Billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are sharing particulars about how their newly created Division of Authorities Effectivity — which is not an official authorities division — plans to take purpose at paring federal spending, with the 2 writing in a Wall Road Journal opinion piece on Wednesday that they’re aiming to chop $500 billion in annual spending.
The announcement of DOGE has raised a bunch of questions, from whether or not Musk and Ramaswamy can have the authority to make modifications in federal spending, sometimes managed by Congress, in addition to the group’s powers and the way it will function. Musk and Ramaswamy supplied solutions to a few of these questions of their opinion piece, arguing that President-elect Donald Trump has the authority to chop spending approved by Congress.
Whereas Musk and Ramaswamy mentioned they “anticipate to prevail” in reducing prices, there have been loads of examples all through the many years of efforts aimed toward reining in federal spending, which have had solely restricted outcomes. As an illustration, President Ronald Reagan within the Nineteen Eighties tapped businessman J. Peter Grace to suggest reforms, leading to about 2,500 suggestions for reducing spending, most of which had been by no means applied.
Musk has urged slicing $2 trillion in annual federal spending, an quantity specialists say is unrealistic provided that many of the nation’s $6.7 trillion in yearly outlays is spent on Social Safety, Medicare and the army.
However within the Wednesday opinion piece, Musk and Ramaswamy wrote that their preliminary purpose will likely be to chop “the $500 billion plus in annual federal expenditures which are unauthorized by Congress or being utilized in ways in which Congress by no means meant.”
This is what to know.
The place will Musk’s DOGE purpose to chop federal spending?
Two-thirds of federal spending is necessary by packages together with Social Safety and Medicare, whereas discretionary spending is basically spent on protection.
However as talked about above, Musk and Ramaswamy mentioned they will goal $500 billion in spending that’s unauthorized by Congress, in addition to packages they consider aren’t according to lawmakers’ intentions.
The largest supply of expired authorizations sits with well being look after veterans, which price $119 billion in fiscal 2024, in accordance to the Congressional Funds Workplace.
Nonetheless, Musk and Ramaswamy did not single out veterans’ well being care as a spot the place they’d search to chop. As an alternative, they listed the next areas:
- The Company for Public Broadcasting, which receives $535 million a yr
- Worldwide organizations that obtain $1.5 billion in grants
- Deliberate Parenthood and what they describe as “progressive teams” that obtain nearly $300 million per yr
Which federal packages haven’t got authorization?
The packages talked about by Musk and Ramaswamy are comparatively tiny in contrast with different areas which are unauthorized, reminiscent of veterans’ well being care.
The subsequent largest sources of expired authorizations, after veterans’ well being care, embody packages that spend money on opioid remedy, the State Division and housing help. Some smaller packages with expired funding embody Head Begin, NASA and the Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA. The latter supplies climate forecasts, extreme storm warnings and local weather monitoring, amongst different duties.
In accordance with Venture 2025, the conservative blueprint that was developed by the Heritage Basis to information the following conservative White Home, the NOAA “needs to be dismantled and plenty of of its capabilities eradicated.”
DOGE needs to chop federal employees. This is how.
Musk and Ramaswamy additionally underscored that they will push to chop the ranks of federal staff, saying their efforts may result in “mass head-count reductions throughout the federal paperwork.” The pair did not enumerate the variety of employees they will search to push out of the federal workforce.
In 2023, there have been greater than 2 million federal staff, in accordance to the Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan group targeted on the federal authorities. Most of these employees are inside Veterans Affairs, on account of a lot of well being care suppliers for the VA, adopted by folks enlisted within the armed companies, its knowledge exhibits.
Whereas civil service employees have job protections, Musk and Ramaswamy argued that the president could be legally allowed to enact “reductions in pressure” that do not goal particular employees, in addition to to make selections together with “large-scale firings to relocation of federal companies out of the Washington space.”
The DOGE would assist federal staff “transition into the personal sector,” Musk and Ramaswamy wrote. “The president can use current legal guidelines to provide them incentives for early retirement and to make voluntary severance funds to facilitate a sleek exit.”
The pair additionally mentioned they need to require federal employees to be within the workplace 5 days every week, a coverage change that they predict would “end in a wave of voluntary terminations.”
In a Thursday put up on X, the social media service owned by Elon Musk, the DOGE wrote, “Federal authorities companies are utilizing, on common, simply 12% of the house of their DC headquarters. The Division of Agriculture, with house for greater than 7,400 folks, averaged 456 employees every day (6% occupancy).”
It added, “Why are American taxpayer {dollars} being spent to take care of empty buildings?”
