My Application for the DOGE

“The more simple any thing is, the less liable it is to be disordered, and the easier repaired when disordered.” – Thomas Paine

Dec 10, 2024

I submitted this, with my resume to the DOGE via X today…

I’m sick of waste! I’m sick of irresponsibility! I’m sick of permissive fraud, self dealing and corruption! I’m sick of unnamed bureaucrats spending my money on stupid senseless projects or policies that never ever ever yield anything resembling meaningful (or even meaningless) achievement. Why do we let a federal Education Department exist when they never even interact with children? Do you know what the Housing and Urban Development does? They’re slumlords! How about the Amtrak Reform Council? Clearly it’s not to reform their on-time arrival. Why do these departments, agencies, councils, and commissions even exist? It’s not for the average taxpayer. It’s for them!

If you ask taxpayers what government services they need, they might come up with police (local), roads (local, state and federal), military (federal), Justice (federal, state), and a handful of other agencies for water, land, and energy use, passports, social security, Medicare, and maybe immigration processing and control. There’s probably a few others in there but nobody even needs over 90% of the roughly 700 federal departments, agencies, commissions, and councils. I defy you to cite achievements within the last twenty years for the Department of Commerce, the Antitrust Modernization Commission, or any of them. For the most part, our government is as useless as a screen door on a submarine.

Everywhere there is incompetence. We talk about developing Artificial Intelligence but just look at the vast majority of U.S. government workers and I’ll show you the greatest concentration of artificial intelligence anywhere on earth! The biggest lie in America is “Hi, I’m from (IRS, CDC, BLS, FEMA or any other three or four letter government agency) and I’m here to help.” Every government agency’s prime motto is “Pace Yourself. Slow down.”

Each agency touts diversity but maybe they should try to diversify with some smart, friendly people?

The Department of Government Efficiency (“DOGE”) is an entity whose time is way overdue. I’m completely against new wasteful agencies but this one expires in mid 2026 so it is hopefully not permanent. I want to help and am willing to work tons of hours for Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy in their pursuit of returning sanity and achievement and reason to America.

About 250 years ago, a guy by the name of Thomas Paine wrote a pamphlet about a would-be country that was being oppressed by an indifferent King and an indifferent Parliament. The colonists to which Paine represented were not just tired of being taxed to fund wars that they did not start but rather, that Parliament and especially the House of Commons were not being checks on the actions of the Monarch. Parliament was actually in league with the King in their intentional disregard of the once loyal Colonists who had slaved to expand the King’s domain.

For decades, the President and Congress and 4 million unelected federal bureaucrats have acted in concert to perpetuate their unaccomplished existence, inventing imaginary needs for new agencies, funding them with millions of dollars of other people’s money, never defining success, always complaining that elusive goals require more funding, and then repeating the process annually until the agency is so large that “it would be insensitive to layoff its accumulated 3,000 employees” even though its original mission has vanished under waves of repetition. Nearly all of these 700 agencies and commissions exist in open disdain for the American taxpayers who fund them!

It is time, once again, to return to the ideals of Thomas Paine, where “Government is best which governs least.” Right now, our federal government, and for that matter, the majority of state governments, have their own wing in the Accounting Asylum for Batshit Crazy. Throw a dart and you’ll find indiscriminate spending of other people’s money, fraud from incomparable ignorance (and poorly designed legislation), and administrative employees who no longer work on unused furniture in empty buildings. Worst of all, these career bureaucrats, with average wages and benefits of over $150,000 (2024), think this is normal!

I applaud all the cost saving suggestions such as wage freezes, massive reductions in force, moving agency headquarters, and defunding of agencies made by Messrs. Musk and Ramaswamy and Senator Blackburn. A wage freeze saves $9 billion each year. Laying off 500,000 employees saves $75 billion. Depending on the size of layoffs and ancillary effects, even a massive layoff of 1 million employees might only save $200 billion. With a $2 Trillion deficit, more must be done but because mandatory items like Social Security and Medicare can’t be touched, taking a machete to all discretionary spending may be necessary to cut $2 trillion.

If you cut $2 Trillion from existing budgets and stop budget growth for about 10 years, you might just be able to stop the growth of debilitating debt that portends higher interest rates for America. Maybe?

Here’s a starter list:

Eliminate Baseline Budgeting. Budgets for each department and agency should not automatically increase each year. ($120 - $150 billion in savings per year)
Congress should repeal all the Biden spending laws, and Trump’s COVID laws in the interest of reclaiming unspent funds for the next seven years ($200 billion per year)
Sell the Post office and remove it as a Constitutional requirement.
Eliminate all Grants to universities and NGO’s throughout all agencies. ($220 billion per year)[1]
Close the Depts. of Education and Commerce (combined $200 billion per year) and leave their duties up to the states.
Stop all subsidies (i.e. Intel, Micron) to big business. Consider lending money (i.e. Chrysler) instead.
Reduce the number of agencies and commissions to about 10% of the current 700. Provide severance pay if you have to.

The United States is on the edge of financial chaos. The DOGE must channel its inner Jackson, Coolidge, and Truman and be forceful in its pursuit of diligent cost cutting. DOGE must approach this like a war, with hardship and sacrifice necessary from all Americans. People WILL be adversely affected. NOW is the time to act; according to PEW Research, Americans’ trust in government is near all time lows and 56% feel that government spending is almost always wasteful. Public sentiment WILL turn as soon as you begin eliminating waste and cutting spending.

The DOGE should keep all actions straightforward, simple, and transparent. Communications to the public, similar to the successful US Savings Bonds campaign during World War II, will be crucial to the success of DOGE. Just as Ronald Reagan rapidly implemented higher interest rates to reduce inflation in 1981, the DOGE and Congress have 12 – 15 months to implement its agenda so implementation speed and “doge-d” determination is critical.

Pew Research Poll June 2024

In many ways, America is facing the need for revolution similar to 1776. Just as the Colonies could not tolerate unrepresentative rule back then, the United States cannot survive unlimited unsustainable spending. America needs a sequel to Thomas Paine’s Common Sense.

I’m passionate about preserving the Republic. I’ll write articles. I’ll call Congressmen. I’ll get creative. I’ll go door to door. I’ll do whatever it takes to reduce needless spending and implement common sense. Put me in coach!

“Those who expect to reap the blessing of freedom must undertake to support it.” – Thomas Paine

[1] Some of this would be included in shutdown of Depts of Education and Commerce