once again are in power.
A good template to follow in eliminating federal agencies is that of the Argentine president Javier Milei; he is not messing around.
It amuses me that in addition to the cute doggy cryptocurrency mascot, the elected chief magistrate of the former republics of Venice and Genoa was called the Doge.
Speaking of Dynamic Duos, if there was a Batman TV series reboot, Kamala could play a villainess named The Cackler (Kackler?)
DOGE will have a lot to work on. According to this report by American Action Forum, Biden’s administration added $1.8 trillion in regulatory cost to the economy.
Biden’s swamp record: $1.8 trillion in regulations, 800x Trump
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/washington-secrets/3229919/bidens-swamp-record-1-8-trillion-in-regulations-800x-trump/
The whole idea of “government efficiency” reminds me of a couple of Frank Herbert books (Whipping Star; the Dosadi Experiment) that featured that featured a “Bureau of Sabotage” (BuSab) whose purpose was to prevent government efficiency, or perhaps in a more modern perspective, to prevent the government from doing anything at all.
@Dax:the elected chief magistrate of the former republics of Venice and Genoa was called the Doge.
From the Roman military title “Dux”, from which we also get Duke and from which Mussolini got “Duce”. The Venetian spelling is “doxe”, the Genoan “duxe”.
I don’t know what the Genoan doge did but post-Renaissance the Venetian doges were little more than figureheads.
The sole remaining Italian republican city-state uses Captain-Regent (Capitano Reggente); they have two at one time and they serve for six months, like Roman consuls, and in fact were originally called “consule”. They are heads of state but not heads of government, and they share one extra-wide throne.
DOGE- All power to them!
It is so very obvious.
The doges of Venice were ritually married to the sea — in the same way that modern-day bureaucrats are ritually married to the Deep State.
Mike Plaiss on November 21, 2024 at 1:25 pm:
Very nice Milton Friedman video. I had heard him discuss such issues before, but I’d never seen that particular video which encapsulates that topic extremely well.
It’s almost Meat Cleaver time!
One of their goals is to get federal workers to work at the office and cease the COVID work at home habit. I read somewhere a stat that 80 % of State Dept and 65 % of Defense Dept employees work in the office, but that statistic for other agencies, like Education, HHS, Transportation, etal. is more like 30%. That’s ridiculous that 2/3 of the employees in an organization do NOT work at the organization. If 2/3 of your employees don’t even come to work, that’s good evidence that your entire organization isn’t necessary.
Since neither is in government, and each is richer than a three-armed King Midas, and each has friends in government, there’s nothing the government can do to them except murder them. And they are rich enough to afford private security. Not to mention outspend the DoJ should an enemy end up in charge there.
And, having such freedom, can think outside the box, a term which is likely insufficient for this particular issue.
I wish them, and us, luck
I read their entire essay. I found it quite good, and promising, but I wish they would not have mentioned a “6-3 Supreme Court” as being in their favor.
The Judicial branch should be impartial and Musk and Ramaswamy open an unnecessary path to criticism by implying in writing that they have the court on their side.
You are right Rufus.
If this is their sole mission, it will fail. The fundamental problem with our government is not how much they do, it is what they do. Scope creep is to be expected from any organization. If the organization mission is misdirected, then the scope becomes real crap. Reform is really needed. For example, the EPA was created to clean up the superfund sites. They have not done any of them in nearly 50 years. Trump should issue an EO ordering the EPA that they can’t do anything outside of cleaning superfund sites until all sites are cleaned. That would make it easy to cut budget and staff. Try to cut staff and budget without that mission change = Fail.
Thanks for the info about doges, Niketas and Abraxas!
JohnTyler on November 21, 2024 at 1:49 pm has it right, that almost all of the governmental excesses and problems originate in the (now totally feckless) Congress.
But it goes back a ways, as SS was made “pay as you go” back in 1939, I believe, where that Congress overroad FDR’s veto, to buy votes from early recipients who would not have contributed enough to cover what they received in “insurance” payments.
We have not yet elected a truly MAGA Congress, and given the 6 year term for senators, we cannot do so with just one election.