Chip Somodevilla-Pool/ZUMA; Mark Avery/ZUMA
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Like maximum issues Elon Musk brags are new and innovative, DOGE is neither new nor innovative—if truth be told, a equivalent company has existed for greater than 100 years.
“All of these people acting like, ‘Oh, we’re going to set up an agency to identify waste,’” highlighted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-N.Y.) on a up to date Instagram livestream. “As though that’s never been an idea before.” Like, you understand, take a host, other people.””
That is exactly what caught out to me: We are living in a global the place billionaires like Elon Musk slap a brand new identify like “DOGE” on an previous concept after which pass on and on, bragging about converting the established order. So, impressed by way of AOC’s movement, I sought after to demystify, and check out my highest to chop via, a story this is fairly actively harming the American other people.
A few of you could already be accustomed to this, but when now not, let me introduce you to america Executive Duty Workplace or the GAO.
The GAO is an impartial, nonpartisan federal watchdog that gives Congress with thorough, fact-based reviews on how taxpayer greenbacks are spent. It has 1000’s of occupation civil servants—professionals in the entirety from well being care, laptop science, auditing, public coverage, AI, and infectious illness—operating to, sure, enhance executive potency.
Their effects? In keeping with the GAO, during the last six years, they averaged a staggering go back on funding of $123 in financial savings for each and every $1 of their price range. Now, I’m no businessman, however that appears like some very good trade.
However then there’s DOGE. Whilst the GAO operates with institutional experience, transparency, and nonpartisan directives, Musk’s nongovernmental group brings a chainsaw to center surgical treatment. It then provides teenage to younger 20-something engineers the authority to try this surgical treatment. In contrast to the GAO, which audits the entirety from pandemic aid fraud to Ukraine assist spending, DOGE appears to be extra about controlling a story than exact oversight.
That narrative? That best Musk on my own can save the federal government from inefficiency, that every one we’d like is his magic contact. All of it with ease ignores that actual, nonpartisan watchdog companies exist already—and do their jobs fairly smartly.
