First, there were several such departments to address waste, fraud and abuse in US history, starting with Andrew Jackson. The last one was during the FDR administration. When I first heard that DOGE would have 2 co-chairs, I thought that was a mistake because the Bible says you cannot have 2 masters. In hearing Vivek and Elon talk, here is what I've come to understand.
ELIMINATING ENTIRE DEPARTMENTS
This is Vivek's area of responsibility. This is the big picture. Vivek explained there are departments that were created by executive order and they can be eliminated by executive order.
Two such departments created during the Carter Administration are the Department of Energy and the Department of Education. Energy was created to guide the US toward energy independence. Mission Accomplished. Education was established to benefit from economies of scale when the US was ranked #1 in the world. That we now spend 4x but rank at the bottom of the industrialized world, shows this department has proven itself to be counter-productive.
Other departments will take more analysis to grapple with, such as Housing and Human Services (HHS). It currently has 13 divisions: 10 public health services and 3 human services. Perhaps this can be reduced to only 2 divisions. Most of the federal government is like HHS, bloated beyond all recognition. Vivek's progress may be slowed by having to work with Congress on eliminating some departments.
ELIMINATING ABUSE WITHIN DEPARTMENTS
This is Elon's area of responsibility. This is the details of firing bureaucrats with cause. The analysis will take a lot longer as getting into the weeds always does. Elon is great at this and did it at Twitter very quickly. He fired 80% of Twitter employees in the first 6 months. Let's go over an example.
Suppose a department wants to study models of efficiency at city levels. One guy merely drives to a city that is on the way to the office. The other guy has to go to the other side of the world. One would expect the guy who has to go on the other side of the world to spend more than the guy who merely goes to a nearby town. But how much more? The devil is in the details.
Here is where "normalizing" data comes in to play. It is a fairly complicated process but once achieved, the outliers are obvious. Elon's progress may be slowed by litigation. President Chester A. Arthur signed the Pendleton Civil Service Act into law on January 16, 1883. The legislation was intended to guarantee the rights of all citizens to compete for federal jobs without preferential treatment given based on politics, etc. This protects the Deep State from being fired except with cause. The Deep State will fight this existential threat. (I suspect numerous attempts on Elon's life).
I also suspect Elon will be quiet while Vivek does his thing. Then fire all the remaining corrupt bureaucrats at once with the data to show cause and prevail in litigation. The corrupt Deep State cannot be allowed to survive this administration, thereby returning power to the people. Thoughts?
ELIMINATING ENTIRE DEPARTMENTS
This is Vivek's area of responsibility. This is the big picture. Vivek explained there are departments that were created by executive order and they can be eliminated by executive order.
Two such departments created during the Carter Administration are the Department of Energy and the Department of Education. Energy was created to guide the US toward energy independence. Mission Accomplished. Education was established to benefit from economies of scale when the US was ranked #1 in the world. That we now spend 4x but rank at the bottom of the industrialized world, shows this department has proven itself to be counter-productive.
Other departments will take more analysis to grapple with, such as Housing and Human Services (HHS). It currently has 13 divisions: 10 public health services and 3 human services. Perhaps this can be reduced to only 2 divisions. Most of the federal government is like HHS, bloated beyond all recognition. Vivek's progress may be slowed by having to work with Congress on eliminating some departments.
ELIMINATING ABUSE WITHIN DEPARTMENTS
This is Elon's area of responsibility. This is the details of firing bureaucrats with cause. The analysis will take a lot longer as getting into the weeds always does. Elon is great at this and did it at Twitter very quickly. He fired 80% of Twitter employees in the first 6 months. Let's go over an example.
Suppose a department wants to study models of efficiency at city levels. One guy merely drives to a city that is on the way to the office. The other guy has to go to the other side of the world. One would expect the guy who has to go on the other side of the world to spend more than the guy who merely goes to a nearby town. But how much more? The devil is in the details.
Here is where "normalizing" data comes in to play. It is a fairly complicated process but once achieved, the outliers are obvious. Elon's progress may be slowed by litigation. President Chester A. Arthur signed the Pendleton Civil Service Act into law on January 16, 1883. The legislation was intended to guarantee the rights of all citizens to compete for federal jobs without preferential treatment given based on politics, etc. This protects the Deep State from being fired except with cause. The Deep State will fight this existential threat. (I suspect numerous attempts on Elon's life).
I also suspect Elon will be quiet while Vivek does his thing. Then fire all the remaining corrupt bureaucrats at once with the data to show cause and prevail in litigation. The corrupt Deep State cannot be allowed to survive this administration, thereby returning power to the people. Thoughts?
