President-elect Donald Trump announced Tuesday that billionaire Elon Musk and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy will head a new Department of Government Efficiency tasked with “dismantling government bureaucracy, cutting redundant regulations, cutting wasteful expenditures, and restructuring federal agencies.”
During his campaign, Trump said the government efficiency effort would create a plan to eliminate “fraud and improper payments” and conduct a “complete financial and performance audit” of the federal government. Trump said on Tuesday that the committee would cooperate with the White House Office of Management and Budget, and said its work would conclude no later than July 4, 2026, the 250th anniversary of the country’s founding.
Musk predicted he could cut at least $2 trillion from the US federal budget at Trump’s rally last month in Madison Square Garden, though that would exceed the amount Congress spends annually on the operations of government agencies, including defense. It will likely require deep cuts to popular entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and veterans’ benefits.
Last fiscal year, the government spent more than $6.75 trillion, of which more than $5.3 trillion came from Social Security, Medicare, defense and veterans’ benefits — all of which are politically charged and difficult to convince Congress to cut — as well. As interest on debt.
“This will send shockwaves through the system, and anyone involved in government waste, which is a lot of people,” Musk said Tuesday in a statement provided by Trump’s transition effort.
A newsletter for the boldest and brightest leaders:
CEO Daily is your weekday morning wrapper on the news, trends and conversations business leaders need to know.
Register here.
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.