Vivek Ramaswamy says the proposed Department of Government Efficiency (“DOGE”), which he’s working on in partnership with Elon Musk, will be able to cut government contracting costs substantially, fire useless employees, and identify entire government agencies that can be dumped. If DOGE works, there’ll be no more $250 hammers and four-martini-fueled lunches billed to the Feds.

Ramaswamy has long contended that inefficient jobs and agencies can be cut by Executive Orders since many were created by EOs:

I hope this is so because the DC sewer is long overdue for a total flush-out. (It’s not really a swamp, as some have said because swamps are ecologically sound and serve an important role in the environment). However, I fear legions of far-left lawyers floating to the rescue of the DC sewer. Even if unsuccessful, they may gum up the works and delay positive action. I pray these lawyers will fail miserably.

The first target for agency removal is the Department of Education because the Feds have no mandate in the Constitution to promote education. This is solely a state mandate. The steps to abolish Federal education are as follows. First, Trump cuts off all funding to the department. Second, all education employees are locked out of the department offices in DC and nationwide. Third and finally, SCOTUS holds that no federal education department is allowed. This would be a precedent for removing similar agencies en masse (see more on that subject here).

Let’s assume Ramaswamy and Musk successfully abolish the US Department of Education and Federal agencies/employees far beyond. What will that mean for America? There are several important results.

The benefits to taxpayers are obvious. The DC mode of operation is never to cut even one dollar from the federal budget. An efficient budget would not just mean lower taxes but a return to responsible government. Citizens could take heart in knowing that their government was exercising careful expenditures instead of wild spending on crazy projects, just as individuals are required to exercise thrift in their expenditures.

Counterproductive regulations would be targeted as well. Remember that regulations are just another form of taxation. Certainly, we need some carefully designed regulations, but the current level of regulation is a quantum leap beyond the necessary.

It has been suggested that numerous Federal employees would quit due to DOGE’s proposed cuts. This might be like the self-deportation of illegals. While I wish this would come to pass, there is no guarantee. And even if some did quit, it wouldn’t be enough.

There is a general rule in government budgeting and expenditures: If your agency has money left over at the end of the year, you never give it back. If you did, you would signal that you did not need as much money next year. What to do? You spend the money any way you can to ensure you have nothing left at the end of the year. This is a rule written in concrete at all levels of government. If taxpayers knew this, there would be an outcry. But they don’t generally know.

If there were large cuts in government employees, the real estate market in DC would implode. Fewer government employees would mean fewer houses and apartments would be needed. We are talking about a crash of possibly hundreds of billions of dollars, not just in DC but in all the fancy enclaves of Virginia and Maryland. Some of the richest counties in America are in these suburbs, and they’re populated by bureaucrats, lobbyists, and congressional millionaires. This affluence is an affront to ordinary Americans, who often earn much less than their government employees.

Finally, depopulating the Virginia suburbs of DC employees would free them from the left-wing crowd that swings elections in Virginia. Trump and his successors would own the region.

Image by AI.