WASHINGTON — It’s not what DOGE is doing; it’s how DOGE is doing it. That’s been the Beltway take on the dream child of Elon Musk and President Donald Trump, the Department of Government Efficiency. Or, “the so-called Department of Government Efficiency,” as The New York Times put it. Th at’s probably why Musk and DOGE lieutenants sat down for an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier on Thursday — to pitch their case directly to the public. “We want to reduce the spending by eliminating waste — reduce the spending by 15%,” Musk explained. And really, if someone with authority in Washington wants to shave $1 trillion off the $6.75 trillion budget, what’s not to like? “This is a revolution,” Musk said plainly. “I’m brutally supportive of the existence of DOGE,” Ryan Bourne, an economist at the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute, told me. Bourne likes that Musk is challenging program budgets because there was no reason to believe the spending plans were just right. “Nobody has approached government reform in this way,” Bourne noted. Musk is cutting the budget as a “tech guy.” “I think DOGE is an exercise that is absolutely long overdue,” said Maya MacGuineas, President of the D.C.-based Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. MacGuineas believes DOGE “will come up with a package probably short of the $1 trillion.” Yes, she noted, “Study first, act second, would have been better sequencing.” As it is, the cuts she defined as “incredibly aggressive” still fall well short of the reforms needed to right the ship. For MacGuineas, the list of reforms would include more taxes, but I don’t see Trump or the GOP Congress going there, at least not while there are big cuts to be had. DOGE has done yeoman’s work finding and exposing boondoggles that don’t pass the smell test, like a $145,000 USDA contract for “Peru climate change activities” and antiquated data systems. Team member Steve Davis told Baier that DOGE was cutting the number of credit card holders in the government from 4.6 million to around 2.3 million. The items add up. Yes, there have been unforced errors. Musk has misspoken about programs that DOGE has targeted, and inside the Beltway that’s a bigger sin than wasting taxpayer money. Bourne and MacGuineas told me they have two major areas of concern. First, Team Trump’s focus on “waste, fraud and abuse” pretty much leaves benefit programs like Social Security off the table. DOGE cuts won’t eliminate deficit spending. As it is, the nation’s IOUs exceed $36 trillion, or nearly $275,000 per household. Second, while Trump talks as if he has unilateral authority to cut spending, even budget hawks argue he has to work with Congress. Related Articles Matt Fleming: Norwalk pushes back on state homelessness policies Trump is setting precedents future Democrats will also abuse. Why doesn’t he care? If California bails out LA’s $1 billion budget deficit, beware the slippery slope Sacramento consistently fails to consider the long-term consequences The hateful rhetoric against immigrants is nothing new “DOGE can’t do all of this alone,” Bourne told me. The administration has to work with the Hill if DOGE wants to survive legal challenges. For me, DOGE is a start, like a toddler learning to walk. You want the kid to walk. Permanent Washington doesn’t want DOGE to walk, so big media focus on the tech bros’ lack of understanding of how Washington works. There’s a saying here very dear to the swamp: You can’t run government like a business. That saying isn’t stopping Musk from trying. Because Washington doesn’t know how to cut spending, so the Silicon Valley vibe may be the only ticket to saving taxpayers’ money in a town that burns through more dollars year over year without blinking. It’s DOGE or runaway debt. Contact Review-Journal Washington columnist Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com. Follow @debrajsaunders on X. ...read more read less