There are many reasons people would want a department to cut down on waste in government spending: the Federal Government is an overinflated bureaucracy, the national debt has ballooned up to $36 trillion and the American people have grown jaded with their tax money being wasted. An agency devoted to finding waste in government spending should be something that Americans could be excited about, especially if it follows through with President Donald Trump’s consideration to give 20% of the cuts back to the American people.
There are many reasons the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has not been viewed favorably by Americans. Namely, the organization’s association with the Trump administration and the fact that it is being run by Elon Musk already alienates many Americans, and the misreporting of savings certainly doesn’t help either. The department’s reputation is so bad that only 37% of Americans think DOGE is cutting waste.
Perhaps the most despicable thing this department has done is put 10s of 1,000s of workers without jobs. While it is one thing to cut a few high paying positions, 1,000s of regular working people will be without jobs because of this department.
One of the ways in which this department has failed is that many of its cuts have been politically motivated. While reducing the size of the government is somewhat political in nature since the two major parties believe in different amounts of government spending, DOGE’s decisions are clearly targeted to pander to right wing social issues. These decisions take an issue that should be nonpartisan and weaponize it to make political change.
One issue that stands out is the targeting of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. Don’t get me wrong, all overspending should be dealt with, and that may include things like diversity training if a wasteful amount is being spent, but DOGE’s goal is complete erasure. In fact, DOGE drafted a multistep plan to eliminate DEI from the government. I am not here to tell you how to feel about DEI, but for a department overseeing government efficiency to function well and retain public trust, it shouldn’t feel as if it is overstepping in making policy decisions, let alone cultural change.
There is also a clear effort to attack education, with the Department of Education currently sitting at number one on the DOGE website’s savings leaderboard. Some of the cuts include evaluations of programs to improve literacy, a survey about teaching and learning environments and research about postgraduate outcomes for those with disabilities. The Department of Education needs to be able to conduct research to properly do its job in sending aid to schools that need it the most.
If DOGE wanted maximum efficiency, it would allow the Department of Education to research so that the aid they send to schools is used effectively. The attack on this department likely has something to do with the fact that Trump himself has openly expressed a wish to close the Department of Education.
The department’s targeting of DEI and education point to its major flaw: instead of being a technocratic independent agency, DOGE is a temporary organization made to collaborate with the Trump administration. This symbiotic relationship muddies DOGE’s goal of efficiency by adding political goals.
This is quite unfortunate, as even in the departments current form, they have made many meaningful cuts that were actual waste, finding things like unnecessary newspaper subscriptions, or computer software purchases that were costing taxpayers millions. However, the way this department has acted has politicized the debt, and made it less likely that its lifespan will last past this administration, stopping any long-term change in managing wasteful spending.
