J.D. Tuccille: A disappointing DOGE is better than no DOGE at all

National Post

03-06-2025

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Also, DOGE is an advisory agency with no enforcement power of its own. Even a president inclined to slash the size and power of the federal government can't do so unilaterally. That requires congressional approval. And legislators aren't inclined to tell their constituents that it's time for tough fiscal medicine; a bill set to be introduced this week will contemplate all of $9.4 billion in DOGE-recommended cuts.
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Whether this constitutes a disappointment or a bitter failure lies in your opinion of the government's openness to reform. At Reason magazine, where I'm a contributing editor, Christian Britschgi called DOGE a 'smashing success' for cutting anything at all from an institution that embodies Leviathan. He argued that 'making the federal government a less secure place to work and a less reliable funding partner means fewer people will want to work for it, and fewer organizations will rely on it for funding.'
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By contrast, his colleague Eric Boehm labeled DOGE a failure for refusing to address the entitlement spending that's rapidly consuming the entire budget. It also tried to cut costs before asking Congress to reduce the power and role of federal agencies that spend so much money. Still, like Britschgi, Boehm allowed that DOGE's results were probably better than we'd get in its absence.
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At City Journal, Christopher F. Rufo concluded that DOGE's big error was taking a technocratic approach to reforming the government when it should have focused on forcing true believers in an intrusive state out of federal employment. He believes 'the fight for fiscal restraint is not over, but the illusion that it can be won through efficiency and memes has been dispelled.'
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Among those disappointed by DOGE is President Trump himself. According to The Wall Street Journal, he asked his advisors 'was it all bullshit?' of the cost-cutting project's promises to cut trillions in spending.
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But Elon Musk also sees fault in a federal government run by people who like to talk about reform but have no interest in the tradeoffs it requires. Before leaving the Trump administration, he criticized the House-passed version of President Trump's ' big, beautiful bill ' full of domestic policy priorities. Musk said he was 'disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit.'
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After all, there's little point in DOGE proposing spending cuts if Congress is going to more than offset them with expensive new boondoggles intended to buy votes in the next election.
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The ultimate failure of DOGE is probably baked into the U.S. federal government itself. By most reports, it has been (and continues to be) a sincere if not always competent effort to reduce the size and cost of federal agencies, supported in principle by the White House and some lawmakers. But the federal government thrives on purchasing goodwill from the public with unaffordable programs. And its employees gain status and fulfillment by expanding their reach into every nook and cranny of life.
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Without major course correction — not as yet provided by DOGE — the government will continue to grow.
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According to the Congressional Budget Office's latest alternative scenario projections, if federal spending and revenues continue on the path they've followed for 30 years 'federal debt held by the public in 2055 would exceed 250 per cent of GDP.' That's well over the maximum 200 per cent of GDP that economists at the Penn-Wharton Budget Model believe the federal government can sustain before 'defaulting on its debt,' with all of the ensuing mayhem that you'd expect to result.
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