President-elect Donald Trump hopes to use the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to cut wasteful government spending, but Federal government experts on Monday advised the group to focus more on “effectiveness” – not just cutting costs.
Trump has tapped businessmen Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk to lead the DOGE – which is not an official government agency, but an advisory group.
Musk said the DOGE could cut “at least $2 trillion” from the $6.75 trillion Federal budget, but government experts at GovExec’s Trump & GovCon event on Dec. 16 argued that number is far from what’s needed to run an efficient government.
“I would call it a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” said Joel Friedman – the senior vice president for Federal fiscal policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and former financial economist at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) – when referring to DOGE.
“No one can argue that there’s room for more efficiency in the Federal government, but talking about improving efficiency and talking about cutting … $2 trillion, a third of the Federal budget, if that’s really what your goal is, you’re talking about way more than efficiency,” Friedman said. “You’re talking about gutting important programs.”
Jenny Mattingley, the vice president of government affairs at the Partnership for Public Service, added that the DOGE should focus more on “the other E-word besides efficiency, which is effectiveness.”
Mattingley explained that every new administration must answer the question, “What is it you want to do?” and then staff and budget accordingly to meet set outcomes. She hopes the DOGE will set specific outcomes, as well as help with what she referred to as “myth busting.”
“There’s a lot of myths around the Federal government. So, if this is an opportunity to get out there and collectively myth bust on some of that while looking for ways to make it more effective, that would be a positive,” Mattingley said.
Larry Allen, the president of consulting firm Allen Federal Business Partners, said he also believes the DOGE can offer positives to the Federal government – as long as it doesn’t focus solely on cutting costs.
“I see DOGE as an opportunity,” Allen said, adding that it could examine a range of government operations – “whether it’s an antiquated personnel system or outdated IT or a mission that made sense during the Cold War.”
“If we’re going to look at a DOGE operation that examines those questions, to look at ways to reduce the missions of government, [and] change the footprint around, then I think we’re on to something,” Allen said.
“If it’s going to be something where it’s simply a cost-cutting measure, and that’s going to be the ne plus ultra, I think we’ll miss an opportunity, and I also don’t know just how effective it would be long-term,” he warned.
Ramaswamy made Federal IT headlines earlier this month when he said that DOGE’s success hinges on the need to modernize technology across the Federal government. Specifically, the DOGE co-lead said IT modernization “has low-hanging fruit” that will “strictly improve the effectiveness with which the taxpayer dollar is actually spent.”
That talk of IT modernization leading to government effectiveness is something today’s speakers hope the DOGE will focus on going forward.
For example, Adam Hughes, the president and founder of GovNavigators, referenced a recent post on X from Musk that read, “The government runs on ancient computers and software. Needs an upgrade!”
Hughes said the obvious post made him “chuckle,” adding that “there’s going to be a bit of a learning curve” for folks who don’t work in the Federal government.
“But I am also hopeful that [Musk] can use the influence that he has [and] maybe we can make some faster progress on modernizing some of these outdated, antiquated systems that we have,” Hughes said.
