By Craig Rucker, CFACT |December 17, 2024
What happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object? What happens when Elon and Vivek meet our federal bureaucracy? Buckle up! We’re about to find out.
Add Elon and Vivek, btw, to those rare people such as Elvis, Einstein, Denzel, Cher, Mookie, Ringo, Lincoln, Reagan, and indeed their new partner Trump, for whom one name will suffice.
“DOGE,” or the “Department of Government Efficiency,” is a key Trump initiative aimed at reforming our tragically bloated government.
Elon and Vivek will spearhead efforts to reduce, restructure, streamline, deregulate and root out duplication, waste, fraud, red tape and abuse.
This is way overdue, but whenever it’s been tried before, the status quo easily triumphed.
Entrepreneurs maximize innovation and efficiency and profit thereby. Bureaucrats maximize security, perquisites and control.
When Elon acquired X, the then-named Twitter had 7,500 employees. Elon immediately fired 3,750 of them and another 1,250 packed up and quit. Government is nothing like this simple.
Federal bureaucrats know that when it comes to conflict, their swords are weak, but their shields are mighty.
Bureaucrats fight from behind a mighty defensive structure of outdated laws, regulations, civil service rules and union contracts. They rely upon their superior institutional knowledge of our byzantine web of government rules and processes to thwart outsiders. Bureaucrats scoff at the naiveté of any citizen who believes common sense can compel change.
Team DOGE must quickly obtain an expert knowledge of the rules that constrain and enable how government actually functions that meets or exceeds that of the entrenched bureaucracy and the vast network that profits from government dysfunction.
More importantly, team DOGE must resolve not to throw up their hands in frustration, no matter the obstacle. The presidency comes with great powers, but demands expertise. The eunuchs who hold the keys to the Forbidden City will take great delight in their game of obfuscation and delay. They will crow over every naive misstep and blocked initiative.
CFACT has long expertise and a deep bench on issues of climate, energy, the environment and individual freedom. The opportunities in these essential areas are ripe.
Check out the early list of opportunities for reform CFACT senior policy advisor Paul Driessen posted to CFACT.org. CFACT senior policy analyst Bonner Cohen lays out the reasons for exiting the UN’s Paris Climate Agreement and how a return to best constitutional practices can help. CFACT’s good friend Doug Pollack posted to CFACT.org his hope that the new Administration will rescue American industry from those he aptly describes as Green monsters.
The Left knows how to forum shop for activists judges to block reform. The media that ran cover for the failures of the Biden/Harris Administration stands ready to pull false alarms and frighten people, particularly our seniors and people who care about our environment (as all of us should).
We recommend the CFACT method of patiently, but relentlessly debunking false narratives with verifiable facts.
CFACT will continually lay out a roadmap, as we have always done, of opportunities for free market efficiency and reform.
DOGE will be listening.
Craig Rucker is a co-founder of CFACT and currently serves as its president. Widely heralded as a leader in the free market environmental, think tank community in Washington, D.C.
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