Most Americans agree that it’s imperative to cut federal spending and get our fiscal house in order. Talk is cheap, but action is urgently needed to address our $36.2 trillion and growing debt.
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has set out an ambitious goal to root out waste, fraud, and abuse to the tune of $2 trillion. President Trump ordered the establishment of DOGE in a Day One executive order, stating, “The United States Digital Service is hereby publicly renamed as the United States DOGE Service (USDS) and shall be established in the Executive Office of the President.”
Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and a President Trump ally, oversees DOGE and promises to disband the entity by July 4th, 2026, if and when this goal is reached.
Much to the chagrin of DOGE critics, it wasn’t invented out of thin air. The “agency” spawned out of the U.S. Digital Service– an Obama administration-era outfit established in 2014 to “deliver better government services to the American people through technology and design.” As of this writing, an accompanying DOGE website claims to have already saved U.S. taxpayers an estimated $55 billion. It promises to identify aggressively and nix billions more. But one month into DOGE, it might be hard to concretely measure what exactly has been cut–especially without accompanying help from members of Congress.
Some, like the Wall Street Journal, a publication that has favored this effort, analyzed these early claims and found that the woke cuts were minor, and some claimed savings might have been inflated. Nevertheless, early polling finds DOGE is fairly popular–with 49% of Americans, so far, approving of its work.
Critics assert cuts and reforms are proceeding too quickly. Some government workers are engaging in malicious compliance and threatening to resist the new administration. Nuclear weapons workers were mistakenly fired, then re-hired.
Musk conceded mistakes would happen, and essential staffers would be brought back as needed.
“Some of the things that I say will be incorrect and should be corrected,” Musk said at a February 12th White House meeting. “Nobody’s going to bat 1,000. We will make mistakes, but we’ll act quickly to correct any mistakes.”
Although sunlight on USAID grants, for instance, is welcomed, DOGE can’t succeed without two things: tackling mandatory spending–particularly entitlements–and working with Congress to permanently gut wasteful spending.
During their joint interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, both President Trump and Elon Musk promised to tread carefully with entitlement spending.
The president reiterated, “Medicare, Medicaid, none of that stuff is going to be touched.”
Musk added, “I really want to emphasize to people that — this is a very important point — if we don’t solve the deficit, there won’t be money for medical care. There won’t be money…for Social Security. We either solve the deficit or all we’ll be doing is paying debt.”
Social Security is projected to be insolvent by 2035, and Medicare Part A is likely facing the same fate by 2036. As Reason Magazine astutely notes, “Without serious reform, these programs will become financially unsustainable, forcing abrupt benefit cuts, massive tax increases, or a mix of both.” As fiscal conservatives, we can’t turn a blind eye to this.
Similarly, executive action alone by President Trump won’t be sufficient to rein in wasteful spending. Congress's cooperation is needed if the president wants DOGE’s impact to be lasting and permanent, as with the rest of his agenda. The power also rests in the legislative branch to downsize or eliminate government agencies. A 2017 Heritage Foundation report explained, “The power to enact, amend, or abolish these executive departments and agencies and their functions belongs to Congress.”
However, in their chamber, self-proclaimed Senate DOGE’ers in the U.S. Senate failed their first major test - a commitment to DOGE’s goals - recently. Last week, most of the body - including Republicans - rejected an amendment by Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) to pair deficit reduction with reconciliation bill talks. If this continues and becomes habitual in the 119th Congress, DOGE’s efforts will be stymied. This is especially true if some Republicans become reluctant to abandon preferred pet projects.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO)’s Budget and Economic Outlook from 2025 to 2035 projects the deficit will hit $1.9 trillion in 2025, while the federal debt will increase to “118 percent of GDP in 2035.” The CBO also warned about tariffs, the president’s new favorite word in the dictionary, and their likely impacts on the economy. Deficits, the CBO argued, could decrease deficits by $2.2 trillion but weaken the economy and perpetuate runaway inflation.
Improper payments, duplicative government programs, and egregious waste must be tackled. However, without any structural reforms to entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, DOGE’s efforts will ultimately be nil. These programs are slated to balloon $124 trillion over 30 years. That’s unsustainable.
DOGE is a noble effort, but it needs Congressional backing to be supplemented by smart entitlement spending reforms. Although it’s early in Trump 2.0, time is of the essence. It’s time to get serious about federal spending: the elephant in the room.
