If you’re not a fan of efficiency, there’s something wrong with you. Or you’re hiding something.
That’s an easy thing for the average American to think and believe because we’ve been all in on the goal of increasing efficiency for decades.
Within the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Office of Productivity and Technology exists in order to measure how efficiently the U.S. converts inputs into the outputs of goods and services. As laborers, we are driven to be increasingly efficient.
The automobile industry produces, and consumers purchase, fuel-efficient vehicles. In 1975, The Energy Policy and Conservation Act required vehicles manufactured by 1978 to achieve 18 miles per gallon. In 2007, The Energy Independence and Security Act required average fuel economy for 2020 models to be at 35 miles per gallon. Since then, there’s been a great obsession with hybrid and electric vehicles. The government doesn’t just monitor efficiency, it mandates it.
Achieving efficiency has become part of our everyday home life, too. Modern washing machines were available by the 1940s, dishwashers by the 1950s, and microwaves by the 1960s. And, smartphones—used correctly—provide great efficiencies in managing our lives.
There have been plenty of “efficiency is good” messages over the years.
That’s why most are behind the efforts of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). According to Gallup reporting, “56% of U.S. adults agreed that the government is almost always wasteful and inefficient…that 58% of Americans are dissatisfied with the size and power of the federal government…seven in 10 Americans in 2019 agreed that businesses can do things more efficiently than the federal government…and Americans think at least half of all money spent by the federal government is wasted.”
Elon Musk, who is heading the efforts of DOGE, started with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and found: hundreds of millions of American taxpayer dollars funding irrigation canals, farming equipment and fertilizer to support poppy cultivation and heroin production in Afghanistan and likely benefiting the Taliban, millions to EcoHealth Alliance—which was involved in research at the Wuhan Lab, $6 million to fund tourism in Egypt, $2.5 million for electric vehicles for Vietnam, $2 million for sex changes and LGBT activism in Guatemala, and $1.5 million to advance DEI in Serbia’s workplaces.
The list is long and absurd. It’s easy to imagine USAID bureaucrats getting a pretty good laugh at the taxpayers’ expense. It’s almost as though these federal workers repeatedly outdid each other—just for fun—to find an even more ridiculous way to waste taxpayer money.
There are hundreds of federal agencies. This is only the beginning.
There’s just one problem.
Turns out that saving taxpayer money isn’t a bipartisan issue. Many Democratic lawmakers not only don’t want anything to do with it—they are intent on shutting down its operation.
It doesn’t make any sense. These people may have something to hide, which makes transparency even more important.
Three, ugly reasons can explain why some lawmakers desire secrecy.
They’re incompetent or lazy. In this scenario, nothing intentionally deceitful is going on. They’re just poor managers—either by intellect or choice. They either don’t possess good managerial and oversight skills or they choose not to use them. Either way, these lawmakers fail citizens by allowing free rein to bureaucracies and don’t belong in Congress.
They’re corrupt. If following the money leads to the discovery of any type of kickbacks to politicians, they’re not just lazy or incompetent fools—they’re unethical at best and criminals at worst. And although the wailing and gnashing of teeth is coming primarily from the Democratic party right now, it will not be surprising to find plenty of dishonest and corrupt Republicans as well. They all need to go.
They’re jealous. Partisanship is so rampant in the beltway that Democrats may not want to support a good and successful idea for the only reason that Republicans came up with it. That’s small-minded. With the number of big problems that need solving, it’s not a characteristic we can afford in Congress.
Of course, as voters, we’re not completely off the hook. We voted for these people, often over and over. Remember the ones who are fighting hard to stop your right for efficiency in government and boot them out of office at the next election.
It’s time for 300 million people to be respected again by Congress and federal bureaucrats—not laughed at by wasting their taxes in obscene ways.
Lazy, incompetent, corrupt, and jealous politicians and bureaucrats have enjoyed a costly run.
But the American taxpayer is in charge again.
Moving the Conversation Along 