On December 25, 2024, at 20:08:00, from Tesla and X to DOGE, Musk’s crazy efficiency experiment. Musk was appointed as the head of the government efficiency department. In the past week, the United States faced the risk of a government shutdown. Musk is persistent in cutting expenditures and has great influence. Everything started with a resolution to provide funds for the US federal government. Musk opposed the spending bill that contained multiple items. As he wished, the bill failed. Later, the House of Representatives passed a temporary spending bill. Democratic lawmakers criticized Musk, and Republican lawmakers said he should become the speaker of the House.
Trump appointed Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The plan includes three core tasks: cutting regulations, conducting large-scale layoffs, and reducing budget expenditures. Cutting regulations means identifying regulations formulated by federal agencies that exceed their authority and suspending their implementation; it also targets specific regulatory agencies. After large-scale layoffs, help laid-off employees transition to the private sector. Cut federal government spending, starting with reducing the $516 billion in expenditures for which Congress has provided funds but the spending authorization has expired. DOGE will also publish examples of “absurd use of federal funds.”
Musk is not the first person to propose improving government efficiency and cutting expenditures. Cutting government spending and conducting layoffs are not simple and face many difficulties, such as many items in the budget that are difficult to cut and possible resistance from Congress. Musk is good at cutting costs. He has been sensitive to costs since the early days of his entrepreneurship. He has taken tough measures to cut costs in multiple companies and will also use words to create a sense of crisis. Musk’s relationship with federal agencies is close and complex. He is facing multiple investigations. Critics question whether his role in cutting federal regulations will have a conflict of interest. However, Musk attaches great importance to DOGE and is full of passion.
