In December, I offered first thoughts on this past election. As dark as these times seem, they promise enormous potential for those like me fighting to end the corrupting influence of money in American politics. This essay continues that thought, in light of a small slice of the chaos that has happened since then.
The core of what I said then is that we must embrace the truth that drives the populism that erupted so loudly last November. As I wrote:
That populism is not partisan. It is relational. It is not about Left versus Right. It is about inside versus outside. Populism is the rejection of a status quo. It is the rejection of insiders. Populism is the people’s scream at a system they don’t think hears them.
It is therefore no surprise that the most visible part of what the new administration has done acts against that system. The vehicle for that action is an agency called “DOGE” — the Department of Government Efficiency (not to be confused with (even if it is associated with) DOGE the cryptocurrency).
Many on the Left attack DOGE. This is a mistake. We should embrace its ideal, but then show that nothing this administration is doing lives up to its ideal. DOGE is the commitment to an efficient, corruption free government. Yet DOGE is also the clearest evidence we have so far that the objectives of this administration have little to do with helping ordinary Americans, and everything to do with helping those who funded Trump’s campaign.
(1) Embrace DOGE
The ideal that motivates DOGE is right and good. Yes, of course we need to radically improve “government efficiency” — especially for us on the Left. The public is overwhelmed with frustration at the failures of government, and its inefficiencies. And as the core of the Left’s platform relies on government to make the lives of ordinary Americans better, the only way that platform would ever have appeal is if you believe that government can work. Only if you believe that government is not inherently corrupt or unavoidably broken will you believe that there’s a reason to support a party that defends it.
(2) Demand government EFFICIENCY
Yet, DOGE must be held to the standards of its name — “efficiency.” “Efficiency” means doing more with what you have, or even better, doing more with less. The first great carmaker of the 20th century (and first to become an open fascist), Henry Ford, radically improved the efficiency of his production line in 1913, reducing the time it took to make one Model T from 12 hours to 93 minutes. That is “efficiency” — doing the same (making a car) with much less (time). To embrace DOGE is to embrace the idea that our government should be doing more, ideally with less.
Nothing in what we’re actually seeing play out in DC has anything to do with “efficiency.” It has everything to do with cost. The objective is not to make government work better, ideally for less. The objective is to spend less on government, whatever its consequences. Yet spending less is not efficiency, or not necessarily so. Spending less, especially in a radically chaotic and unplanned way, is a great way to radically reduce the efficiency of government.
And indeed, that is precisely what we are seeing. As congressional town halls across the country evince, the cuts that DOGE has celebrated are already making government work worse. And this is only the beginning. Reality is real. That reality will only get worse. And what’s true in a china shop is true in government as well: if you break it, you own it.
(3) Explain the actual DOGE
So why are they doing it, the Trump-supporter will ask?
There’s an obvious policy-related reason, and there’s an obvious reason tied to kleptocracy.
The policy-related reason is this: Trump has promised an extraordinarily large tax cut. Will work through the specifics of that tax cut in a later post. For now, we just need to recognize that the administration is promising more than $500B in savings from better oversight and “efficiency.” Nothing in what DOGE has done will come anywhere close to that. But it will create the bullshit necessary to suggest that, in fact, a government spending wildly beyond its means can afford to reduce its revenue even more. Anyone who thinks that the actual harm that this chaotic and inefficient slashing is doing — including to critical research—is worth the benefit of more tax cuts for the rich isn’t paying attention.
The more troubling reason—but the reason that fuels the opportunity that this administration will create for an anti-corruption, pro-democracy movement—is kleptocracy.
But let me preface what follows with what’s obviously true: We don’t know enough yet to know exactly what actually motivated anything I’m going to describe. It is conceivable that each step had an innocent explanation, unrelated to the personal interests they happen to advance. That’s precisely why ethics and conflict of interest laws say that government officials of all sorts are to divest themselves from potentially conflicting interests. If you don’t, you have no right to complain when an analysis like the following is offered in critique.
DOGE, actually
The most striking fact about the first weeks of DOGE’s life is just how many of its actions benefit Musk personally. And not just DOGE, but the actions of the administration more generally. (This list will be updated as we learn more.)
There have been many stories that have filled out the details of this relationship, whether real or just apparent. Perhaps the best was the New York Times, which on February 11, published this image summarizing what their story unpacks:
On the left are agencies of the government affected by Trump and Musk’s actions. On the right are the things those agencies were doing that affected or threatened Musk.
- The NLRB had 24 investigations into Musk’s companies. The President has effectively disabled the NLRB by firing a board member, and two officials, making it impossible for the agency to act.
- The CFPB had hundreds of complaints about Teslas, and it would become the agency that would most directly oversee any effort by X to roll out a payment system on its platform. That agency has been effectively shuttered.
- Musk’s company, SpaceX, is among the largest recipient of federal government contracts. The FAA had proposed a fine for its failing to comply with safety protocols. Musk attacked the lead administrator, who resigned just before Trump took office. The replacement has all but promised to reverse these earlier decisions. (And just to make sure there are no hard feelings, the agency has announced a new $400M contract with Starlink.)
- Similar bending seems underway with the Fish & Wildlife commission, that had raised questions about damage to federal lands near the SpaceX launch site.
- One of the first agencies to fall was USAID. Without doubt, the biggest beneficiary from that collapse is China, a country Musk is incapable criticizing because of his deep ties to the government. But even more troubling is the fact that USAID had been investigating Musk’s Starlink Ukraine Starlink contract. That probe is now shuttered.
- The FEC polices the violation of campaign finance laws. Many complaints have been raised against Musk related to his more than $250M spent in this last campaign. The President (illegally) fired the chair of the FEC, effectively crippling it, and disabling it from acting.
- The SEC had a number of investigations against Musk, including one involving his purchase of Twitter. Resignations now leave an agency much less likely to pursue those actions against him. New appointments will seal the deal.
- Inspectors General: Though the ostensible purpose of everything DOGE is doing is to root out fraud and waste, one of the first things the administration did was to fire the people actually employed to root out fraud and waste — inspectors general. The President fired 17 inspectors general, contrary to the method specified in the law. Some of them were pursuing actions affecting Musk. For example, the IG for the Department of Agriculture was investigating complaints related to Neurolink’s experiments on monkeys. She’s now gone.
- FDA staff was also investigating Neurolink. They’re gone too.
- Office of Government Ethics: The one agency charged with enforcing ethics rules within the administration is the OGE. Trump fired the head of the agency, hobbling its ability to police whether Musk is complying with ethics rules. (He plainly is not.)
(Grok essentially agrees with me.)
The opportunity
So then here is the opportunity: Nothing they’re doing will save much money (their brags on their web page have been full of errors, in one case confusing an $8M contract with an $8B contract). But everything they’re doing will make government work worse. We’re going to see an endless list of absurd mistakes — firing the people overseeing our nuclear infrastructure (oops), and bird flu response (oops again!), and Ebola prevention (oops oops oops!)—but nothing that will make government actually work better.
Instead, the DOGE team have given those of us in the anti-corruption, pro-democracy movement an incredible gift: A clear example of what happens when you hand over government to those who fund your campaign. Surprise, surprise!
The funders win.
We lose.
Every single time.
