Lastly, the second we’ve all been ready for: The Authorities Accountability Workplace’s annual report on decreasing overlap, fragmentation, and duplication has been launched!
In regular occasions, this may not be one thing most individuals would even discover, a lot much less get hyped about. However in Trump’s America, a run-of-the-mill report from an unbiased, nonpartisan company feels momentous, like some tiny a part of the federal government stays untouched by the rampages of Elon Musk’s ostensible Division of Authorities Effectivity.
It’s additionally wild that this explicit report escaped containment and is simply on the market on the planet, because it’s actually a overview of Congress and federal companies “to improve efficiency and effectiveness of government.”
It’s additionally an precise report, operating 145 pages with figures, tables, methodologies, and the way price financial savings are decided, and it boasts 148 issues and suggestions throughout 43 matter areas.
Now distinction this report with the dumb DOGE dashboard, an ever-updating webpage with only a few particulars on how financial savings have been calculated and even what, precisely, was axed. It’s nothing just like the staid, but helpful, GAO report, which particulars every effectivity and financial savings suggestion at size.
Neither Trump nor Musk would ever discover this kind of report interesting, which might be why it acquired previous them. The suggestions listed here are for precise, tangible, boring issues, somewhat than fantastical concepts like “let’s illegally close dozens of agencies by pretending there’s fraud.”
The GAO’s suggestions are extra like, “The Space Development Agency should fully demonstrate its space-based laser communications technology in each iterative development phase before progressing, potentially saving hundreds of millions of dollars over 10 years.”
Or the suggestion that the Division of the Inside “improve its compliance activities to verify federal oil and gas royalties, potentially increasing collections by tens of millions of dollars per year.”
These are the kind of issues folks truly need in a authorities effectivity report.
So what do all of those suggestions add as much as? If we have been to undertake only one yr’s value of its ideas, the GAO report estimates that the monetary advantages might be $100 billion or extra, and authorities providers would enhance.
Distinction this with DOGE’s faux financial savings. First, Musk promised that he would save the federal authorities $2 trillion. Then that turned $1 trillion. Then it dropped to $150 billion. And whereas the dumb DOGE dashboard at the moment says it has saved $170 billion, that’s doubtless inflated on account of DOGE’s lack of transparency and shoddy math.
DOGE has counted financial savings from the identical contract a number of occasions, and a number of other of its listings on its “Wall of Receipts” are literally $0 every. Solely $70 billion of the alleged financial savings are itemized.
So, one yr of GAO ideas might save $100 billion with out annihilating crucial federal authorities companies, whereas DOGE’s slash-and-burn mass firings, company closings, and funding freezes have resulted in, theoretically, $170 billion. That doesn’t actually appear to be an ideal discount, given how a lot of the federal government has been destroyed by DOGE.
Even when we faux that DOGE did handle to avoid wasting $170 billion, there’s nonetheless one other drawback: Authorities spending is rising. The federal government has spent $166 billion greater than it did by this level final yr, rising the deficit by $196 billion.
There’s no actual doubt that almost all, if not all, of GAO’s knowledgeable suggestions will probably be disregarded by the Trump administration in favor of letting DOGE proceed to do no matter it needs. Why let a wonderfully good authorities company do its job when DOGE might simply ship over some unqualified racist to “fix” issues?
Simply take a look at the compelled closure of the Common Companies Administration’s know-how crew, 18F, which existed to create open-source instruments to enhance IT and digital providers for the federal authorities. The Trump administration has determined that, by some means, eliminating the prevailing know-how crew will assist the federal government “embrace best-in-class technologies to accelerate digital transformation and modernize IT infrastructure.”
The Trump administration ostensibly wished higher digital providers and IT infrastructure so it … closed the company that did precisely that.
Bizarre that we wanted a complete new fake company to search out inefficiencies after we already had completely good ones already doing it. However, after all, DOGE’s mission was by no means about precise effectivity. It’s about having permission to tear the copper out of the partitions and promote it for scrap.
And that, not like discovering federal inefficiencies, is one thing DOGE may be very, excellent at.
