Government Efficiency (1 Viewer)

[RobF]

I think this topic deserves its own thread, both to discuss generally the topic of government efficiency, and specifically the so-called 'Department of Government Efficiency' and the incoming Trump administration's aims to "dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures and restructure Federal Agencies".

The announcements have been covered in the The Trump Cabinet and key post thread, but to recap, Trump has announced that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will work together on a not-actually-an-official-government-Department of Government Efficiency, which is intended to work with the White House and Office of Management & Budget to "drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before," with the 'Department' to conclude its work "no later than July 4, 2026."

Musk has previously said that the federal budget could be reduced by "at least $2 trillion", and Ramaswarmy, during his presidential campaign, said he would fire more than 75% of the federal work force and disband agencies including the Department of Education and the FBI.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Elon Musk roasted after missing ‘painfully obvious’ message from 1990s sci-fi classic

‘Please never stop right-wingers missing that ‘Starship Troopers’ was satire,’ one person wrote

www.independent.co.uk

 

[superchuck500]

So today in an op/ed in WSJ penned by Musk and Vivek, they laid out their outline for what the "Department of Government Efficiency" (which isn't an actual department or even anything formally within the federal government - it's just an advisory to the president) plans to accomplish.

This includes:
- Identifying the minimum number of employees each agency needs to accomplish its required functions (so they can get rid of the rest): a task that will examine each thing every agency does to identify where agencies are carrying on tasks and programs that are no longer authorized or funded, and (using computer analysis) which will then allow them to known who is needed and who isn't;
- Reduce the federal workforce by precipitating voluntary resignations from employees through (1) demanding they be in a federal office five days a week, ending Covid-era telework arrangements, and (2) moving offices away from Washington, DC and accepting resignations of those that don't want to move.

It's so clueless it would be cute if it weren't also likely to be arbitrary and stupid. First, the process of identifying the minimum number of employees each agency needs to accomplish its required functions by examining everything an agency does to match up with required authorization is a massive undertaking. It's honestly not a bad idea in theory, but this isn't work that a computer can do - federal authorization is a morass of programmatic statutes, regulations, and appropriations laws, that can be difficult for lawyers to decipher much less a dang algorithm. And then, after they identify those programs and impacted employees, they will then go to Trump and OMB to begin the work of cutting them out through regulatory change and executive orders. They could go agency by agency to make it more digestible, but it's very likely that the process is going to be massive, heavily resource intensive, and come to arbitrary, flawed conclusions that result in litigation.

The other element of the plan seems equally ignorant as to what they're actually proposing to do. First, the assumption that teleworking employees aren't working is stupid. But more importantly, ending teleworking policies and requiring federal workers to commute to work (that alone is quite a recommendation from an alleged 'efficiency' task force) as a tool to push federal employees out fails to account for the fact that the work they were doing still has to get done. A company choosing to downsize its workforce can make tradeoff analysis about reduced output and the relative results on the balance sheet: you can get leaner and maybe output is less but the cost savings are even greater, so your bottom line is better. It doesn't work that way with government - if you start having less output, the stakeholders in those programs are going to feel that impact. And unlike in a business environment where you can increase pay and bonuses to those you remain to get them to increase their output to make up the slack, that's not really available in the federal workforce.

"Moving federal agencies away from Washington" is an even sillier way to make the government more efficient - relocating a federal agency has got to be massively expensive, is that really going to be a serious proposal?

But what's even more curious is the macro impact. There's about 2.3 million federal employees - and a majority of them are skilled workers from various kinds of engineers and scientists, to office administrators, and professional ranks like lawyers, accountants, and the like. We are currently at 4.1 percent unemployment, which is effectively full employment - it's foolish to presume (like the op/ed actually does) that hundreds of thousands of these workers are going to be easily absorbed into the private workforce.

And what's really the point of all of this? The federal agency budget is found in the discretionary spending section - it's about 26 percent of the budget. Sure, there's some fat in there but this approach is very likely to overdo it, if they're even able to do anything at all . . . but what's the real point? I think it's all about trying reducing the deficit impact of Trump tax cuts, particularly for large corporations and high-wealth individuals.

I dunno, I think they're biting off way more than they realize - coming in with their goofy smiles and plans for advanced technologies is great for op/eds in November. But this is a very big dog they're planning on wrestling. It bears noting here that neither Musk nor Vivek have ever worked a day in the federal government.

https://www.wsj.com/opinion/musk-and-ramaswamy-the-doge-plan-to-reform-government-supreme-court-guidance-end-executive-power-grab-fa51c020?st=9M7A13&reflink=article_imessage_share

Musk, Ramaswamy publish plan to slash workforce

The leaders of President-elect Donald Trump’s rule-cutting team outlined their plans Wednesday in an op-ed.

www.eenews.net