September 06, 2024
In reporting on Donald Trump’s plan to put Elon Musk in charge of a commission to ferret out waste in government, it probably would have been worth noting that there is already an agency dedicated to this purpose. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has been in existence for over 100 years. It is non-partisan and has extensive experience in uncovering government waste.
It also would have been worth noting that having efforts to uncover massive waste is an old joke in Washington politics. Jimmy Carter claimed he would eliminate waste with his zero-based budgeting when he took office in 1977. It was quickly abandoned as too chaotic.
Bill Clinton had an effort under his administration when he put Vice-President Al Gore in charge of “reinventing government.” It may not have accomplished much but kept Al Gore out of trouble.
In addition to mentioning some of this history, it also is worth noting that there would be an extraordinary conflict of interest created by putting someone with many large government contracts and subsidies in charge of an effort to examine government efficiency. This conflict of interest problem is especially large since Trump is committing to getting rid of most of the top civil service officials, which would presumably include the leadership of the GAO. This means that the non-partisan agency created to prevent government corruption will in effect be blocked from policing Trump and Musk’s efforts to “improve” government efficiency.
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