Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy's Bold Plan to Slash the Bureaucratic Swamp
In a country where unelected bureaucrats scuttle around Washington, issuing countless rules, the simple notion that the people we elect should be the ones running the government has somehow become quaint. This isn’t how our Founders envisioned America, and thank goodness, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy seem poised to fix it. This duo, with their newly christened Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), plans to do what countless well-meaning committees and limp commissions have promised but failed to achieve: hack through the dense, ugly jungle of bureaucratic overgrowth. The difference? Musk and Ramaswamy are not politicians but entrepreneurs with an allergy to red tape and a talent for efficiency.
For those keeping score, Musk and Ramaswamy aren’t setting out to merely shuffle around paperwork or rebrand departments—they’re planning a fundamental overhaul that will take us back to what made this nation great: a government that actually serves the people. Their plan to "Make Government Smaller Again" will focus on three main pillars: regulatory rescission, administrative reduction, and cost savings. Regulatory rescission involves eliminating rules that exceed Congressional authority, administrative reduction targets cutting down the bureaucratic workforce, and cost savings focuses on ending wasteful spending and unauthorized expenditures. With the Constitution as their guiding North Star and recent Supreme Court rulings providing the necessary legal underpinnings, DOGE plans to cut the fat and get to the heart of what government should do—protect life, liberty, and property—without all the flabby regulation.
The DOGE Blueprint: Regulation Rescission
Our government has become a monster that no one elected. Day by day, faceless bureaucrats with absolutely no accountability impose rules that have the weight of law, yet which no Congress has voted on and no president has signed. Musk and Ramaswamy have a very simple response to this: rescind and reform.
Their first move is regulatory rescission, and it’s a bold one. The heart of their approach lies in leveraging two recent Supreme Court cases that shook the regulatory status quo: West Virginia v. EPA (2022) and Loper Bright v. Raimondo (2024). In short, the court reminded agencies that they don’t get to make up their own powers when Congress hasn’t given them any. By using these cases, DOGE plans to work alongside embedded legal experts in government agencies, aided by advanced technology—likely some Musk-approved AI wizardry—to systematically identify regulations that overstep Congressional authority. This is where the magic happens. DOGE’s team will present their findings to President Trump, who, in true Trumpian fashion, will wield executive orders not to expand power, but to retract it, immediately pausing the enforcement of these rogue regulations.
There will be critics, of course, yammering about "executive overreach." Musk and Ramaswamy are ready to counter with irony and legal rigor: what they're doing is actually rolling back decades of executive overreach, not committing it. This is akin to restoring the Constitution’s rightful balance—an act of executive subtraction, rather than addition. A future president, after these regulatory rollbacks are complete, wouldn’t simply be able to revive them with the flick of a pen; they would have to go through Congress, as they should have done in the first place.
Administrative Reduction: Shrinking the Leviathan
Now, regulations are only half the battle. The other half is the entrenched bureaucrats who enforce them. Here’s where Elon and Vivek truly take the axe to the base of the bureaucratic tree. Musk and Ramaswamy plan on conducting a serious "rightsizing" of the federal workforce—at least proportional to the reduction in federal regulations. If the government is going to enforce fewer rules, then it stands to reason that it needs fewer employees.
Using the legal precedent set by cases like Franklin v. Massachusetts (1992), which affirmed the president's authority in certain executive actions, and Collins v. Yellen (2021), which clarified the president's power to remove certain officials, DOGE believes the president can prescribe sweeping rules for the civil service, including large-scale reductions. Despite claims that statutory civil-service protections prevent mass layoffs, Musk and Ramaswamy argue that the president can indeed implement reductions-in-force without targeting specific individuals. They also plan to require federal employees to return to the office five days a week, which should lead to a number of voluntary resignations. Human resources experts estimate that as many as 20% of federal workers may seek new employment if required to work full-time from their offices. American taxpayers should not be expected to cover costs for employees to work remotely without sufficient justification.
DOGE will also closely examine which positions are genuinely necessary for government agencies to fulfill their constitutional functions. In the private sector, excess staffing is typically reduced to improve productivity, as having too many employees often hampers efficiency. The same principle should apply to government. DOGE's goal is to treat federal employees with respect, offering incentives for early retirement or severance, while ensuring that fewer regulations result in fewer regulators.
Cost Savings: Ending the Fiscal Insanity
Washington is filled with numerous federal programs that are inefficiently using taxpayer dollars for questionable purposes. Musk and Ramaswamy’s DOGE plan takes a no-nonsense approach to ending these spending abuses, starting with a target of the $500 billion per year in expenditures that Congress never properly authorized such as the National Institutes of Health medical research funding that continues despite expired authorizations or the FBI' operational funding that persists without current legislative approval.
In a daring move, DOGE will suspend payments on longstanding federal contracts and conduct audits to root out inefficiencies. This even includes shining a bright, illuminating light on the Pentagon, which, lest we forget, failed seven consecutive audits and cannot account for how its $800 billion budget is spent. It’s a staggering reminder that the problem isn’t just social programs; military and defense budgets have their fair share of waste as well. For example, the Pentagon's failed audits reveal billions of dollars unaccounted for, highlighting a lack of oversight and financial control. Additionally, expenditures on redundant defense contracts and outdated military technology continue to drain resources without tangible benefits.
Another crucial tactic is reasserting presidential power over federal spending through impoundment, a power that was severely weakened by the Impoundment Control Act (ICA) of 1974. In response to President Nixon's bold use of impoundment to control federal spending, Congress passed the ICA to limit the President’s ability to withhold or delay funding, effectively stripping future Presidents of this essential authority. Before the ICA, Presidents from Jefferson to Kennedy exercised impoundment to prevent wasteful spending, aligning expenditures with their executive priorities. The ICA's restrictions transformed the President from a steward of taxpayer funds into a mere bookkeeper, obligated to spend every dollar as Congress dictates, regardless of necessity or effectiveness.
The Unitary Executive Theory provides the constitutional basis for reclaiming impoundment authority. At its core, this theory emphasizes that all executive power rests solely with the President, as articulated in Article II of the Constitution. This authority allows the President to execute laws with judgment, including managing federal funds prudently. Without this discretion, the President’s ability to effectively oversee the executive branch is compromised. The Supreme Court’s decision in Zivotofsky v. Kerry (2015) further reinforces this idea, asserting that certain powers belong exclusively to the President, especially in areas central to executive function.
By embracing the Unitary Executive Theory, President Trump could argue for the restoration of impoundment authority as a legitimate tool for ensuring fiscal discipline. This move would allow the President to halt unnecessary spending and rein in agency budgets that have far exceeded their original scope, such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It’s about prioritizing the efficient use of taxpayer dollars and aligning federal spending with the administration’s vision, rather than letting bureaucratic inertia dictate national priorities. Reclaiming this power is not only practical governance but a necessary reassertion of constitutional authority to prevent Congress from overreaching into executive responsibilities.
A Trump administration committed to impoundment could curtail unnecessary spending within federal agencies, using judicial precedents such as Zivotofsky v. Kerry (2015) to assert that Congress cannot micromanage executive action, especially in managing government resources. Reclaiming impoundment not only saves taxpayer money but ensures that every federal dollar spent reflects executive intent—an essential step in reversing the unchecked expansion of regulatory agencies that stifles both liberty and efficiency.
Moreover, DOGE will target non-defense discretionary spending that is not constitutionally sound: from grants to international organizations, to funding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, to subsidies for organizations like Planned Parenthood. If it doesn't serve a legitimate function under the Constitution, it has no place in federal spending. This is what makes DOGE a unique solution—it's about pruning the expenditures that the taxpayer neither voted for nor benefits from.
Musk, Ramaswamy, and the Vision of Limited Government
DOGE isn’t about temporary tweaks. It's a transformative shift that aims to fundamentally overhaul how the federal government operates. This transformation includes scaling down the vast bureaucratic workforce, eliminating outdated regulations that stifle economic growth, and reclaiming executive powers that have been diluted over time. Expected outcomes include a leaner government that operates more efficiently, a significant reduction in federal spending by eliminating unauthorized expenditures, and a restoration of executive authority that enables the President to more directly manage the federal budget. This shift is designed to make government accountable, responsive, and aligned with constitutional principles, ultimately leading to a government that serves the people rather than entangling them in red tape. With the recent election of President Trump and a Supreme Court that holds a 6-3 conservative majority, Musk and Ramaswamy believe they have a rare opportunity to bring about structural reductions that would make our Founders smile. Their goal is simple but ambitious: to eliminate the need for DOGE entirely by July 4, 2026. They aim to wrap up their work in time for America’s 250th anniversary, leaving behind a government that is more limited, more accountable, and more efficient.
We’re well aware of the inevitable resistance. The entrenched interests in Washington won’t go quietly, nor will the legions of lobbyists whose livelihoods depend on the kind of red tape that DOGE aims to cut through. These interests include powerful unions representing federal workers, industries that benefit from regulatory complexity such as defense contractors, and advocacy groups that rely on continued funding for their operations. Additionally, large consulting firms and contractors that thrive on the bureaucratic inefficiencies in government procurement processes are likely to push back against these changes. Musk and Ramaswamy expect an onslaught from the bureaucratic establishment, but they are ready for it. The goal is not just to make government smaller for the sake of doing so, but to align it more closely with its original intent: protecting the natural rights of citizens and ensuring that governance is conducted by the people we actually elect.
This is the sort of governance-by-the-people restoration that Republicans—especially those of us who have lived through the rise of executive bloat—have been yearning for. It’s high time we recognize that it’s not just politicians that need reigning in; it’s the unaccountable machinery of government that has quietly grown beyond our ability to check it.
Final Thoughts
In the end, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy’s "DOGE" isn’t just a cute acronym. It is an ambitious vision to transform the federal bureaucracy from an overfed beast into a lean instrument of the people's will. In some ways, it is the ultimate "drain the swamp" moment—one that gets at the deep systemic roots of the problem rather than playing whack-a-mole with its symptoms.
DOGE’s very design is meant to counteract the bureaucratic inertia that has overtaken our nation, forcing accountability and transparency back into the bloodstream of American governance. Musk and Ramaswamy aim to take on the entrenched bureaucracy with the same relentless logic that entrepreneurs use to tackle market inefficiencies. It’s a return to constitutional principles, backed by an understanding that government must exist for the good of the governed—not as a bloated, self-serving entity with an appetite for unending growth.
The mandate is clear. With a return to a government that is truly of, by, and for the people, Musk and Ramaswamy are making sure that by 2026, when America celebrates 250 years of independence, it does so with a federal government worthy of its original promise—a government smaller, sharper, and, at long last, efficient.
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