CNN
—
As co-responsible for the new Ministry of Government Effectivenessor DOGE, billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy promise to cut at least $2 trillion from the federal budget.
The duo, who are tasked with recommending cuts to the new Trump administration as outside advisers, having cited the areas they would like to target. They understand the Internal Revenue Service, the Ministry of Educationthe Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. And they want to take a hard look at foreign aid, defense spending and inaccurate payments the government sends to Social Security recipients and others.
But removing such a large share of federal spending would be a significant challenge, experts say. Much of the money goes to fund mandatory programs, which must be funded according to existing laws. These include Social Security and Medicare benefits and interest on the federal debt.
Less than a third of the FY 2024 federal budget was discretionary spending, which Congress approves each year. Nearly half of discretionary spending goes to defense programs, which are a sacred cow for many lawmakers.
“$2 trillion a year is such an absurd number that it’s impossible,” said Bobby Kogan, senior director for federal fiscal policy at the left-leaning Center for American Progress.
Here’s where your taxpayers’ money goes:
Musk and Ramaswamy have also repeatedly stated that they may reduce the size of the budget. federal workforce by requiring employees to return to officewhich they hope will prompt many of them to resign.
Less than half of federal civilian workers are eligible to telework, and those who are can still spend the majority of their work hours in their offices.
Both Musk and Ramaswamy attacked federal workers as bureaucrats who oversee a an ever-growing network of regulations.
“The power of the unelected federal bureaucracy has grown to become an unconstitutional “FOURTH BRANCH” of government! Musk posted on earlier this week. “Especially with the creation of their own internal judiciary, they have become the most powerful branch of government. We have to solve this problem! »
But the federal workforce is about the same as it was 50 years ago, even though the federal government oversees more programs and offers more benefits.
Under former President Bill Clinton, membership fell by more than 400,000 as he sought to “reinvent” governmentaccording to Elaine Kamarck, founding director of the Center for Effective Public Management at the Brookings Institution. He was also able to take advantage of the collapse of the Soviet Union to downsize the Ministry of Defense. But the September 11 attacks halted troop reductions in 2001, and the government has since bolstered its intelligence and homeland security workforce.
Although many people think that the federal workforce is concentrated in Washington, D.C. and surrounding metropolitan areas, this is not the case.
“Federal employees provide services to the public around the world,” said Max Stier, founding president and CEO of the Public Service Partnership, a nonprofit organization that advocates for an effective federal government.
This article has been updated with additional information.