“The Republican budget proposal could increase U.S. debt by $3 trillion over the next decade.”
“Through a sweeping and controversial executive order, President Donald Trump has taken further steps to empower Elon Musk’s DOGE in its mission to weaken the federal government. On Tuesday, Trump issued yet another executive order, formally cementing DOGE’s authority to overhaul the federal workforce, potentially eliminating thousands of jobs while granting the organization unprecedented new powers to reshape government operations.”
**”Until now, Elon Musk’s attempts to dismantle the federal government have played out in a chaotic, shock-and-awe fashion—marked by abrupt firings, contradictory policies, and headline-grabbing media stunts. However, Trump’s latest executive order brings a new level of structure to these efforts.
The order directs government agencies to prepare for ‘reductions in force’ (RIF), a bureaucratic term that essentially signals mass layoffs. It explicitly instructs agency heads to coordinate closely with DOGE representatives as the process of gutting the federal workforce moves forward.
One of the most striking provisions in the order is a hiring restriction that mandates agencies replace only one employee for every four who leave, under the guise of ‘efficiency improvements and attrition.’ Furthermore, any new hires must be made in consultation with DOGE. The order stipulates that agency leaders must ‘develop a data-driven plan, in consultation with their DOGE Team Lead, to ensure new career appointment hires are in highest-need areas,’ effectively granting DOGE direct influence over federal staffing decisions.”**
**”Despite the sweeping changes, the legality of many of these actions remains uncertain, and DOGE has faced a growing number of legal challenges in recent weeks. On Tuesday, the transparency watchdog American Oversight filed a lawsuit against DOGE over multiple Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests related to the agency’s activities.
Ironically, while Musk has often championed government transparency, the Trump administration’s decision to ‘reorganize the structure of the existing U.S. Digital Service’ to create DOGE appears to have been a deliberate attempt to sidestep FOIA regulations, according to the lawsuit. The legal action seeks to obtain Musk’s communications, aiming to uncover DOGE’s true objectives and operational strategies.”**
**”It’s impossible to separate DOGE’s overarching mission—to shrink the very agencies responsible for delivering public services—from the GOP’s newly unveiled budget, which seems intent on dramatically cutting public spending. These two aligned objectives were front and center during the inaugural hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform’s newly formed DOGE subcommittee, which claims to focus on investigating government ‘waste.’
Leading the subcommittee is the controversial and far-right firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene, who wasted no time in pushing her agenda. During her opening remarks on Wednesday, she referred to government spending as ‘debt slavery‘ and launched into a lengthy tirade about how the federal bureaucracy is allegedly oppressing the American people.”**
Yet contrary to what Republicans have long claimed, a “leaner” government does not necessarily mean less debt, and the Republican Congress has made it known that they’re less interested in reducing budgetary expenses than they are in giving tax breaks to America’s richest people. Indeed, the new budget that the GOP is currently attempting to pass would add $3 trillion to the national debt over the next decade, new estimates show. The way Republicans plan to pay for the renewal of Trump’s tax cuts is by making deep cuts to healthcare and anti-poverty programs that help millions of Americans (including many Trump voters) survive.
The ongoing Republican talking point about irresponsible spending and the national debt is humorous given the fact that, during his first administration, Trump’s policies reportedly led to one of the biggest national debt increases ever. Much of that debt came (again) from Trump’s decision to give giant tax breaks to his fellow billionaires.
Musk’s focus on “government waste” and “fraud” is also ironic, given the fact that the Trump administration seems to be doing everything in its power to gut the internal watchdog services designed to look out for that sort of thing. Trump’s team recently fired a bevy of inspector generals at agencies across the government. IGs are generally tasked with rooting out fraud and abuse at the agencies they’re stationed at. Some of those IGs are now suing the government, in an effort to get their jobs back. The lawsuit calls the administration’s firings “illegal,” and that it constituted “interference with the IGs’ official duties.”