For first time since 1975, a rescission bill was enacted to cancel approved federal spending. A key part of the effort is to cut the size of government — one of President Trump’s principal initiatives, mainly through the Department of Government Efficiency, initially run by Elon Musk. Who can forget Elon wielding a red chainsaw at the Conservative Political Action Conference, saying, “this is the chainsaw for bureaucracy?” The justification, however, for all this has been vague, confusing the public and eroding support. 

Three main philosophical justifications are lurking behind that chainsaw. They often get confused and mushed together, for good reason. Here they are, illustrated by examples mainly from the agency I ran, the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees all the international broadcasters, including the Voice of America. USAGM is a good stand-in for the rest of the government, as a mid-sized agency, easier to understand than most.

Eliminating Waste, Fraud, and Corruption

Musk made this his rallying cry and went no further.  Who could object to that?

USAGM has five separate networks, each with their own IT departments, legal departments, public affairs offices, etc. I proposed consolidating it into one organization, under the Voice of America rubric, and keeping all other brand names like Radio Free Europe. Every network head who did not want his fiefdom shrunk objected.

In government, power comes from the size of the entity controlled, not its efficiency. Of course, corrupt government officials, who channel grant money to friends and family, (we had several at USAGM), have an obvious motive to cover it up and lie about it — to say nothing of those in the pay of foreign governments, such as China. 

Getting Rid of Programs the President Ran Against

This has nothing to do with efficiency.  For example, Donald Trump wants to eliminate DEI offices from the government and its grantees. It doesn’t matter if DEI offices and grants are efficient. To him and the public who voted for him, they are wrong, and he campaigned against it and won.

At USAGM, much hiring followed DEI processes and infiltrated the content of programming. Every week, each network sent me programs they were proud of. One was a talk show, aimed at sub–Saharan Africa, about Black Lives Matter. All participants were advocates for BLM. No critics appeared. The show was broadcast during the summer of 2020, when, after the death of George Floyd, BLM-lead protests often resulted in violence and looting, polarizing opinion in America.

Any Trump supporter would question whether support for BLM is the message we should be sending to that part of world. Clearly, the series is far from the Trump agenda or mandate. Few career officials, however, would willingly eliminate this program or one like it, which fit their — not the president’s — priorities.  And, to them, since BLM is clearly a wonderful movement, there is no need for alternate voices.

Eliminating Unconstitutional Administrative State

Some independent agencies, such as the Federal Communications Commission or the Federal Reserve, are unaccountable to the president. Trump can’t fire its leader, who has a fixed term, or do much to alter its work — nor can Congress, who authorized it.  Regulatory agencies work like this: Congress passes a law, for example mandating clean water. Congress then delegates to an agency, such as a branch of the Environmental Protection Agency, the power to define this vague law, enforce the law, and even adjudicate it in administrative courts when challenged — essentially combining the powers of all three branches — James Madison’s definition of tyranny.  Even if they are making the right choices, unelected bureaucrats with this kind of power have no place in the American system.  They are an unconstitutional fourth branch of government.

The same is true for the legions of bureaucrats staffing all federal agencies, who can’t be fired and resist oversight, such as the 4,000 employees working at USAGM. Whatever President Trump was for, they were against, and they succeeded in resisting any political appointee oversight. 

During the Biden v. Trump presidential campaigns, many VOA reporters featured terrible social media posts, including “F*** Trump” and worse. The VOA’s social media policy clearly stated that any VOA journalist’s social media posts should be treated as if they were part of their professional, government work. I wrote to the VOA director asking that he request journalists follow that policy and gave some examples. No official action was taken. One of the journalists cited joined a suit, claiming his First Amendment rights had been abridged.

Beyond the roughly 2 million federal government workers are the 8-12 million federal, state, and local contractors, who are even less accountable. Since they are hired by the permanent government staff, they share the same worldview. Often, these grants go directly to friends and associates.

Clearly, these three goals mush together. Each depends on a vast army of bureaucrats, who predominantly lean Left. With no oversight, they perpetuate waste and fraud, enact programs against the wishes of elected Republicans, and clearly exist outside the constitutional order. 

The three goals above are not really goals at all but means to an end. Unfortunately, DOGE has helped perpetuate this confusion by not clearly articulating the rationale for its mission.

The real goal is the return the government to the limited, constitutional order envisioned by the founders. The army of bureaucrats is a stumbling block. Eliminating them does not restore the Republic. The government must not only cease doing what is unnecessary and destructive, but it also must do well and efficiently what is necessary and constructive. 

For example, America needs public diplomacy — a way to promote its ideas and principles in the global war of ideas contra China and our other adversaries. USAGM has failed to do it. We can’t simply trust career civil servants to decide which ideas to promote, or even, to judge whether the news they produce is unbiased and comprehensive. Public diplomacy must align with the interests of the United States, and the judge of that must be the elected officials, who have the consent of the governed behind them. All this puts the senior advisor of the USAGM, Kari Lake, in a near impossible position — as it did for this author as well.

DOGE and President Trump’s plan to cut the size of government has focused the public’s attention on this issue through its dramatic actions. It is exposing some egregious examples of waste and fraud. We have a once-in-a-generation chance to right the ship of state, which begins with a clear understanding of why we are doing it and what is at stake.