jakiro
Author: Chairman Tu; Source: WeChat official account tuzhuxi
Regarding Trump’s appointment of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to be in charge of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE):
1. Although the name is named like this, including the word “department”, it is not a government agency, but an external consulting agency.The reason for setting up institutions outside the government is that only Congress has the right to establish government departments and allocate budgets.This all requires legislative action from Congress.Therefore, the easiest and quickest way is to set up a consulting agency outside the federal government to provide consulting services to the government.Musk has enough financial resources to fund this institution and does not need to rely on Congress/governmental grants
2. The name is just a “meta” that Musk likes (Akita Doge).The virtual currency that Musk has promoted is also called Dogecoin (“Dogecoin”).With the word “department”, the letter “D” is
3. External consulting/advisory organizations are very common.There are thousands of such consulting agencies at the federal level alone.Some of these institutions are funded by the federal government and Congress, some are funded independently by the private sector; some include government employees, and some are purely civil organizations.At the federal level, there is a special law, the Federal Advisory Committee Act, responsible for relevant supervision.Considering Musk’s financial resources, this consulting project does not require relying on financial support from the federal government or Congress. The reasonable logic is that the clearer the boundaries with the government, the better, so that the opening can be started at any time without being subject to relevant laws.Management and constraints
4. Since this institution is outside the government system, Musk and Vivek will not become “government employees” – at least Musk will not.He just devotes part of his time to do one thing
5. This external consulting agency will work together with the support and cooperation of the White House OMB (Agency Management and Budget).The OMB is part of the White House, and its traditional function is to assist the federal government in managing the budget and coordinate and communicate with Congress.DOGE cannot work behind closed doors or work outside the government system.OMB has sufficient authority to obtain accurate information about the budget and can link all federal government agencies, all relevant committees and important members of Congress, as well as various external consulting think tanks.With OMB support, DOGE can effectively carry out work
6. Musk claimed to cut more than 400 federal government agencies to less than 100, reducing the federal government’s budget by $2 trillion.Some people think that Musk has enough authority to cut departments and employees as drastic as corporate layoffs.Not so: All these federal government agencies (and their budgets) were created in the form of legislation in Congress to meet specific functions; the basic budgets of these agencies are also determined by Congress.Everything has a legal basis, and you cannot “cut it just by saying it”, and you must eventually pass the Congressional process.
7. Therefore, the “correct opening method” (and DOGE’s working logic) should be:
1) Research the underlying law on which all institutions are based: Why did these institutions be established in the past (Parliament)? What are their background, original intention, purpose and goals?
2) Study which federal government functions overlap, that is, multiple institutions “repeat” the same thing.In this case, the functions should be clarified, optimized and streamlined
3) Study which federal government agencies (and their underlying legislation) are no longer “keep up with the times” and are no longer needed at the moment and can be reduced.Musk said that if the government system always only does addition and not subtraction, then the government and legislative system will only become larger and larger, and there will be more and more laws until the end can’t be done.So cuts have to be done regularly, just like weeding the backyard
4) From the perspective of “de-regulation”, “less supervision” and “small government”, we will study which federal government agencies can be further streamlined.Please note that this includes value judgments: for example, some government functions may be considered necessary for the Democrats/Lefts, but MAGA/Republicans believe that it is not necessary for it to exist, so they recommend a reduction.This is the same as a company. Do DEI (diversity) and CSR (corporate social responsibility) parts have to exist?Some people think that it is necessary to exist, while others think that it is not necessary to exist.Musk/MAGA values tend to abolish these parts
5) Finally, it is at the process level, that is, assuming that an institution has functional importance and can and should exist, then further study: how to reduce budgets by streamlining the compilation and optimizing the process (including introducing technological empowerment).
6) Then, DOGE will submit a comprehensive recommendation report to the White House (and Congress).After Congress agrees, it will complete substantive departmental severance and budget reduction through Congress legislative actions.
8. Musk claims to cut 300 federal government departments and reduce the budget by $2 trillion.The reality is that $2 trillion corresponds to nothing more than salary and procurement; 300 government departments involve countless civil servant positions, which is their job.After large-scale layoffs, these people may lose their jobs and may not be able to find jobs of the same income.After many departments are laid off, there will be no procurement, and this part of the demand will no longer exist.There is still procurement demand left, and Musk’s direction is to further streamline expenses.For example, he believes that the federal government has too few bids, and more than 80% of them are targeted procurement, and there may be a lot of corruption and tricks.If competition mechanisms are introduced, budgets can be reduced.But in any case, the US GDP is only more than 20 trillion US dollars, and US$2 trillion is already part of the US economy and society. Large-scale layoffs are equivalent to carrying out super-large industrial restructuring (for example, China’s real estate/construction industry accounts for GDPThe direct proportion of the content is 13~14%).So the situation will only be more complicated than Musk imagined
9. Consideration at time point: Trump said that DOGE’s work will be completed on July 4, 2026, “to give a big gift package to the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.”The key time point to be considered here is: the new Congress (119th session) will start on January 3, 2025 and end on January 3, 2027.November 2026 is the midterm election.The results of the midterm elections are uncertain, and the Republican Party cannot guarantee 100% control.To put it backwards, DOGE’s work must be completed by mid-2026, and it will make suggestions to Congress that the Republican Party should step up its efforts while it can still control the two houses, and it will be finalized.President Reagan also promoted a similar administration streamlining plan back then, and the commission he appointed made 2,500 recommendations to the White House and Congress, but it was rarely adopted.This time, Trump Musk must not want to repeat the mistakes he made back then, but must make the final decision.
