The Department of Government Efficiency Explained

WatchMojo

Dive into the controversial world of DOGE, Elon Musk's new temporary organization under the U.S. federal government. We'll explore its origins, goals, key players, and the unprecedented access it's been granted to reshape government operations.

Transcript

00:00Breaking overnight. Workers at the U.S. Agency for International Development, USAID, in Washington

00:05were told to stay home. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're breaking down the purpose,

00:10goals, and reactions to Elon Musk's new temporary organization under the U.S. federal government.

00:16We asked the president, you know, is there anything that you would not allow? And he said,

00:20if there was something that didn't have my okay, I'd let you know about that really fast.

00:25What would that possibly be? Why was Doge started?

00:30There are growing questions regarding what government programs could be slashed after

00:34President-elect Donald Trump announced the creation of the Department of Government Efficiency. Trump

00:39appointed the world's richest man, Elon Musk, and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy to head up the

00:43new department, also known as Doge. Musk has vowed to cut roughly $2 trillion in spending from the

00:48government's annual budget. That could impact millions of Americans who both work at U.S.

00:53government agencies and use government provided programs. Historically, the Republican Party

00:59platform has promoted the idea of smaller government, emphasizing personal responsibility

01:04and limiting perceived overreach into the affairs of the average American. As such,

01:10the newly established Department of Government Efficiency aims to reduce what it refers to as

01:15wasteful spending in an attempt to rapidly streamline and balance the federal budget.

01:19So two thirds of this, of the budget of the 6.75 trillion dollar budget in 2024

01:25is mandatory spending. So that is everything from your Social Security, your Medicare,

01:30the mandatory spending that is required by existing law. Discretionary spending is everything

01:37from research, research to transportation to employment. Right. How does it plan to do that?

01:43By implementing intense, unforgiving measures that so far have largely focused on drastically

01:49reducing the size of the federal workforce. Organization head Musk has suggested that out

01:54of the 400 existing federal agencies, fewer than 100 could be safe from Doge's wrath.

02:00Of course, we should point out that the Department of Government Efficiency isn't

02:04actually a new federal executive department, like the U.S. Department of Justice or Education.

02:10That would need to be passed through Congress, and establishing it as a temporary organization

02:14frees it from significant levels of oversight, which its critics have largely decried.

02:19If things like Medicare, Social Security are part of the mandatory,

02:24if they wanted to touch those, they would have to go through Congress. That could take a while.

02:28Exactly. So in order to change any of those programs, you would have to pass a law. And I

02:33think a lot of folks are sitting at home wondering, well, I don't want any of that

02:37touched. I've paid into that over time. I'm owed that. Who is involved in Doge?

02:42We're going to have safe cities, finally, safe cities, secure borders, sensible spending,

02:49basic stuff. And we're going to take Doge to Mars.

02:54We should probably begin with the man who started it all, South African-born billionaire Elon Musk.

03:01The Tesla and SpaceX CEO who owns the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter,

03:07has been a crucial key advisor to President Donald Trump even before his presidency officially

03:12began. Vivek Ramaswamy, another businessman who competed with President Trump for the 2024

03:18Republican presidential nomination, was slated to head Doge alongside Musk, but dropped out in

03:24January 2025 after reported infighting between the two. A Trump transition spokesperson says

03:30that Vivek has stepped away from the Department of Government Efficiency because he's possibly

03:35going to run for the governor of Ohio. Now, on social media, Vivek says this. He says, quote,

03:40I'm it was my honor to help support the creation of Doge. I'm confident that Elon and the team

03:45will succeed in streamlining government. I'll have more to say soon about my future plans for Ohio.

03:51Musk has recruited several Republican politicians to serve on Doge related subcommittees.

03:56These include the U.S. House representatives Aaron Bean and Pete Sessions, who chair the

04:01Delivering Outstanding Government Efficiency Caucus. A congressional subcommittee will be

04:06headed by controversial Georgia rep Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa

04:12will represent Doge in the U.S. Senate. Democratic Congressman Jared Moskowitz of Florida is the only

04:18member of his party to have announced his participation in the congressional subcommittee.

04:23At the end of the day, I think everyone in Congress is of the position that government

04:27isn't perfect. Right. So I'm looking for ways to improve government. I think the American people

04:31expect us to find ways to improve government. And in some places that may be shrinking the

04:34size of government, by the way, that used to be a Republican concept. But lately,

04:39they want more government in bedrooms. What are Doge's goals?

04:42Agencies in Washington are acting out of step with the rules set by Congress. And they say

04:47with the backing of two Supreme Court cases that happened under President Biden's administration,

04:53they have the ability to go in and broadly make these large cuts across the government.

04:59An op ed published by Musk and Ramaswamy at the end of November 2024, shortly after the election

05:04that returned President Trump to power, revealed the direction they could be expected to take their

05:09organization in. The Wall Street Journal piece announced that, quote, We are assisting the Trump

05:14administration team to identify and hire a lean team of small government crusaders, including

05:20some of the sharpest technical and legal minds in America. Now, they say things like Medicare

05:24and Medicaid will be safe. But things like Planned Parenthood could see some dramatic cuts.

05:30And we know the Department of Education has also been in their line of sight of something they

05:34would like to see cut down, significantly reduced or perhaps diminished entirely. So a lot of

05:40arguments there about what this could look like, what government could look like. But ultimately,

05:45they say they want to shrink the size of government. The now former colleagues also

05:49shared that they would pursue three major kinds of reform, regulatory rescissions,

05:53administrative reduction and cost savings, and that they would drive change through executive

05:58action based on existing legislation rather than by passing new laws. They go on to say that Doge

06:04will present this list of regulations to President Trump, who can by executive action, immediately

06:09pause the enforcement of those regulations and initiate the process for review and rescission.

06:15In doing so, Musk claims that based on a figure calculated by Senator Ernst,

06:19Doge will be able to trim $2 trillion from the federal budget.

06:23Well, this is a personal issue for me. It should not be a partisan issue. After all,

06:31every American benefits from a more efficient government and everyone loses when tax dollars

06:39are wasted. What has Doge done so far? Treasury Secretary Scott Besant reportedly

06:45granting Elon Musk's Doge team access to the federal government's payment system,

06:49which handles trillions of dollars in payments. That move is ostensibly about rooting out

06:54government waste, but many are concerned about potential politically motivated meddling and

06:59the exposure of sensitive taxpayer information. We'll get to the unprecedented security clearance

07:05and access to sensitive information that Musk and Doge have been granted in a bit. For now,

07:10what has Doge gotten up to since President Trump's inauguration on January 20th, 2025?

07:16As several prominent news outlets have reported, quite a lot, actually. The billionaire and his

07:21team of engineers, volunteers, and corporate allies have been moving at lightning speed

07:26to reshape the structure of the US government as we currently know it. As reported by Wired,

07:31Musk hollowed out the US Office of Personal Management and replaced its highest ranking

07:36members with his own former employees. One of the FAQs, why am I being offered a deferred

07:41resignation? The answer, the federal workforce is expected to undergo significant near term changes.

07:48You may wish to depart on terms that provide you with sufficient time and economic security.

07:53Now we don't know if there'll be loyalty tests, if we're going to have to basically bow down and

07:57say, OK, you know, yes, we we will pledge allegiance to every single thing that that

08:02the president's doing or our jobs are gone. A fork in the road memo sent by the OPM on

08:08January 28th to all US federal servants offered them a choice, accept a deferred resignation and

08:14be paid until the end of September, pledge your allegiance to President Trump or be forcibly

08:19removed. In early February, Musk announced that the United States Agency for International

08:23Development or USAID, an organization he has repeatedly criticized, would be shut down on

08:29Trump's orders. As we dug into USAID, it became apparent that what we have here is is not an apple

08:35with a worm in it, but we have actually just a ball of worms. Is Doge a shadow government? Friday

08:41night, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, led by billionaire Elon Musk, gained

08:48access to the Treasury Department's entire system of payments, including Social Security and

08:53Medicare benefits and Americans tax refunds. New York Senator and Senate Minority Leader Chuck

08:59Schumer blasted Musk and Doge in a post to X, saying that, quote, an unelected shadow government

09:05is conducting a hostile takeover of the federal government. Doge has no authority to shut programs

09:11down or to ignore federal law. Doge's conduct cannot be allowed to stand, end quote. Schumer's

09:18grave tone aligns with publicly expressed fears that, true to its mandate, Doge has no responsibility

09:24to the government and can operate free from regulatory oversight and out from under the eyes

09:29of the American public. This weekend, Doge staffers also executed what can only be described as an

09:35illegal seizure of the U.S. Agency for International Development or USAID. We don't know who these

09:42Doge staffers are. We don't know if they have security clearances. We don't know what legal

09:49authority they have to access USAID facilities, if any. As reported by the Associated Press,

09:55this comes on the heels of Musk having, quote, created an alternative power structure within

10:00the federal government. The executive order that established Doge, reported on by The New York

10:05Times, stated unequivocally that Doge employees would have, quote, full and prompt access to all

10:11unclassified agency records, software systems and I.T. systems, end quote. As such, alarm bells

10:18went off when David Lebrick, a career civil rights servant at the Treasury Department,

10:23was fired after denying Doge access to a system that controls $5.4 trillion in federal payments.

10:29The Post says it is unclear what exactly Elon Musk's team wanted to do, why they wanted access

10:36to this incredibly sensitive system. One former Treasury Department official tells The Post, quote,

10:42this payment system has never been used in a way to execute a partisan agenda. You have to really

10:48put bad intentions in place for that to be the case. Before we continue, be sure to subscribe

10:54to our channel and ring the bell to get notified about our latest videos. You have the option to

10:59be notified for occasional videos or all of them. If you're on your phone, make sure you go into

11:04settings and switch on your notifications. What are people saying about Doge? Elon Musk is right.

11:12The Pentagon, with a budget of $886 billion, just failed its seventh audit in a row. It's lost track

11:18of billions. Last year, only 13 senators voted against the military-industrial complex and a

11:24defense budget full of waste and fraud. That must change. Matt Gaetz wrote on X, welcome home Bernie.

11:32As you can probably guess, Doge and its initiatives have been met with a predictably

11:36polarizing response. Some in the private sector, like CEOs Jamie Dimon and Brian Armstrong,

11:42have supported the idea of streamlining the federal government. Even some working in government

11:47have come out in support of the organization, like Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders and

11:52Congressman Ro Khanna, who have specifically endorsed the idea of cutting defense spending.

11:56This goes far beyond anything that we have ever seen before. That's why there are so many questions

12:01about this. So from USAID, yes, the president says he believes that he can make these decisions.

12:06He does not believe that it's the purview of Congress to do it. We will see there are legal

12:10challenges. But for Elon Musk, there are a few checks on his power. However, even more have

12:15criticized Doge's lack of oversight, accountability and stated methods, in line with Senator Schumer's

12:22shadow government accusation. Many doubt that Doge will even be able to find $2 trillion in savings.

12:28Economist Mark Zandi has said that even $200 billion seems difficult and unlikely to achieve.

12:34As with anything Trump sets out to accomplish, the world can only wait and see what he and Musk

12:39do next. Think about it. The world's premier development humanitarian aid organization,

12:46the Agency for International Development of the United States government, is going to be

12:51allegedly shut down or merged with State Department based on the findings of six young

12:58men from the ages of 19 to 24. What do you think of the Department of Governmental Efficiency?

13:04Will it be effective in cutting costs? Or is something more sinister afoot? Let us know in

13:09the comments below. Did you enjoy this video? Check out these other clips from WatchMojo

13:15and be sure to subscribe and ring the bell to be notified about our latest videos.

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