DOGE – Political Theater At Its Worst

Not long ago, Elon Musk took the stage at CPAC wielding a chainsaw. It was a

spectacle - equal parts absurd and chilling. Musk was there to promote the Department

of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, the Trump administration’s flagship initiative to

slash federal spending. He danced. He posed. And behind the performance was a

promise: that this department would eliminate waste, fraud, and redundancy from the

federal government and save taxpayers trillions.

But while Musk hammed it up with props, hundreds of thousands of real people were

suffering the fallout. Federal employees and contractors laid off. Agency programs

abruptly halted. Vital services disrupted, particularly for low-income communities and

veterans. This wasn’t governance, it was the cruelest variety of political theater.

The cruelty was not incidental… it was the point. Theatrics aside, DOGE’s mission was

doomed from the start. Federal employee salaries and benefits make up just 4 to 5

percent of the federal budget. You could eliminate every civil servant and still fall

laughably short of Musk’s original $2 trillion target. That number was later revised to $1

trillion, then to $150 billion, before DOGE claimed “savings” of $160 billion, a figure now

disputed by multiple independent analysts.

Even if the savings were real, they wouldn’t counter the fact that federal spending has

increased since DOGE’s launch. The deficit is growing, not shrinking. The only

measurable success has been in performative cruelty and misplaced blame.

The truth is this: It has taken over 50 years of failed political leadership to dig the

fiscal hole we’re in today. Clawing our way out will require something far more serious

than PR stunts, symbolic chainsaws, and mindless slashing of federal employees and

programs. It will require leadership rooted in reality, a plan based on data, and the

political courage to look beyond cheap austerity measures that punish working and

middle class Americans.

Because while Musk and his billionaire buddies will always live comfortably, it’s ordinary

Americans who suffer when policy is reduced to cheap performance art.

It’s time to elect leaders who will wield wisdom, not chainsaws.