by Gregory McCants, American Thinker:
With Donald Trump’s election win now a few days behind us and the GOP all but confirmed to have swept both houses of congress as well it would appear that at least for two years we should have a truly unique and remarkable opportunity to make meaningful change in a variety of areas. Of highest priorities would be the economy and border security, both of which were clearly the major issues the American people looked to when deciding their next government.
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Within that discussion of economic improvements, Trump has now tapped Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to head an informal operation to be known as the Department Of Governmental Efficiency (with the excellent acronym of D.O.G.E.):
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 13, 2024
Government bureaucracy, spending, and outright bloat have become an absolute travesty over the last five years (and really the last 30, but I digress) when the government went from a $4.4 trillion dollar operation in 2019 to an astounding $6.8 trillion dollar operation now. Reason published an excellent article discussing how to cut $2 trillion from the budget with minimal impact simply by tightening loopholes, implementing efficiency suggestions from the Government Accountability Office, and a few other regulatory and procedural changes. An excellent start, but more can be done.
The next step would be ending federal agencies that have shown themselves to be either redundant or that have disrupted the states in their role as the true custodians handling day-to-day matters for American citizens. These would be the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Department of Education (DOE), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
FEMA probably just wrote its own obituary with the revelation that a FEMA official in Florida told workers to “avoid houses with Trump signs” in the wake of Hurricane Milton, leading to loud calls for defunding the agency. The truth is that emergency disaster relief should not be handled by yet another agency with large layers of bureaucracy.
Instead, states should be able to request emergency disaster relief funds directly from Congress, with the appropriations then used to purchase necessary resources and materials, ideally from private vendors who can compete for the contracts. This would lead to increased efficiency and better prices for the taxpayer. This would also allow the government to engage in strict accounting to ensure federal funds go where they are supposed to go.
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