How Past Failures to Rein In Federal Sprawl Led to DOGE
The long trip from Thomas Jefferson to a chain-saw-wielding billionaire in a baseball cap.
You’re no Thomas Jefferson.
Photographer: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images
The federal government was growing much too fast, the young lawmaker warned. “One thing that we must do is to begin reviewing existing programs to determine whether they are still effective, and whether they are worth the money that we are putting in them,” he proposed. “We must eliminate the wasteful ones. One thing that we have all observed is that once a federal program gets started, it is very difficult to stop it, or even change its emphasis, regardless of its performance in the past.”
A few months later, a nationally known figure whose last name began with the letters M, U, S and K took up the torch. “We have 228 health programs, 156 income security and social service programs, 83 housing programs, et cetera, et cetera,” he said. “In addition to the 11 Cabinet departments, we require 44 independent agencies and 1,240 advisory boards, committees, commissions, and councils to run the federal government. … Government has become out of touch and out of control.”