Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are partnering to create a new U.S. government agency, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Musk underwrote the Trump campaign with $200 million in donations and his own brand of buying votes.
Supposedly, the acronym comes from Musk’s favorite cryptocurrency, the Doge. Whatever.
So yes, Musk paid for his new appointment, which represents a colossal conflict of interest, as that agency reportedly, avowedly, will shut down many regulations that currently govern aspects of Musk’s enormous U.S. government contracts. Can there be a shred of doubt that corruption won’t feature in nullifying EPA regulations on SpaceX, Tesla and other Musk holdings?
Musk and Ramaswamy tell Forbes they will cut some $2 trillion in U.S. federal spending. What do they intend to defund?
They will get rid of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Goodbye, Department of Education. DOGE will get really vicious with organizations like Planned Parenthood, which averages approximately $50 million a year in federal funding. Reproductive health for women is almost certainly taking that hit.
Musk will make headlines when he and Ramaswamy end the $535 million federal support for public radio and TV. They actually called that “unauthorized spending,” even though Congress authorized it.
Musk says his DOGE will inflict hardship. Many Americans will lose their jobs, both inside the government and outside—the government contracts with many companies, and when DOGE decides those contracts are not going to be honored, the losses will be severe in some quarters. Add to that the rising consumer prices that are widely predicted from Trump’s tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China (and possibly everyone else), and the American lifestyle may be in for the biggest shock since 1929.
It is astonishing that, in a roaring Biden-Harris economy that is benefiting literally every class of Americans, Trump garnered more votes than Harris and will throw wrenches into many of the gears of that economy, if Musk succeeds.
Dr. Tom H. Hastings is coordinator of conflict resolution BA/BS degree programs and certificates at Portland State University.
