{Due to circumstances beyond my control, I will be writing more frequently about one of my least favorite subjects—politics.}
Roger Kimball, writing at American Greatness, all but salivates at the prospect that the second Trump administration will hamstring the federal government by putting “many tens of thousands” (whom Kimball calls “timerservers” rather than “employees”) out of work:
As all the world knows, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have been tapped by President Trump to lead a new, blessedly temporary initiative called “The Department of Government Efficiency.” Their announced end date is July 4, 2026, by which time they hope to make some important inroads against the federal debt (currently an eye-watering and unsustainable $35 trillion dollars) 1, cut billions in governmental expenditures, and fire many tens of thousands of timeservers on the government, which means the taxpayer, payroll.
As a fiscal conservative, Kimball has long insisted that “government efficiency” is an oxymoron, but now he has somehow convinced himself that “DOGE” will work wonders under the aegis of Musk and Ramaswamy, whose overlords at the Heritage Foundation have informed them that “most legal edicts in America today are not laws enacted by Congress but “rules and regulations” promulgated by unelected bureaucrats—tens of thousands of them each year. Most government enforcement decisions and discretionary expenditures aren’t made by the democratically elected president or even his political appointees but by millions of unelected, unappointed civil servants within government agencies who view themselves as immune from firing thanks to civil-service protections.”
Is it rude to point out that Musk and Ramaswamy are themselves “unelected”? They may not have the sense of privilege that comes from statutory job protections, and they may not “view themselves as immune from firing,” but, given their enormous wealth, they are not likely to lose sleep over it. In any case, they and Roger Kimball agree that it’s time for a DOGE:
This self-engorging, self-perpetuating monster represents “an existential threat to our republic,” Musk and Ramaswamy argue. They are right. And it is refreshing to see that they come not with white papers and committee recommendations but with real, implementable, enforceable proposals for reform. “We are entrepreneurs, not politicians,” they explain. “We will serve as outside volunteers, not federal officials or employees. Unlike government commissions or advisory committees, we won’t just write reports or cut ribbons. We’ll cut costs.”
Meaning—what, exactly? Musk and Ramaswamy, rather than negotiating their proposals with mere mortals, will simply issue edicts, diktats, even? Will they personally review the “tens of thousands” of regulations on the books of the myriad federal agencies, scrutinize the budgets of such agencies, and separate (by July 4, 2026) the wheat from the chaff of our labyrinthine, “self-engorging, self-perpetuating” federal government?
How do you dismantle Leviathan? 2 According to Musk and Ramaswamy, you begin “by identifying and hiring a lean team of small-government crusaders, including some of the sharpest technical and legal minds in America. This team will work in the new administration closely with the White House Office of Management and Budget. The two of us will advise DOGE at every step to pursue three major kinds of reform: regulatory rescissions, administrative reductions, and cost savings. We will focus particularly on driving change through executive action based on existing legislation rather than by passing new laws.”
In other words, the unelected Musk and Ramaswamy will themselves choose unelected experts to oversee the demolition of America’s administrative state. "Regulatory recissions" will return power to unelected corporate moguls. If necessary, DOGE will destroy the federal government to save it. Again, Elon and Vivek won’t have to waste their valuable time bickering with Congress; “executive action” will bypass such procedural hurdles. “Won’t a future president be able to nullify what reforms DOGE actualizes by countermanding executive orders?” Roger Kimball inquires. “No,” he explains, “because Congress will once again be put in the driver’s seat, as the Founders intended. “The use of executive orders to substitute for lawmaking by adding burdensome new rules is a constitutional affront,” Musk and Ramaswamy note, “but the use of executive orders to roll back regulations that wrongly bypassed Congress is legitimate and necessary to comply with the Supreme Court’s recent mandates. And after those regulations are fully rescinded, a future president couldn’t simply flip the switch and revive them but would instead have to ask Congress to do so.”
What are the limits of “executive orders” and presidential powers? We will see!
Finally, Kimball gets to the good stuff, i.e., “mass firings” of federal civil service workers:
This dismantling of the regulatory octopus will enable the real goals of DOGE, beginning with “mass head-count reductions across the federal bureaucracy,” i.e., mass firings. “The number of federal employees to cut should be at least proportionate to the number of federal regulations that are nullified: Not only are fewer employees required to enforce fewer regulations, but the agency would produce fewer regulations once its scope of authority is properly limited.” 3
Heads will roll, which may lead skeptics to wonder, “Won’t that simply swell the ranks of the unemployed?” Not to worry; “Not if it is done right,” Kimball assures us. He quotes Musk’s and Ramaswamy’s solemn pledge: “Employees whose positions are eliminated deserve to be treated with respect, and DOGE’s goal is to help support their transition into the private sector.”
The unelected “timeservers” shamelessly feeding from “the public trough” will be “treated with respect”? Those denizens of the Washington swamp, the ones who “harassed, investigated, impeached, indicted, and attempted to imprison President Trump,” even as they “worked overtime to upset any serious reforms he attempted”? Yes, they will all receive gold watches, instructions on filing for unemployment, and a letter explaining that they are no longer eligible for any federal pension benefits they may have accrued. “Best of luck in your future endeavors,” the letter will conclude. “Sincerely, your friends, Elon and Vivek.”
Repealing FDR’s “New Deal” has long been a priority of American conservatives.4 Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan railed against the New Deal; Grover Norquist advocated for metaphorically drowning the federal government in a bathtub; George W. Bush proposed privatizing Social Security; and Steve Bannon feverishly dreams of demolishing the “administrative state”. Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy (along with Trump’s other chief minion, Russell Vought) seem determined to bring that vision to fruition.
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Inside Trump’s Second-Term Mission to Dismantle the Administrative State › American Greatness
1 The federal debt was being described as “unsustainable” back when Musk and Ramaswamy were knee-high to a grasshopper.
2 The correct answer is, “One bite at a time.”
3 Having fewer employees would also reduce an agency’s ability to enforce whatever regulations remain in effect, making noncompliance with pesky health and safety rules that much easier.
4 From the beginning, the New Deal was seen by conservatives as an assault on free enterprise and as a gateway to socialism. Almost a century later, they have still not come to terms with the fact that Americans don’t mind an active (if sometimes over-active) federal government, nor are conservatives yet willing to concede that a regulated economy is not the same thing as a gulag.
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