Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy: The DOGE Plan to Reform Government

[Matt Collins]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVBW4CMq91Q

 

[Occam's Banana]

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy: The DOGE Plan to Reform Government
Following the Supreme Court’s guidance, we’ll reverse a decadeslong executive power grab.
By Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy
Nov. 20, 2024

Our nation was founded on the basic idea that the people we elect run the government. That isn’t how America functions today. Most legal edicts aren’t 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.

This is antidemocratic and antithetical to the Founders’ vision. It imposes massive direct and indirect costs on taxpayers. Thankfully, we have a historic opportunity to solve the problem. On Nov. 5, voters decisively elected Donald Trump with a mandate for sweeping change, and they deserve to get it.

President Trump has asked the two of us to lead a newly formed Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, to cut the federal government down to size. The entrenched and ever-growing bureaucracy represents an existential threat to our republic, and politicians have abetted it for too long. That’s why we’re doing things differently. We are entrepreneurs, not politicians. 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.

We are assisting the Trump transition team to identify and hire 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. Our North Star for reform will be the U.S. Constitution, with a focus on two critical Supreme Court rulings issued during President Biden’s tenure.
...
More: https://www.wsj.com/opinion/musk-an...rt-guidance-end-executive-power-grab-fa51c020

FTA [archive: https://archive.ph/53txb ; bold emphasis added]:

We are assisting the Trump transition team to identify and hire 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. Our North Star for reform will be the U.S. Constitution, with a focus on two critical Supreme Court rulings issued during President Biden’s tenure.

In West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency (2022), the justices held that agencies can’t impose regulations dealing with major economic or policy questions unless Congress specifically authorizes them to do so. In Loper Bright v. Raimondo (2024), the court overturned the Chevron doctrine and held that federal courts should no longer defer to federal agencies’ interpretations of the law or their own rulemaking authority. Together, these cases suggest that a plethora of current federal regulations exceed the authority Congress has granted under the law.

DOGE will work with legal experts embedded in government agencies, aided by advanced technology, to apply these rulings to federal regulations enacted by such agencies. DOGE will present this list of regulations to President Trump, who can, by executive action, immediately pause the enforcement of those regulations and initiate the process for review and rescission. This would liberate individuals and businesses from illicit regulations never passed by Congress and stimulate the U.S. economy.

When the president nullifies thousands of such regulations, critics will allege executive overreach. In fact, it will be correcting the executive overreach of thousands of regulations promulgated by administrative fiat that were never authorized by Congress. The president owes lawmaking deference to Congress, not to bureaucrats deep within federal agencies. The use of executive orders to substitute for lawmaking by adding burdensome new rules is a constitutional affront, 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.

A drastic reduction in federal regulations provides sound industrial logic for mass head-count reductions across the federal bureaucracy. [...]

THREAD: Commercial fishermen land a big one: SCOTUS overturns the "Chevron doctrine"

 

[PAF]

This is a compelling argument for government being a small as possible, and government regulations being as few as possible.

Maybe instead of putting a sh*tpile of people out of work, Elon and Vivek should spend year 1 getting rid of 80% of the regulations, and 80% of the tax code. That would be a great start and show people they aren't fuggin around. Give all those gov employees a year to retrain themselves for something else.

It's not only about regulations and tax code, it's about the money. A lot of these jobs and contracts involve "contractors" and public/private partnerships [PPP], so simply eliminating [some or more] government employees will not solve the root problem.

See here:

Want to Cut Federal Workers? Just Cut Spending.

 

[Matt Collins]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BB50E9z4lFw






https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6RWbz1j2yE

 

[Matt Collins]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94ZPVTQjmxE






https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbjCQjC72CU

 

[unknown]

 

[PAF]

Coming from another opportunist who tried selling the Fed.gov Surveillance Apparatus during Covid.

What, he's trying to make friends and "suck this libertarian in"? I don't buy his bull for one second no matter he says now.

 

[PAF]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94ZPVTQjmxE






https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbjCQjC72CU

They didn't talk about eliminating 3 Letter Agencies. Instead, they want "efficiency".

Rebuilding Trust: World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2024

The World Economic Forum provides a global, impartial and not-for-profit platform for meaningful connection between stakeholders to establish trust, and build initiatives for cooperation and progress.

- Achieving Security and Cooperation in a Fractured World

- Creating Growth and Jobs for a New Era

- Artificial Intelligence as a Driving Force for the Economy and Society

https://www.weforum.org/meetings/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2024/
​

 

[CCTelander]

They didn't talk about eliminating 3 Letter Agencies. Instead, they want "efficiency".

Rebuilding Trust: World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2024

The World Economic Forum provides a global, impartial and not-for-profit platform for meaningful connection between stakeholders to establish trust, and build initiatives for cooperation and progress.

- Achieving Security and Cooperation in a Fractured World

- Creating Growth and Jobs for a New Era

- Artificial Intelligence as a Driving Force for the Economy and Society

https://www.weforum.org/meetings/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2024/
​

Stop worrying and get in line for your brain chip. And be sure to enjoy the “salty tears” of the lefties. As long as we can do that things are hunky dory.

 

[Swordsmyth]

They didn't talk about eliminating 3 Letter Agencies. Instead, they want "efficiency".

They have talked quite a bit about eliminating agencies.
A government with agencies it doesn't need/shouldn't have is not efficient.

 

[Matt Collins]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSHxw14vT04

 

[Brian4Liberty]

https://x.com/USAB4L/status/1869559213632192838

 

[Matt Collins]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=js4Gmba1wd4

 

[Matt Collins]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdR9CWy2xog

 

[Matt Collins]

Looks like Elon doensnt know how to manage expectations


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Njztc2whCoA

 

[Brian4Liberty]

Downsized DOGE
by Adam Dick | Jan 11, 2025

Elon Musk stirred up much hope among many small government advocates when he spoke on stage at Donald Trump’s October 27 presidential campaign rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Musk declared then his expectation that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which Musk would go on to run with Vivek Ramaswamy, would reduce yearly United States government spending by “at least two trillion dollars.” This week, Musk let those small government advocates down, reducing by more than half the spending cuts he predicts DOGE will accomplish.

On Wednesday, Musk stated in an interview with host Mark Penn at X that cuts reaching two trillion dollars is now “like the best-case outcome” and that there is just a “good shot” at achieving a one trillion dollars reduction in yearly spending.

That’s how much expectations have been lowered before Trump is even sworn in as president later this month. A year from now, will Musk have downsized the expected achievement of DOGE so much that he will have given up on projecting any spending reduction? Will he then be talking about how DOGE can limit the increasing of US government spending?
...
https://ronpaulinstitute.org/downsized-doge/

 

[Snowball]

power to the people

and the people's money (not the crypto stalking horse)

and not to the X-Cult Technocrats

do or die time

 

[Matt Collins]

Here is the Executive Order establishing DOGE:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presiden...esidents-department-of-government-efficiency/

 

[Brian4Liberty]

...

Been rumored for a couple of days, official now. Vivek is out.

https://x.com/VivekGRamaswamy/status/1881482161565618648

https://x.com/TaylorPopielarz/status/1881471622118322341

 

[Voluntarist]

...

His exit has been rumored since his "American Culture" Xeet the day after Christmas

https://x.com/vivekgramaswamy/status/1872312139945234507

The reason top tech companies often hire foreign-born & first-generation engineers over “native” Americans isn’t because of an innate American IQ deficit (a lazy & wrong explanation). A key part of it comes down to the c-word: culture. Tough questions demand tough answers & if we’re really serious about fixing the problem, we have to confront the TRUTH:

Our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long (at least since the 90s and likely longer). That doesn’t start in college, it starts YOUNG.

A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers.

A culture that venerates Cory from “Boy Meets World,” or Zach & Slater over Screech in “Saved by the Bell,” or ‘Stefan’ over Steve Urkel in “Family Matters,” will not produce the best engineers.

(Fact: I know *multiple* sets of immigrant parents in the 90s who actively limited how much their kids could watch those TV shows precisely because they promoted mediocrity…and their kids went on to become wildly successful STEM graduates).

More movies like Whiplash, fewer reruns of “Friends.” More math tutoring, fewer sleepovers. More weekend science competitions, fewer Saturday morning cartoons. More books, less TV. More creating, less “chillin.” More extracurriculars, less “hanging out at the mall.”

Most normal American parents look skeptically at “those kinds of parents.” More normal American kids view such “those kinds of kids” with scorn. If you grow up aspiring to normalcy, normalcy is what you will achieve.

Now close your eyes & visualize which families you knew in the 90s (or even now) who raise their kids according to one model versus the other. Be brutally honest.

“Normalcy” doesn’t cut it in a hyper-competitive global market for technical talent. And if we pretend like it does, we’ll have our asses handed to us by China.

This can be our Sputnik moment. We’ve awaken from slumber before & we can do it again. Trump’s election hopefully marks the beginning of a new golden era in America, but only if our culture fully wakes up. A culture that once again prioritizes achievement over normalcy; excellence over mediocrity; nerdiness over conformity; hard work over laziness.

That’s the work we have cut out for us, rather than wallowing in victimhood & just wishing (or legislating) alternative hiring practices into existence. I’m confident we can do it.