Cutting aid to Planned Parenthood, ending subsidies to public broadcasting, supposedly a bastion of left-wing activism, and eliminating $1.5 billion in subsidies to international organizations not authorized by Congress: Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, and his partner in crime, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, have given a preview of their plans to slash federal spending.
In a lengthy op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, November 20, they explained how they intend to slim down the federal government, as requested by President-elect Donald Trump, who appointed them to head a newly created "Department of Government Efficiency" (DOGE).
The text reveals a well-thought-out plan of attack, based on the latest Supreme Court rulings in favor of a minimal state. Above all, it aims to bypass Congress, which theoretically has most of the power over the federal budget. "Our North Star for reform will be the US Constitution, with a focus on two critical Supreme Court rulings issued during President Biden's tenure," write the two businessmen, citing two decisions that severely limited the power of federal agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The Supreme Court's conservative justices have limited government agencies' ability to adapt their rules to the changing world – for example, to global warming, not taken into account when the EPA was created in the early 1970s – and to interpret their own regulations on behalf of the federal courts. "These cases suggest that a plethora of current federal regulations exceed the authority Congress has granted under the law," claim Musk and Ramaswamy, who propose to quickly present a list of abusive regulations "to President Trump, who can, by executive order, immediately pause the enforcement of those regulations and initiate the process for review and rescission."
The measure will reduce bureaucracy and cut federal employee headcount. "The number of federal employees to be cut should be at least proportionate to the number of federal regulations that are nullified," they write. The two men acknowledge that "the purpose of these protections is to protect employees from political retaliation," but argue that "the statute allows for 'reductions in force' that don't target specific employees."
Trump's two advisers want to start by firing civil servants who refuse to report to work five days a week: "If federal employees don't want to show up, American taxpayers shouldn't pay them for the Covid-era privilege of staying home."
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