The More You Learn About Elon Musk’s DOGE, the Less Sense It Makes
The op-ed opens with a certain lack of self-awareness. “Our nation was founded on the basic idea that the people we elect run the government,” the two men wrote. They depicted an America where most policy decisions aren’t made by “the democratically elected president and his political appointees” but by “millions of unelected, unappointed civil servants within government agencies who view themselves as immune from firing thanks to civil-service protections.”
Taking on these nefarious civil servants are two unelected, unappointed men who aspire to wield unaccountable influence—DOGE, despite its name, is not a government agency—who also cannot be fired. “We are entrepreneurs, not politicians,” they wrote. “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.” The irony was apparently lost on them.
To accomplish this, they suggest that they would “identify and hire” a “lean team of small-government crusaders” to be housed within the White House Office of Management and Budget, who would presumably be doing much of the real work. As “outside volunteers,” Musk and Ramaswamy can’t actually cut anything or fire anyone. They would simply make recommendations for others—Trump, Congress, federal agency heads, anyone with actual power—to do it. At the same time, the two men act as if they will take a much more direct, personal role in all of this. Unlike those pesky civil servants, they would do so while carrying a wide range of obvious conflicts of interest and opportunities for corrupt self-enrichment.