Musk’s DOGE Should Work With the Government, Not Against It
Private-sector principles have an important place in the public sector, but running the government like a business simply won’t work.
DOGE’s co-leader and his +1.
Photographer: Roberto Schmidt/AFP
President-elect Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, to be led by tech entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, seems motivated by the popular Silicon Valley mantra of “Move fast and break things.” When it comes to the federal government, however, that’s a recipe for disaster.
The president-elect is right that the public deserves a more efficient government. That’s why the Partnership for Public Service, where I am president and CEO, has spent more than 20 years advocating for reforms to build a more modern and dynamic government. But proposals to arbitrarily fire huge portions of the workforce or eliminate vital agencies such as the FBI would put essential public services and national security at risk.