President Donald Trump has tasked Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk, (the X-Men), to head the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Their mission is to brainstorm ways to streamline the government and save the country trillions of dollars. The X-Men have been all over the internet and in media outlets. Musk asserting that he will trim two trillion dollars off the budget, while Ramaswamy states that he will use new Supreme Court decisions and constitutional law to cut spending and eliminate duplicative, ineffective government agencies. If they had private-sector CEO authority, they would undoubtedly be successful. Musk’s takeover of Twitter is a case in point. Using Musk’s rules of maximizing efficiency/profitability 80% of the Twitter workforce was let go, and the company continued to thrive.

The problem is that Musk and Ramaswamy have no CEO authority over government agencies and the Swamp creatures lie in wait.

Despite Vivek Ramaswamy’s opinion that Supreme Court precedent will allow executive action to cut appropriated spending, eliminate government agencies, or terminate unionized civil servants, it is more likely that ACLU-like lawsuits will empower “woke” DEI judges to rule against any such action and hobble any cost-cutting initiates.

Swamp Creatures come in a variety of forms, including the government alphabet agencies. Protected by their bloated government agencies these swamp creatures lay in wait, knowing that if the battle is fought inside their swamp, Vivek and Elon will be eaten alive.

The only way to win is for Musk and Ramaswamy to create a dynamic where Swamp Creatures fight each other for limited resources. Once such a dynamic is set in motion, institutional change will automatically happen.

During the 1990s, Bill Clinton instituted a rudimentary example of this concept. He declared that the era of big government was over, encouraged early retirement, and mostly froze government hiring. Due to attrition government employees dropped by around 10% and the remaining employees were forced to up their game. Musk and Ramaswamy postulate a similar executive action. If Donald Trump issued an executive order forcing government workers to return to on-site work (90% work at least partly from home) and mostly freezes government hiring, a domino effect would immediately start. Many government workers would either quit or take early retirement. The remaining workers would have to up their game or find the door. Although not as quick or dramatic as Elon Musk cutting Twitter by 80%, it is probably as good as can be done with government agencies. Over time the swamp creatures' numbers would significantly decrease and those left would be forced to be more efficient. This example of how to manipulate the swamp to turn on itself is instructive but to harvest real significant savings the X-Men will have to leverage every bit of their genius IQs. Because they are going to need the help of an even more self-centered Machiavellian group of Washington D.C. beasts, the United States Congress.

It is well-known that the federal government does not have well-described limits or penalties for deficit spending and that most politicians will say or do anything to get re-elected. Whenever it is politically expedient to do so, politicians disregard long-term fiscal consequences, opt not to increase unpopular taxes, preserve expendable constituent-like programs, add on more expensive programs, and spend more than the tax revenue available.

So how do the X-Men get the politicians to work for the good of the people and not just for themselves?

An act of Congress might restrain spending but to have a meaningful effect future Congresses must constrain their basic instinct to undo the hard-fought for savings in favor of vote-buying government deficit spending. For example, The Budget Control Act of 2011 mandated significant cuts to Medicare physician payments and defense spending. Unsurprisingly, over the next 13 years, new congresses removed the defense spending decreases. Congress then “fixed” the problem of paying physicians by allowing an approximately 1% yearly increase on a set amount of money allocated for physician Medicare reimbursement. Physicians were then forced to participate in a process that made physician groups fight against each other to maintain against inflation their ever-shrinking, piece of the pie. Hopefully, DOGE will note how Congress successfully constrained Medicare physician payments and leverage this concept to force swamp creatures to turn on themselves.

Musk and Ramaswamy will find part of their solution by noting many states have balanced budgets because they are state-constitutionally mandated to live within their means. An analogous United States balanced budget constitutional amendment would probably solve our nation’s fiscal crisis, but unfortunately, this process is so difficult it is never going to happen. But all is not lost.

To achieve meaningful constraints of government spending, DOGE must assimilate the previously described constructs. In addition, to get politicians to support any legislation, talking points must be created to protect like-minded politicians from opposition attacks. The actual mechanism of controlling spending must work within the already constructed system of government (think forcing workers back to the office, freezing hiring, and how the physician reimbursement was treated) and take advantage of states having mandatory balanced budgets.

How do you make it happen?

The COVID-19 epidemic and progressive climate change spending drove the massive increase in federal post-2019 spending. Given the abject failure of climate change spending and COVID-19 being in the rearview window, it would be simple to devise politician-protecting talking points that favor a return to pre-COVID spending levels.

Musk and Ramasawamy would have to work with Speaker Mike Johnson and get Congress to return to the regular order of passing 12 separate appropriation bills instead of one massive pork-laden bill to fund the government.

Each federal agency would be constrained by the executive order of no more remote work or hiring, and if DOGE can leverage the pre-COVID spending concept, these agency budgets will only be allowed to increase by 1 percent. To stay within budget, the Swamp creatures in each department will be forced to institute money-saving changes and fight among themselves for any appropriated funds (Similar to physicians fighting for Medicare reimbursement).

But the real savings need to come from the entitlements.

President Trump has ruled out any major changes to Medicare benefits and Social Security but there is some pickable low-hanging federal Medicaid fruit.

In Donald Trump’s first term, he came within one vote in the United States Senate (John McCain’s infamous negative vote) of reversing ObamaCare’s massive increase In Medicaid spending. The plan would have block-granted federal Medicaid funds to the states. Once this is done the federal government would be out of micromanaging Medicaid funding and tough Medicaid spending decisions will have to be made at the state level; where balanced budget mandates constrain them. If states want to be generous to their Medicaid population, they will be forced to revamp their state provider reimbursement, increase their revenue, or cut other spending.

Musk and Ramaswamy must leverage President Donald Trump's political capital and work with the Republican Congress to start the cost-cutting process. It will not be easy because the Democrat members of Congress (and some Republicans) do not want change. Only through the power of Donald Trump’s election, the X-Men’s genius, and Elon Musk’s creative use of X is there an ember of hope. An ember that could turn into a roaring fire and so dry up the D.C. Swamp. And in doing so give America a chance to return to firm fiscal ground and again be the greatest nation the world has ever seen.

Image: AT via Magic Studio