OPINION:
House Speaker Mike Johnson, at the behest of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy’s informal Department of Government Efficiency, is “plotting” — as critics like to call it — to eliminate over 75% of federal government agencies. Under their plan, 428 agencies would be slashed to 99.
Naturally, this has sent Washington’s bureaucratic elite into a frenzy. Power-hungry agency heads and other self-serving defenders of big government are warning the American people that this move is too extreme and will dismantle the government as we know it.
What they fail to grasp is that shrinking the size and scope of the government is precisely what the people want.
For decades, Washington bureaucrats have ballooned the regulatory state at the expense of businesses and taxpayers. In 2024 alone, Americans will foot the $390 billion bill for federal employee pay and benefits. New regulations and subsidies under the Biden administration are expected to add $1.5 trillion. And that’s before factoring in the inefficiency, fraud and abuse across the hundreds of agencies propping up the red tape regime.
This is where DOGE’s vision offers an unprecedented opportunity to restore fiscal sanity. By cutting wasteful, ideologically driven spending, we can finally stop the hemorrhaging of taxpayer dollars that undermines Americans’ way of life.
Over the summer, Advancing American Freedom released a memo in the same spirit. We outlined a plan to address our ballooning debt and called for deep cuts to the federal bureaucracy. We believe DOGE should champion this plan and make it its own.
The path ahead requires a serious reckoning with the systemic rot that has allowed waste and abuse to flourish.
Start with earmarks. These taxpayer-funded allocations, directed at pet projects in legislators’ own districts, have become synonymous with pork-barrel spending. Pressuring Congress to reinstate the long-standing ban that once kept them in check is a necessary first step.
Likewise, federal benefits should go only to those who qualify legally, not to illegal immigrants who skirt the rules. This is a simple matter of fairness for taxpayers who follow the rules and fund these programs in good faith.
Taxpayer-funded corporate subsidies must also be eliminated. These handouts amount to little more than corporate welfare that distort the free market while draining public resources.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration’s obsession with funding programs to promote diversity, equity and inclusion has turned federal spending into a vehicle for ideological warfare. DOGE must prohibit taxpayer dollars from being funneled into these divisive programs.
Then we have the billions in unused COVID-19 funding sitting idle while our national debt spirals out of control. That money was meant for an emergency that has long since passed. It’s time to claw it back and redirect it toward reducing the national debt and easing the burden on future generations.
The Inflation Reduction Act, or more accurately the Green New Deal, is another prime example of unchecked government overreach: Sold as a $430 billion investment, it is now expected to cost taxpayers $1 trillion over the next decade. Worse, companies linked to China are reaping the benefits of its tax credits. And why is it that, despite allocating $7.5 billion for electric vehicle charging stations, just 20 have been energized?
Mandatory spending, too, is overdue for serious reform. Current welfare programs foster only dependency, discourage the work incentives needed for economic growth and drain billions from taxpayers. We must prioritize accountability and require able-bodied Americans to work in exchange for benefits.
Similarly, the Biden administration’s student loan cancellation scheme, which could cost another $1 trillion, must be stopped on day one. That the proposal even got this far is an insult to taxpayers who followed the rules and paid off their own loans.
Moreover, nondefense discretionary spending needs to return to pre-COVID levels. Shutdown brinkmanship has pressured Republicans into accepting bloated budgets that only fuel the federal government’s unchecked growth. To break this cycle, DOGE should push for automatic continuing resolutions that reduce funding by 1% each year when deadlines are missed. This sequestration approach would finally begin to rein in government spending, which surged from $518 billion in 2017 to $765 billion in 2023.
These recommendations only scratch the surface. Far more must be done to regain control over our national debt and avoid stagflation. But this would set us on the right path and send a clear message that the era of unchecked government spending is over.
The bureaucratic status quo may wail and protest, but what voters want is unmistakable. It’s time to stop the waste, fraud and ideological overreach. We encourage DOGE to take a page from our agenda and lead the charge. With its leadership, I’m confident this mission will succeed.
• Tim Chapman is president of Advancing American Freedom.
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