Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy — co-leaders of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, an advisory group recently announced by Donald Trump — laid out their vision for the initiative in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. Kinda.
When you peel back the layers of whimsical, gauzy tech-bro speak, their ideas can be boiled down to one principle: massive cuts to federal programs that, when deployed elsewhere, have caused calamity.
The op-ed is light on specifics. Musk and Ramaswamy claim they’ll use lawyers and “advanced technology” (they don’t explain what kind of technology) to sniff out what they claim are “thousands” of regulations they think should be cut (they don’t list any of these regulations). Ramaswamy, for the record, has absurdly suggested cutting 75% of the federal workforce in the past (along with disbanding agencies like the Department of Education and the FBI). In their op-ed, Musk and Ramaswamy claim (without including any actual proof) that cutting these regulations will justify cutting throngs of federal jobs, though they say their department will help “support” the fired employees’ “transition into the private sector.”
They also claim Trump has unilateral power to stop Congress from funding government programs he doesn’t like. This is a ridiculous, right-wing legal theory that Musk and Ramaswamy predicted will be affirmed by the Trump-packed Supreme Court, but on Wednesday's episode of "All In with Chris Hayes," it justifiably prompted House Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar, of California, to encourage the two men to reread Article I of the Constitution, which lays out Congress’ authority to act as a coequal branch of government.
Op-ed be damned; I think Ramaswamy summarized the aims of this group much better earlier this week, when he openly endorsed the idea of instituting “Milei-style cuts, on steroids.”
That's what's really at stake here: brutal cuts to the government. As I’ve written previously for the blog, Argentina’s president, Javier Milei, instituted severe austerity measures that caused his country’s poverty rate to skyrocket above 50% in the ensuing months. Musk has proposed similar cuts to the ones Milei instituted. And Ramaswamy clearly thinks even more crushing austerity than what Argentina has experienced should be on the menu for Americans. Milei, by the way, has said Musk and Ramaswamy — both billionaires — should push these cuts "to the very limit."
To see how this kind of austerity has worsened poverty and malnutrition in Argentina, check out the Reuters report below. Musk and Ramaswamy's department doesn’t have actual power to impose these kinds of cuts on its own. But one can tell from their op-ed, and their previous statements, that they're going to use every tool at their disposal to pressure the Republicans who do have real power to carry out their frightening fiscal vision.