How Mayors Can Reclaim Government Efficiency
Amid budget cuts, city leaders are confronting how to get by with less. They have a chance to build an optimistic foil to the DOGE playbook.
NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has said that efficiency is a term liberals should embrace.
Photographer: Michael Nagle/BloombergOver the past nine months, the Trump Administration’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency has painted a deeply cynical picture of how to reform government, marked by the denigration and firing of employees, and the marginalization of the scientific community.
While the US government remains on track for record outlays, many of Trump’s deepest cuts have targeted America’s cities, which tend to be disproportionately liberal. Mayors have gone to court in an attempt to restore funding. But many are now realizing they may also need a contingency plan for how to get by with less.