Donald Trump declares war on Interior Department — to save money

For the first time, two entrepreneurs, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, have made concrete suggestions for how the U.S. bureaucracy can be healthily shrunk under President Donald Trump. However, they did not want to quantify the savings potential of this effort.

Renzo Ruf, Washington/ch media

The American bureaucracy is facing a stress test. Future President Donald Trump wants to save billions of dollars by breaking up the power of Washington department employees. At least that's what the Republicans announced during the campaign.

Now, two of his closest advisers—entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy—have provided the first insight into the future president's specific plans. Musk, 53, and Ramaswamy, 39, lead an informal reform committee with the florid title “Department of Government Effectiveness.”

However, Musk and Ramaswamy's plan, laid out on half a page in the Wall Street Journal, is not as revolutionary as announced. The authors focus on deregulation—a perennial favorite of right-wing politicians.

Repeal 'thousands' of regulations

The timing is ideal for a drastic change in America’s regulatory jungle. A few months ago, the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington ruled that federal ministries would no longer be allowed to independently interpret the law. In doing so, they abandoned the principle that decision-making in everyday life is the responsibility of government.

Musk and Ramaswamy see the Supreme Court ruling as a license to strike down “thousands” of regulations. They wrote that under President Trump, this principle would apply as Congress enacts regulations with the force of law.

This clarity should not only have a positive impact on the U.S. economy. According to Musk and Ramaswamy, this could also lead to layoffs. The logic behind the idea is: if there are fewer regulations, ministries will need fewer staff to enforce them. Therefore, layoffs should be at least proportional to the number of regulations removed.

The federal government employs approximately 2.25 million civilians and 2.25 million uniformed personnel. Massive layoffs could have significant consequences for the country.

Musk and Ramaswamy elegantly avoided this problem by ignoring it. Instead, they complained about employees who made themselves too comfortable working from home. They want to abolish it entirely.

Efficiency experts have equally deftly sidestepped the core problem of the coming austerity: Almost half of the $6.75 trillion in government spending is on social spending. The budget cannot be reduced to healthy levels without Congress passing massive welfare state reform. Musk and Ramaswamy claim this premise is false. Washington wastes a lot of money every year, so a review of all spending items could lead to huge savings potential. This is just wishful thinking given that fiscal year 2024 is a boom year with a $1.8 trillion deficit. (aargauerzeitung.ch)

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