Inertia – resistance to change, the tendency of a body to stay at rest – is strong. President Trump will face considerable bureaucratic inertia as he begins to downsize. Theodore Roosevelt (TR) and Ronald Reagan showed it can be done, but it is hard – for presidents and governors.
In 1905, having been governor of New York, TR assumed the presidency – winning his first election after the partial term served when McKinley was killed in 1901. McKinley, of course, served after Grover Cleveland’s second term – the only other president, besides Trump, to get elected to serve non-sequential terms.
TR immediately pushed reform of the government, which he thought was wasteful. Ironically, total federal spending when TR got elected was half a billion dollars, $567 million. By the time Reagan won, it was $477 billion. Trump will take over with a $5-trillion annual federal budget, and $36 trillion in federal debt.
Put differently, federal spending and debt today are a whopping 82,000 times more than under TR, 86 times more than when Reagan was cutting. So, you can see the mountain, and see it reaching skyward, that President Trump will need to scale.
TR’s actions are what Reagan later did and what Trump aims to do. He created a downsizing commission headed by a lawyer, banker, and assistant to the Treasury named Charles Keep. Thus, while TR’s commission was officially the “Committee on Department Methods,” it was unofficially the “Keep Commission.”
Succeed? Partially. TR and his commission improved personnel, purchasing, contracting, statistics, and records management, but spending did not fall.
Reagan went further, downsizing as governor of California first. Feeling that the state was adrift, overspending, overtaxing, and encroaching on personal liberties, he set up a commission on “efficiency and cost control,” which generated 2000 findings.
As President, Reagan set up a “Cost Control” commission for federal downsizing, led by a businessman – Peter Grace – and thus was called the “Grace Commission.”
This privately funded group – the “DOGE” of its day – was created by executive order, got $76 million in private money to do its work, pulling ideas from 160 CEOs manning 36 task forces – all aimed at reducing government.
Notably, it had zero federal employees and was told by Reagan to “be bold.” They were. They generated a 47-volume report of 23,000 pages, found 2,478 cost-cutting opportunities, and aimed to save half a trillion dollars, which at the time was a lot.
They reported in 1984: “The federal government is suffering from a critical case of inefficient and ineffective management, evidenced particularly by the hemorrhaging of billions of tax dollars and mounting deficits.”
Of course, critics fired back – called the cuts unfair, discriminatory, too few defense cuts, savings overstated, accounting tricks, and would hurt federal retirees.
Many “Grace Commission” recommendations were made, but Reagan did not have control of the US House and only 27 percent could be done by executive action.
Now comes the “Musk Commission,” aimed at reducing the wildly bloated federal government footprint. Maybe, finally, they can do what the others did not.
The Musk or DOGE dive on the “deep state” will be done by a president who may be ready to redline whole agencies and departments to accelerate savings.
President Trump also enjoys control – for now – of Congress, so can push a major government reform and efficiency packages through if he moves fast.
Additionally, the mood of the country – more than in the past – is all for getting government out of people’s lives, less spending, lower taxes, reduced regulation, fewer federal intrusions on rights, wild mandates, subsidies, and shutting down sectors.
In short, Trump has a moment not enjoyed by either TR or Reagan and a mandate to do what he is planning – but he also has a far bigger, arguably uncontainable federal government bureaucracy that wants to protect all that spending.
Net-net, the chances for success are higher, and the mission is now critical, but the inertia Trump faces is considerable. Somewhere, along with most Americans, TR and Reagan are probably watching, nodding, hoping, and praying Trump can do it. We should be, too.
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman for AMAC.
RBC – My concern is with the Senate, as any Senator can indefinitely filibuster a bill by clicking a box. In my opinion, the filibuster rule should be changed back to how it was in the 60’s. If a senator wants to filibuster, then keep on talking on the floor. Too many Senators are lazy and do not want the inconvenience of being on the floor to block a bill. Perhaps that rule will get changed in the new year. I have my doubts.
What we do know is that the House and Senate have advocated their responsibilities to unelected bureaucrats who pretty much do as they damn well please so the Reps and Senators can spend all their time running for office instead of running the country. That is what must stop. Having single subject bills instead of completely impossible 2000 page monstrosities would help because then the lazy Congressmen would actually be able to read them.Rant finished.
The Deep State is so much deeper than it was under TR or Reagan. It seems an impossible job, especially since the House majority GOP is so slim, and some of them want to obstruct. But I wish Trump and DOGE the best of luck. They’ll need it.
There will be kicking and screaming from democrats, who do not want their cage rattled . Not only should it be rattled but emptied and scrubbed clean
The current U. S. government has more in common with the government we threw out in 1775 than the government created by the Framers. The Federal government from top to bottom, is opposed to the values of either the Founders or the Framers. They are like characters straight out of “Animal Farm.” They clearly believe that they are better than the rest of us. Time to throw them all out and start over. Perhaps we could ship them all to Canada or Venezuela.
Thanks for the historical context Mr.Charles. I think they should start cutting immediately and not wait for Congress. Boom, out the gate. That way the Republicans will understand the President means business. The Democrats will object to everything. So you ignore them and focus on convincing the Republicans to go along.
We, the voters, are also “watching, nodding, hoping, and praying” that real, constructive change takes place in the near future. And let us keep an eye on Congress while we are alert and aware. Inertial is powerful in our long-term politicians. Term limits could be mighty helpful in trimming “deadwood”.
Solutions:
Fire remote workers
Snitchline ph#, website, text to DOGE
Inspector Gens report to DOGE
Reports made Public
ID waste inside aside from ex employees input if any
IGs report to DOGE vs Congress then DOGE reports to Congress
I’m in a “wait & see” mode. Politicians love spending someone else’s money; its an addiction for them! We’ll see how many recommendations from DOGE they actually implement.
When they used to teach government in school, we were told that the government was made up of bureaucracies of unelected and usually appointed individuals. They had the mindset of those who sponsored them. Some would remain entrenched in the system for decades and carry out their business as usual. Today, no one seems to know what anyone does except when the government shuts down, like when they fail to pass a budget. These non essential departments are then revealed until they quietly dissappear when funding is restored. It’s not so much inertia than the bloated size of government. Remember the saying “too big to fail”? It might be a government slogan.