One of the first acts by the Trump administration was to create the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and appoint Elon Musk to head this new governmental department. President Trump then instructed Elon Musk and his support team to go through many of the governmental departments to look for fraud, overspending, duplication and waste. The first place that DOGE audited was the Department for International Development (USAID). This is an agency that is given $44 billion per year and employs over 10,000 employees. Musk and his team then went line by line to understand the spending of tax payer money. After 5 days, DOGE submitted a report on USAID. The findings were shocking. Each new funding project was more alarming than the next.
The team found so much waste and fraud that Musk stated, “We don’t have “an apple with a worm in it. We have a ball of worms. USAID is a ball of worms.” His recommendation to the president was, to “shut it (the entire department) down.” Musk warned that this is an organization with no governmental oversight, and over the years, the people working there have begun funding projects that are not in the best interest of the American people.
The very next day, USAID employees were locked out of their offices and told not to report to work. Many projects were immediately cut. New processes were put in place. Namely, 1) Marco Rubio was given the responsibility of oversight and 2) all expenditures had to match up with a governmental code and be accompanied with a written explanation for the spending. This was done to create accountability and oversight.
Pro Argument: For years, both sides of the isle (Democrats and Republicans) have been complaining about waste and fraud. They campaign about government waste and vow to reform the system once they get in office. However, for decades, nothing ever changes. No one ever really does a full audit. The only thing you can count on from government is that spending will increase. Even members of congress who really want to reform the system are not granted access. Finally, President Trump created a governmental agency (DOGE) to fully audit the spending of government and propose changes. USAID was first, but 20 other departments are waiting their turn. Many pundits have said that the government wastes billions, and maybe even trillions of dollars. Now, we are on the verge of understanding if that is true. How can that be a bad thing? The only people standing on the other side opposing these steps are the ones trying to hide the corruption embedded in the system.
Con Argument: Finding waste and fraud is important, but we shouldn’t be doing it in this way. Using an executive action, President Trump created a government agency and appointed someone who was not in government to run it. While Elon Musk has been great in business, it doesn’t mean that he has any expertise in governmental spending. So, now we have an unelected beaurocrat telling these agencies how they can and can’t spend their money. That’s the role of Congress. Trump and his team don’t get to supersede Congress and the Constituional Balance of Powers. So, there are people protesting in the streets. There are senators and congressmen in the capital arguing these points right now. They are arguing that Musk will soon have access to sensitive and personal data and that he could violate your privacy.
Joe’s Perspective: I have heard rumors of fraud and abuse my whole life. I’ve heard the Army spent $10,000 on a toilet seat and that the Department of Education spent $5,000 on a hammer. I’ve heard that we spend billions helping other nations, but that we don’t have the money to rebuild Hawaii after a fire. I want to get to the bottom of this. And, this is first time someone is actually investigating this issue. This is history in the making. If Elon Musk can cut 80% of the employees at Twitter and make it work even better, I am willing to trust that he can do something similar with the government. So, I say, let’s let this play out. Let’s see what is hiding under the curtain. We all pay taxes. We should have some accountability as to what happens with our money.
Your Turn: This is a big issue, and maybe as a teenager, you don’t think much about it, but someday you will. You see all the reports. You see the protests (and they are only going to get louder). What do you make of what’s going on? What is your opinion?
