Democrats and good government organizations have announced that President-elect Donald Trump’s external advisory committee, chaired by billionaire Elon Musk and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, will They say they are skeptical about how much influence they will have on government spending and the state of federal employees.
Since President Trump announced plans for DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency (a play on the cryptocurrency that Musk promoted), Musk and Ramaswamy have been cutting back on government regulation and spending while cutting federal employees. He has talked about big plans to cut back.
Despite its name, it is not actually a “department” like the Department of Education or the Department of Homeland Security. Creation of a government agency requires parliamentary approval. That effort will not even take place within the government.
Trump said in a statement Tuesday that DOGE will “provide advice and guidance from outside the government and work with the White House and the Office of Management and Budget to advance major structural reforms,” adding that Musk and Ramaswamy’s work will added that it will be completed. No later than July 4, 2026. ”
“It’s going to happen a lot faster,” Musk said Wednesday on his X platform.
But the commission’s location outside formal government structures has raised many questions about how likely it is to achieve its goals.
Max Stier, president and CEO of the Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit organization dedicated to making government more effective, says real power rests with Trump’s chosen Cabinet. He said that the responsibility lies with the Chief Cabinet Secretary and the heads of government agencies.
“Looking from the outside, can Mr. Musk and Mr. Ramaswamy do much? It’s very difficult to see how that will turn out,” Stier said in an interview. “If you look at the major components of our government, there are 450 departments, and they are run by the leaders who are currently being named. You can say, ‘Do something,’ but to get it done, you need people who really know how to make things happen and execute them effectively.”
Steyer said he has yet to see the Trump transition team submit a plan to truly improve the functioning of the government.
Trump Appointments and Candidates
Here are some of the people President-elect Donald Trump has appointed to key positions within his administration. Orange positions require Senate confirmation.
So-called DOGE “is another example where it doesn’t seem like it’s a serious effort yet,” Steer said. “I understand why the goal of making our government more effective is a good goal, but there are a variety of reasons why this is not the way to achieve it.”
Musk and Ramaswamy have already announced some ideas for reforming the government. Mr. Musk has promised to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget, but has offered few specifics about what he will cut. The federal budget’s total discretionary spending is about $1.7 trillion, and President Trump has promised not to cut Social Security and Medicare, the government’s two biggest spenders. At a City Council meeting on X in late October, Musk suggested that his idealized spending cuts could cause economic pain for the public.
“Living within your means requires cutting back on expenses,” he said. “And, as you know, while that will inevitably involve temporary hardship, it will ensure long-term prosperity.”
Maya McGuineas, chairwoman of the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, emphasized federal spending on Social Security and Medicare and said the new commission would “not only eliminate fraud and reduce bureaucracy; “We also need to identify where taxpayers are not getting the maximum benefit.” Worth their dollar. ”
“Importantly, the process needs to be as bipartisan as possible to support the viability and implementation of ideas,” she said in a statement, adding, “To solve our problems, “This will require a collaborative approach,” he added. This initiative can make a significant contribution to your financial situation. ”
One of the areas Musk targeted after the committee’s announcement was spending on medical research. Meanwhile, Ramaswamy said on the X show on Wednesday that the government should not allocate funds to expired programs.
“There are over 1,200 programs that are not authorized but still receive funding,” he wrote. “This is just crazy. We can and should save hundreds of billions of dollars each year by defunding government programs that Congress no longer authorizes. Agree to defend the other side. We will challenge politicians who don’t.”
Ramswamy’s post prompted some users to note that veterans’ health care costs are among the largest expenses among the programs that have expired.
“At this point, it’s unclear what the exact role and mandate of this advisory committee will be,” said Joe Spielberger, policy advisor for the Project on Government Oversight, a nonpartisan government watchdog organization. “But first of all, appointing just two fist-heads to be in charge of making government more efficient seems like a pretty counterintuitive starting point.”
Ramaswamy, the founder of the biotechnology company Roivant Sciences, focused on cutting through the federal bureaucracy when he was a Republican presidential primary candidate. In an interview with NBC News as a candidate, he outlined his desire to use so-called “troop reduction” regulations to reduce the federal workforce while closing many federal agencies.
He proposes implementing widespread layoffs and eliminating employment altogether, rather than firing career employees individually, who are subject to civil service protections, thus overcoming any legal problems. I predicted it would be.
Ramaswamy also tried to eliminate the FBI. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Ministry of Education. Nuclear Regulation Authority. and the Food and Nutrition Service within the Department of Agriculture.
Ramaswamy recently spoke with conservative media personality Tucker Carlson on the , estimated that “25%” of civil servants would be affected. Exit immediately after that.
Democrats acknowledged they have little ability to prevent the Trump administration from enacting the reforms proposed by Musk and Ramaswamy.
“This is the truth. It is the only governing power that can stop or mitigate it.” [is] They will be some of the bravest Republicans in the House and Senate,” said Sen. John Fetterman, Democrat of Pennsylvania. “It’s not us because we don’t have the right to vote. We don’t have the votes. We’re in the minority. After all, how much insanity, absurdity do Republicans in the House and Senate want to do?” It depends on whether you want to do it or not.”
Civil servants and their allies are pushing for a single term to re-enact the cornerstone of President Trump’s policy promise: the Schedule F executive order that allows the Trump administration to reclassify tens of thousands of federal employees by role. I was already concerned about temporary enforcement at the end of the eye. Shaping policies into liberal political positions makes it much easier to remove or replace them.
“In many ways, this sounds like the latest iteration of the war on federal civil servants, targeting federal employees as ideological adversaries or enemies of the people based on their ability to do the job they were hired to do. Because it is based on the interests of the people, not on the interests of the people.” [like] “Elon and Vivek are ideologically opposed to those agencies or departments or the specific roles they play,” Spielberger said. “This should not be seen as an attempt to further hold the government to account, but simply as a genuine attempt to eviscerate government agencies and departments and purge federal employees from wherever they see fit. ”
Mr. Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, is the world’s richest man and has launched a super PAC that has spent more than $200 million to boost Mr. Trump’s election chances this year. Raised. He has remained by Trump’s side throughout the transition process, and one person familiar with Trump told NBC News that Trump “acts as if he’s a co-president and everyone knows that.” “I’m trying to do that,” he said.
When Musk took over the social media company Twitter (renamed Twitter Inc. X), he laid off a large portion of the workforce.
SpaceX also has a $3.6 billion government contract, but supporters say his ability to recommend spending and regulatory cuts to the government is a clear conflict of interest.
“Putting Elon Musk, the ultimate corporate mogul, in charge of government efficiency is ludicrous,” Lisa Gilbert, co-chair of the progressive consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, said in a statement. said. “Not only does Mr. Musk know nothing about government efficiency or regulation, but his own companies regularly violate the very rules he is in a position to attack in his new ‘czar’ capacity.” There is. This is the ultimate corporate corruption. ”
Democratic reaction to the committee has been mixed. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said on X that the committee is “off to a great start with split leadership and two people doing one person’s job.” Well, I think this is really efficient. But Congressman Dean Phillips (D-Minnesota), who briefly ran for president this term, responded to X’s news this way: 🙋🏼♂️”
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) said: They may want to consider exactly what should be prioritized now, rather than just cutting $2 trillion. And I hope they will be a little more careful and thoughtful than slash-and-burn. ”
Sen. Cory Booker (D.N.J.) said he was ready to give the Musk and Ramaswamy-led committee a chance, and President Bill Clinton has similarly sought to highlight and eradicate government inefficiencies. He said there was.
“I’ve been saying this for a long time: Let’s start with the defense establishment,” Booker said. “Our country still has unresolved procurement issues that could save our country billions of dollars. The legacy systems we are investing in are not what we need in the 21st century. Again, I’m not going to reflexively condemn Donald Trump’s actions. I’m going to evaluate them.”
But he added that Democrats won’t go along with DOGE if it is a way to “undermine our democratic traditions, the institutions of government that hold corporations accountable.”
Thomas Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste, was positive about DOGE’s efforts, predicting that it could significantly streamline government operations. With Trump’s party controlling both chambers of Congress, Congress is in a position to pass any recommendations the commission makes, he said.
“Especially in this second term, President Trump has a better understanding of what to do and how to do it,” Schatz said. “He didn’t do this in his first term, and he knows how difficult it is to do these things.”
The closest analogy to President Trump’s vision may be the Grace Commission, which President Ronald Reagan created in 1982 to eradicate these inefficiencies. The commission was named after private businessman J. Peter Grace.
Of the $424 billion in savings over three years recommended by the Grace Commission, President Reagan saved $100 billion through executive action, said Schatz, a group spun out of the Grace Commission.
A young White House lawyer wrote in a 1985 internal memo that creating an advisory committee of private sector executives to implement the Grace Commission’s recommendations would be a “disaster.”
In a warning that could be prophetic given Mr. Musk’s business dealings with the federal government, the lawyer wrote that “corporate CEOs have scrutinized the inner workings of government agencies responsible for regulating their businesses. This gave rise to a serious conflict of interest issue.”
Was it the lawyer who wrote that memo? John Roberts is currently the Chief Justice of the United States.
This article first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News:
