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Can Musk and Ramaswamy’s DOGE Plan Really Slash $2 Trillion—or Is It All Bark? · Elon Musk Podcast

• 0:01
  Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Elon Musk
• 0:04
  Podcast. This is a show where we discuss
• 0:07
  the critical crossroads that shape SpaceX, Tesla X, The
• 0:11
  Boring Company, and Neurolink. I'm your host, Will Walden.
• 0:16
  How do Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswami plan to cut $2
• 0:20
  trillion from federal spending? And will their Department of
• 0:24
  Government Efficiency DOGE bypass Congress to achieve its
• 0:28
  goals? Well, Elon Musk, an
• 0:31
  entrepreneur, politician Vivek Ramaswamy presented their
• 0:34
  proposal to shrink federal spending and reduce government
• 0:38
  inefficiencies in Washington this week.
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  Dubbed the Department of Government Efficiency, their
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  initiative proposes saving $2 trillion in federal spending.
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  Those specifics were notably scarce at this point, and the
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  pair met with members of Congress, primarily Republicans,
• 0:53
  to gauge support and discuss the viability of their plan.
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  Among those in attendance was Representative Tom Cole, a
• 0:59
  seasoned Republican from Oklahoma and the incoming House
• 1:03
  Appropriations Committee chair, who offered measured skepticism.
• 1:08
  Cole, who reflected on his conversations with Musk and
• 1:10
  Ramswami, noted their effort to understand, quote, the full
• 1:13
  scope of their proposal in the extent of executive authority
• 1:17
  they may wield. His remarks hinted at the
• 1:20
  constitutional limitations that Duo could face, he said.
• 1:23
  How much would be done by executive action?
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  He asked. And perspirations remain at the
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  heart of federal spending requiring Congress's active
• 1:33
  involvement and legislation. Attempts to bypass this process,
• 1:38
  such as impoundment, often encounter resistance from the
• 1:43
  judiciary and from Congress itself.
• 1:46
  So in 1974, the Budget Control and Impoundment Act, a
• 1:50
  legislative response to President Nixon's unilateral
• 1:53
  actions during his impeachment crisis, fortified Congress's
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  role in spending decisions. Now, Musk and Ramaswamy's DOGE
• 2:02
  initiative must therefore navigate not just political but
• 2:06
  also legal constraints for their actions.
• 2:10
  Now, history suggests that lofty goals to overhaul federal
• 2:12
  spending have faced immense challenges.
• 2:15
  To propose $2 trillion in savings is very ambitious, but
• 2:19
  the absence of specific strategies raises doubts about
• 2:22
  its feasibility now. To understand the hurdles facing
• 2:25
  DOGE, it's crucial to examine the lessons past efforts to
• 2:30
  reform government spending. No efforts to reform federal
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  spending have long been central to Republican policy agendas.
• 2:37
  During his 1980 presidential campaign, President Reagan
• 2:41
  criticized the ballooning federal debt, which was nearing
• 2:44
  a trillion dollars at the time, a figure that seemed unthinkable
• 2:47
  then. And Reagan entrusted his first
• 2:50
  Office of Management and Budget director, David Stockman, with
• 2:54
  implementing steep budget cuts. Now, Stockman targeted social
• 2:58
  programs with fervor, equating budget excesses to moral
• 3:02
  failings. Yet Stockman's efforts quickly
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  ran into opposition from Democrats and even some
• 3:07
  Republicans. Now, Reagan's broader fiscal
• 3:11
  policy, which included large tax cuts and increased military
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  spending, further undermined his administration's deficit
• 3:19
  reduction goals. By the end of his first term,
• 3:21
  the national debt had doubled, and by the time Reagan left
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  office, it had tripled. Stockman, disillusioned, exited
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  the administration and later published a memoir, The Triumph
• 3:33
  of Politics While the Reagan Revolution Failed, chronicling
• 3:37
  his frustrations. Now, Reagan's later attempts to
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  streamline government included pointing J Peter Grace to lead a
• 3:44
  Commission on government efficiency.
• 3:46
  Though the Commission unearthed useful recommendations, its
• 3:50
  impact was marred by revelations about Grace's company, WR Grace
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  and Company, having paid minimal taxes.
• 3:57
  These optics undermine public confidence in the commission's
• 4:00
  efforts. Now Reagan's successor, George
• 4:04
  HW Bush, took a more pragmatic approach, negotiating a
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  bipartisan deal in 1990 that combined spending cuts with tax
• 4:11
  increases. The agreement helped stabilize
• 4:14
  the budget, but at a steep political cost for Bush,
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  Breaking his campaign pledge of no new taxes alienated his
• 4:21
  conservative base, emboldening primary challenger Pat Buchanan
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  and contributing to Bush's defeat in the 1992 election.
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  And the fallout from Bush's tax compromise cemented an anti tax
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  orthodoxy within the Republican Party.
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  And since then, even modest tax increases have become political
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  at a FEMA, limiting avenues for meaningful fiscal reform.
• 4:46
  Now, in 1992, billionaire H Ross Perot emerged as a third party
• 4:52
  candidate, framing himself as a plain spoken businessman who
• 4:57
  could tackle Washington's dysfunction.
• 4:59
  His proposals to run government like a business resonated with
• 5:03
  voters, and at one point Perot LED both major party candidates
• 5:08
  in national polls, though his campaign in 1992 and 1996
• 5:12
  ultimately failed. Perot's populist rhetoric
• 5:16
  influenced both parties, pushing deficits and spending to the
• 5:19
  forefront of public discourse. You know.
• 5:22
  Other figures, such as audio executive Lee Iacocca, similarly
• 5:26
  champion the idea the private sector efficiency could
• 5:29
  transform public sector governance.
• 5:32
  While some proposals often gained initial traction, they
• 5:36
  rarely translated into substantial reforms.
• 5:39
  The president, Bill Clinton and Vice President Gore sought to
• 5:43
  streamline federal operations through the National Performance
• 5:45
  Review, often referred to as Reinventing Government, or REGO,
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  or Rigo. Borrowing from earlier
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  initiatives like the Grace Commission, Rigo aimed to reduce
• 5:57
  bureaucracy, cut spending, and modernize federal agencies.
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  Now, Gore touted 6 figure reductions in the federal
• 6:03
  workforce as proof of the initiative success.
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  Yet these measures barely made a dent in overall spending, which
• 6:10
  continued to climb due to major outlays on military conflicts
• 6:14
  and economic crises. Now, Clinton's 1996 declaration
• 6:18
  that the era of big government is over proved more reticle than
• 6:22
  substantive federal spending surge during the subsequent
• 6:26
  decades, driven by the War on Terror, the Great Recession, and
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  most recently, COVID-19. Now, the National Commission of
• 6:33
  Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, established by Obama in
• 6:36
  2010 and Co chaired by Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles,
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  exemplified a bipartisan approach to budget reform.
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  The Commission proposed cuts to entitlement programs, reductions
• 6:47
  in defense spending, and modest tax increases.
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  Despite widespread praise for its balance recommendations,
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  political gridlock stymied their implementation.
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  A super majority of the Commission failed to endorse the
• 6:59
  package, leaving its proposals unfulfilled.
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  Now, Doge's emphasis on reducing waste and inefficiency echoes
• 7:08
  past efforts like the Grace Commission and REGO.
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  While such initiatives can yield incremental savings, they seldom
• 7:15
  address the fundamental drivers of federal spending.
• 7:17
  Without bipartisan cooperation or public support for
• 7:20
  significant changes to entitlement budgets, large scale
• 7:23
  fiscal reform remains very elusive now.
• 7:27
  Whether DOGE can succeed where similar efforts have faulted
• 7:31
  remains uncertain. Right now, Musk and Ramaswamy's
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  ability to build political consensus will be crucial.
• 7:37
  History suggests, however, that their ambitions will face
• 7:40
  formidable resistance not only from entrenched interests but
• 7:44
  also from voters reluctant to sacrifice popular programs.
• 7:54
  Hey, thank you so much for listening today.
• 7:56
  I really do appreciate your support.
• 7:58
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  yourselves and each other. And I'll see you tomorrow.