https://issuesinsights.com/2024/11/15/one-month-in-and-the-govt-is-already-257-billion-in-the-red-doge-has-a-lot-of-work-to-do/
On Tuesday, Donald Trump announced that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy would head the “Department of Government Efficiency.” That same day, the Treasury Department released a report showing why this effort is so desperately needed.
In his announcement, Trump said that he’s assigned the two to “dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies.” It will, he said, “become, potentially, ‘The Manhattan Project’ of our time.”
At Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally in late October, Musk, when asked how much he thought he could “rip out of this $6.5 trillion Harris-Biden budget,” said: “Well, I think we could do at least $2 trillion.”
Washington insiders scoffed at the entire idea of a “government efficiency” department or that these two government outsiders could somehow find $2 trillion to cut.
The truth is a Manhattan Project-level effort will be needed to restore a semblance of fiscal responsibility to the federal government.
