I am a big fan of DOGE, and even approve of cutting government with a meat axe instead of a scalpel.
A decade or two ago, I would have preferred “reform” and a zero-based budget–the idea being that responsible representatives in Congress and the Executive Branch would do their jobs and separate the wheat from the chaff in government. Slim it down, make it more efficient, and target aid where it belongs, while ensuring our social programs help people become self-sufficient in the long run.
It’s never going to happen, and it seems that democratically elected governments lack the nuance necessary. In fact, with few exceptions, no human institutions “reform”–they keep growing and declining after a certain point and only restructure when there is no choice, and even then, inertia keeps them on a path to total collapse.
That’s why we have bankruptcy laws–organizations that have the potential to provide more value than they consume get the opportunity to use the necessary meat axe to rebuild themselves after the finances collapse. The whole point is to unlock the hidden equity by brutally chopping out the fat and even a bit of muscle. It’s like a cancer surgery–painful but necessary.
DOGE is doing the cancer surgery, but unless Congress gets its act together and makes the changes permanent, or some variation of them, the country’s finances will collapse.
The problem is clear: surgery is painful, and it will be all too easy for Congress to choose the Canadian medical path–a quiet death for America through euthanasia. DOGE is, by its very nature, engaged in symbolic and temporary fixes because Congress still holds the power of the purse, and in principle, that is a very good thing. The Executive Branch gets its legitimacy from the president being the sole elected official elected by the entire people; Congress gets its legitimacy through representing the local interests of constituents.
The balance is good, but it has a fatal flaw that the Founders understood: Congress has a tendency to “logroll”–which is a political science term for governing by deals between members whose only interest is to benefit localities and often ignore the national interest.
That tendency has brought us to the brink of disaster–one that most people don’t seem to understand and few lawmakers have grappled with.
The country is $36 trillion in debt, and adds to that total about a trillion dollars every three months. By the end of Trump’s first year the total will be close to $40 trillion, and will keep growing unless and until Congress changes the trajectory or our entire financial system collapses.
As harsh as some people find Trump’s cuts–and frankly, with few exceptions, they are grossly exaggerated and entirely necessary to cut out corruption–the alternative is nothing short of an economic collapse and a Great Depression. Most people don’t grasp that fact because it is glossed over by politicians for understandable political reasons–telling the truth will just cost them elections because it would mean cutting programs popular with their electoral base.
The harsh reality, though, is that presidents have limited power to stop the spending. Nixon tried through recissions–refusing to spend money that Congress appropriated–and he lost lawsuits challenging that power. If Congress appropriates, practically speaking, the president is supposed to spend what Congress appropriates, even if the appropriation is dangerously stupid or even corrupt.
There is little evidence that Congress is willing to make permanent the cuts Trump is making and that are being challenged in the courts. The best Trump can do is make reforms to the extent that his power as Chief Executive empowers him to, and it’s not entirely clear how far that power goes.
Republicans are making a lot of noise about supporting DOGE and Trump, but talk is cheap. Without changes to the budgetary trajectory and making Trump’s changes permanent, all that talk is all show and no dough.
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