The political latitude of Musk's cost-cutting task force

Donald Trump has put Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy in charge of slashing federal spending. Their so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) isn't actually a government department (it's an advisory body), but it could still transform government. Or it could end up doing what so many blue-ribbon commissions have done before and disappear without leaving much of a mark.

Musk and Ramaswamy want to take a "chainsaw" to the federal budget, said The Washington Post. On the potential chopping block: Everything from veterans' health care and education spending to NASA and international aid. Trump has "mandated us for radical, drastic reform of this federal bureaucracy," Ramaswamy said on Fox News. There's arguably a need to tighten the federal belt, as the national debt is approaching $36 trillion. But making big cuts "might be more difficult" than the chainsaw-wielders expect, said the Post.

Musk has set a goal of cutting $2 trillion from the federal budget. That's a "formidable task," said The New York Times. There is definitely waste in the federal budget — Medicare and Medicaid spent a combined $100 billion on fraud last year. But achieving Musk's goal will be "thorny" without "cutting programs that Congress or Trump would want to protect," said the Times.

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'The math doesn't add up'

The Department of Government Efficiency is really the "Department of Project 2025 — but worse," Michael Embrich said at Rolling Stone. Musk and Ramaswamy have proposed hitting their $2 trillion goal, in part, by firing up to 95% of government employees, but the "math simply doesn't add up." Worker pay typically makes up 80% of private sector costs, but less than 4% of the federal budget goes to paying civilian employees. Firing all of those workers would save a relatively piddly $271 billion. Musk and Ramaswamy say they want to run government like a business, Embrich said, but "their analogy falls flat."

Giving cost-cutting responsibilities to a "couple of wealthy tech bros might work where nothing else has," J.D. Tuccille said at Reason. Given that the federal government "hasn't balanced its books in decades," the unlikely duo "might be our only hope of avoiding catastrophe." It's likely that DOGE's recommendations will face a "complete lack of political will in Washington," Tuccille said. "But what are the alternatives?"

'Holy hell to pay'

"Politicians like to giveth, not taketh away," Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen said at Axios. Musk wants to be Trump's "wrecking ball," and the president-elect's aides are looking for ways to "bypass Congress" to unilaterally adopt DOGE's recommendations. But "legally, Elon can't just stop cutting checks." Ultimately, Congress holds the power of the purse, and elected officials aren't likely to approve cuts to Social Security, health care or defense spending. "There'd be holy hell to pay politically," said VandeHei and Allen.

But Musk and Ramaswamy don't have to worry about the voters, and they're thinking big. "We expect certain agencies to be deleted outright," Ramaswamy told Fox News' Maria Bartiromo. He expects never to get another chance like this. "If we don't downsize the federal government now," Ramaswamy said, "it's never going to happen in the future as well."