A month in, murmurs are arising in some corners of the Republican coalition against the provocative slash-and-burn campaign of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Maine Senator Susan Collins said DOGE is “making mistakes.” Nebraska Representative Don Bacon told DOGE to “measure twice before cutting.” Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski declared “Many of these abrupt terminations will do more harm than good.”
Now, one can argue that these voices simply represent the “Never-Trump” faction of the Republican Party, which is only continuing to lose influence—and that analysis is correct. (As an aside, Collins, from effectively blue Maine, deserves more understanding than Murkowski from red Alaska, but I digress.)
But when it comes to a simple calculation of government efficiency, the brake-pedal enthusiasts may have a point. Perhaps cutting a Securities and Exchange Commission research tool will make the government less efficient in some ways, not more. Journalists (whose salaries are often paid and sources often come from the very government agencies they defend) will certainly spend the coming weeks and years accumulating a veritable encyclopedia of defenestrated programs that “do good.”
And perhaps they do. But “doing good” does not automatically justify the expense to taxpayers.
DOGE finally gives voice to those Americans who lean toward that old-fashioned notion that the federal government does not have a duty to resolve every single problem on earth. Last I checked, as long as the military keeps running, Social Security checks keep clearing, and national park trash cans keep being emptied, nobody seems terribly bothered by government shutdowns.
But even if we could be convinced that some programs do genuine good, that is not the point. We must cut, and fast because our nation depends upon it—though not for the reasons that may first come to mind.
This isn’t just about our debt, however monumental it has become. And, contrary to DOGE’s name, it’s not just about efficiency. Governments can never be truly efficient, even if obvious waste, grift, and graft are excised.
No, DOGE is necessary because so much of the federal government as it exists today is a weapon wielded by the left to retain its power against the will of the people. The federal government uses our tax dollars to employ the left’s voters, fund the left’s ideological mission at home and abroad, and sustain a vast system of left-wing organizations, publications, and activists to advance its agenda.
That is the case no matter who is elected to any office, meaning conservatives have been fighting an asymmetric political battle for generations.
USAID—the cash cow of international progressivism—is the proverbial tip of the iceberg. The general public was aghast at its funding of transgender operas and third-world sex changes. But the less salacious grant recipients are even more insidious.
For example, USAID has given nearly half a billion dollars to the Internews Network, devoted to, in the words of its president, battling “disinformation” (i.e. any ideas the left doesn’t like) on the global stage. Over 70 percent of Internews Network’s revenue comes from government sources. Much of the rest comes from major left-wing foundations (which likewise receive truckloads of taxpayer money).
Another $2 million of taxpayer money was given to the Chinese for Affirmative Action. The name is self-explanatory.
The federal government also promised to give $2.6 million to Make the Road New York, a group that advocates to abolish ICE.
If you’re keeping track so far, that means our government is paying for restricting free speech, assaulting equality under the law, and undermining federal immigration law. And that’s not even counting state-sponsored lawfare, leaks, investigations, hacks, and other attacks on American citizens, from President Trump down to Paul Vaughn.
Mind you, these examples are chosen at random. Take a deep dive into government transparency resources like the Capital Research Center or Influence Watch if you really want to know just how aggressively your paycheck withholding is being used to demolish fundamental American principles.
Would that “waste” and “inefficiency” be our only problems? The real threat is that, right now, American taxpayers are being forced to pay for the destruction of our constitutional freedoms and the rule of law.
With that in mind, DOGE isn’t just some aggressive cost-saving initiative. It’s an existential outburst of the American republic desperately trying to cut the noose around its neck—a noose it was forced to pay for itself.
President Trump and Elon Musk can’t stop now. Indeed, President Trump was right when he told Musk to be even more aggressive. We have four years to rid ourselves of as much of the left’s publicly funded power apparatus as we can. Because one day they’ll be back.
When that happens, we have only one hope to keep future fights fair: Destroy or debilitate every taxpayer-purchased political weapon we can before they’re used against the American people again.
Horatius is the pen name of a writer who served in the first Trump White House and on Capitol Hill.
