The Elon and Vivek Show

Trump’s nominations are coming thick and fast, and among the more interesting is his selection of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead a new Department of Government Efficiency:

Despite the name, Trump clarified in a statement that the Musk-Ramaswamy effort would “provide advice and guidance from outside of Government” in tandem with the White House and its Office of Management & Budget “to drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before.”

So I take it there won’t be an actual department, it will just be Elon and Vivek and maybe some aides. It is not clear how they will be able to drive significant change in the executive branch from posts “outside of Government,” nor is it clear whether structural reform, let alone “large scale structural reform,” can be implemented without Congress.

In any event, it is good to see attention being paid to the almost unbelievable volume of waste and corruption in government spending. Restoring a focus on government inefficiency is, at a minimum, a precondition to any significant cuts in government spending, which are desperately needed. And by “cuts,” I don’t mean declines in a hypothetically-projected rate of increase.

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