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The question asked in the title of this blog is understandable. The words government and efficiency are rarely used in the same sentence. Certainly not by learned people with good memories. After all, Trump’s newly announced Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has been tried before. In June of 1982, President Reagan created the “Grace Commission” by Executive Order. Again, by Executive Order, President Obama created the Simpson-Bowles Commission in April of 2010. While different in scope and mission, both were formed to identify inefficiencies in the federal government. Grace Commission recommendations were ignored where they called for cost cutting measures by Congress. Therefore, only a few recommendations were acted on. The Simpson-Bowles Commission was designed to fail by President Obama. He is famous for being long on style but short on substance. He staffed the Commission with 6 Republican and 6 Democrat members of Congress, along with 6 private citizens. His Executive Order stipulated that at least 14 of the 18 members were required to approve the results before the report could be presented to Congress. He knew that hurdle wouldn’t be cleared. He was correct and no report was ever delivered. But hey, he told us that he tried really hard.

Given that history, what makes me think that DOGE will be successful? There are lots of reasons why I think it is different this time. The 3 most important reasons are Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Vivek Ramaswamy (MusRam). They are all billionaire businessmen who love our country and understand that the unabated growth of our government and the national debt will eventually bankrupt this great nation. Trump can only serve one term in office. He has 4 years, perhaps less if the midterm elections don’t go well, to transform the D.C. cesspool. Unlike Obama, Trump has put no limits on DOGE. He has charged it with rooting out waste, fraud, and inefficiencies, wherever they are found. Unlike Reagan, who was in his first term, Trump is prepared to fight with Congress to make the changes necessary to put the interests of the American people ahead of Party politics. The only mandate he placed on DOGE is that a report be completed by July of 2026.

MusRam are billionaire patriots who will be working for free. Their list of business successes is impressive. That list proves they understand what is involved in running a successful organization. A Help Wanted sign has been hung out looking for other patriots who are willing to work tirelessly, for little compensation, to help reduce the runaway national debt. MusRam know how to identify fraud, waste, and redundancy. Remember when Musk bought Twitter, he fired something like 80% of its employees and the company continued to function. Bloated bureaucracies always lead to outsized payrolls and inefficiencies. The federal government is a seriously bloated bureaucracy.

Musk has suggested they will find as much as $2 trillion in waste, inefficiency, and fraud, in existing federal departments and agencies. That seems aggressive to me, but to doubt Elon Musk is a fool’s errand. There may be as much as $1 trillion in what might be called low hanging fruit. In speeches, and in my writing, I have consistently stated that we could cut 10% of federal spending and nobody, other than laid off employees, would know it had happened. In fiscal year 2024 the federal government spent $6.75 trillion. If MusRam are successful in selling a cut of 10% across the board, that would be a savings of $675 billion. That would solve 30% of Musk’s $2 trillion target. We’re off and running.

Over the last 4 years, Biden/Harris have lied to us about the number of jobs they created. Still, the fastest growing sector for job growth in the U.S. over the last 12 months was the government. By giving pink slips to 709,000 new hires, we would save the costs of their salaries and fringe benefits. That would be an immediate saving for this year and every year from now on. Speaking of government employees and low hanging fruit: During the last government shutdown, nearly half +/- of government employees were furloughed as “non-essential”. MusRam should identify which departments/agencies had a preponderance of them. Then they could cross check that list with the employees who refuse to return to work at their office. As my grandchildren say, easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

Here’s more low hanging fruit. In a July letter, Senator Joni Ernst questioned an audit by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration that stated there were 149,000 federal employees who owed $1.5 billion in unpaid taxes. Tens of thousands of them are repeat cheaters who failed to file tax returns year after year, and the number is growing. Why wouldn’t it continue to grow? The cheats remain employed, adding our tax dollars to their pension plans, with no repercussions for their actions. It gets worse. The audit identified more than 5,800 IRS EMPLOYEES and its contractors owe almost $50 million in back taxes. This should make every American who pays hundreds of dollars for tax preparation and compliance very angry. Here’s a win/win for DOGE. MusRam should recommend giving all of these miscreants a 30-day grace period to settle their tax obligation, plus interest and penalties. If they pay it back, the Treasury gains $1.5 billion. If they don’t, we get rid of uncooperative, entitled, employees plus their salaries and generous fringe benefits.

Until this year, national defense, at $824 billion, was the single largest item in the national budget. Last week, the Pentagon failed its 7th consecutive audit! In true D.C. lingo, the Pentagon didn’t fail an audit. They received a “disclaimer of opinion”. The Department of Defense Comptroller and Chief Financial Officer said: “The Defense Dept. has turned a corner in its understanding of the depth and breadth of its challenge.” They suggested that we should all be patient because the “Dept. is making progress toward a clean audit by 2028”!?! I can’t speak for anyone else, but that sure did make me feel better. DOGE would be wise to embed a team in the pentagon. Between mismanagement, price gouging from contractors, corruption, and inefficiencies, the Pentagon is rife with money saving suggestions.

I’ve mentioned but a few places DOGE could begin looking. Through our government, we own tens of thousands of empty, or underutilized buildings. Many of them are in high rent districts. We must begin to negotiate the sale of some of these properties. We could raise a mountain of money while saving billions of dollars on maintenance and upkeep. I hope that DOGE will recommend that Congress pass a bill to make “earmarks” illegal. While many are legitimate, too many are used as a way for members of Congress to curry favor from their constituents. I hope DOGE will investigate how to stop the flow of payments from Social Security and the Federal Pension Plan to people who haven’t earned them. We must penalize those who are stealing from public funds. You can be sure that Congress, especially Democrats, and bureaucrats will fight DOGE every step of the way. Too many of them have worked for too long to create little fiefdoms for themselves. They will not go quietly into that goodnight.

I haven’t even mentioned the regulatory mess that begs investigation from DOGE. Government overregulation stifles growth and the entrepreneurial spirit. Starting a new business, or building a new home, can be next to impossible, and unnecessarily expensive. It is difficult to find a single product that hasn’t been negatively impacted by pages of regulations. Less than 100 years ago, all of the federal government’s statutes fit into 1 volume. By 2018, the U.S. Code was 54 volumes and 60,000 pages. This regulatory insanity costs companies, and by extension us, hundreds of billions of dollars for compliance.

Come 1/20/25, DOGE employees are going to feel like a kid in a candy store. Even better. The candy store proprietor is asleep in the back of the store. For the first time in our country’s history, we will pay over 1 trillion dollars just to pay the interest on our national debt. It is the largest item on our national budget. Neither interest rates, nor inflation, will subside until/unless we are able to reduce the national debt. Every American, regardless of political affiliation, should be praying for the success of the DOGE team. Its success will be a major factor in whether the Presidency of Donald Trump is a success or a failure. As we have seen over the last 4 years, the failure of a President is typically mirrored by the failure of the people.

I hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving weekend. If you think this blog has value why not share it with your relatives at halftime of the football games. Thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts. Bob