Elon Musk Announces Intentions to Gamify the Withstanding of Government Redundancy Utilizing DOGE
Elon Musk Announces Intentions to Gamify the Withstanding of Government Redundancy Utilizing DOGE
Yesterday, Trump declared that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy would spearhead an extragovernmental organization named the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Already, an abundance of hilarious memes are circulating. Are you enjoying yourself yet? Musk emphasizes the significance of your amusement.
He intends to transform the pursuit of eliminating government inefficiencies, corruption, and deceit into a source of public amusement. "All actions of the Department of Government Efficiency will be displayed publicly online for unparalleled transparency," Musk announced on his platform. "Whenever there's a doubt about us eliminating something crucial or neglecting to eliminate something wasteful, feel free to voice your concerns! Additionally, we'll maintain a leaderboard showcasing the most outrageous expenditure of your tax dollars. This will prove both heart-wrenching and hilarious 🤣🤣."
DOGE, in essence, won't establish a new department. Only Congress has the authority to create new federal administrative bodies. Practically, this could be irrelevant. "The Department of Government Efficiency will offer advice and counsel from outside government, and will collaborate with the White House and Office of Management & Budget to drive significant structural reforms and establish an innovative approach to governance that has never been seen before," Trump expressed in a statement unveiling the project.
The precise effects of DOGE remain a mystery. The journey to eliminate government waste is challenging, and despite Musk's vow to make it transparent, it's an ongoing battle that's been waged in the open for many years. The U.S. budget is staggeringly large, amounting to nearly $7 trillion. The majority of this budget is spent on Social Security, Medicare, the Department of Health, and the Pentagon.
Conservatives have advocated for reductions in public spending for a prolonged period. This rhetoric has evolved into a recognized motif. Some NGOs compile yearly digests filled with captivating graphics and vibrant language denouncing alleged government overspending. Even politicians have adopted this tactic.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) has been vocal about this issue for decades and regularly disseminates missives about government inefficiencies. However, Sen. Rand Paul's (R-KY) "Festivus" report garners more attention. In his latest Festivus report, Paul identified $900 billion in waste he desired to address.
What's included in this waste? Paul criticized South Carolina's Monkey Island ($33.2 million). Yes, this relates to the same island from which more than 40 monkeys recently escaped. If only they'd had additional funding to keep them imprisoned. He denounced $6 million spent to market tourism in Egypt, part of a larger aid package and a lengthy diplomatic partnership between the U.S. and Egypt. Not all of Paul's examples involve frivolous expenditures. The Pentagon—one of America's biggest spenders—has mastered wastefulness, and Paul criticized it thrice in his report.
The U.S. already possesses government organizations that catalog and combat wasteful spending. All three of Paul's Pentagon waste examples originate from Pentagon Inspector General reports, an agency devoted to investigating Department of Defense mishaps. "There's a lot of them," is a common observation. And then there's the Government Accountability Office.
Established in 1921, the Government Accountability Office investigates and documents cost overruns and other Washington transgressions. Recently, it denounced the U.S. Navy and defense contractors for overspending on nuclear submarines. Since 2009, it's published a report identifying areas where America could save money. "These efforts have resulted in approximately $667.5 billion in financial benefits, an increase of approximately $71 billion since our 2023 report," it revealed in the most recent variation of this report, which was published in May.
We're unsure of how DOGE will function beyond what Musk discloses online. The proposed interactive leaderboard is merely the online evolution of what Grassley and Paul have been doing for years. It's a simplification of the weekly government reports published by the DoD IG and GAO.
DOGE is also a precursor to the 2008 Reddit-era meme catastrophe that Musk will unleash upon the Trump administration. According to reports from Mar-a-Lago insiders, the billionaire is relentlessly pursuing Trump, almost clinging to him like a lost puppy.
Musk has been taking part in meetings with world leaders, appearing in Trump family photos, and boasting about his role in Trump's victory whenever he can. "He's behaving like a co-president and ensuring everyone is aware of it," an insider told NBC News.
Trump held a private meeting with House Republicans for the first time since his victory today. Musk was by his side. "He thanked Musk for his contributions to the election and stated that he can no longer dismiss him," journalist Jake Sherman wrote on his platform.
The tech-savvy future of government reform is widely discussed, with Musk proposing a new approach to governance using technology. He envisions a digital platform for the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), showcasing its actions and a leaderboard for public scrutiny.
As technology advances, digital transparency becomes an essential tool in the fight against government inefficiencies and waste, a concept already demonstrated by senators like Grassley and Paul.