elon-musk – Progressive Without Apology

Take a Deep Breath

Being alarmist isn’t going to do us any good. In fact, we are playing into DOGE’S hand. It is disappointing to see reputable news outlets beating the drum of alarm and catastrophizing when what we really need is to remain level-headed. The chances of DOGE destroying Social Security are next to nothing. Too many people are dedicated to their jobs, and even Trump isn’t going to allow something that 71 million Americans depend on to crash and burn. Long before that happens, people within the agency will warn him of the political consequences of his radical ideologies. Just as Trump listens to the stock market when he rails about the benefits of tariffs, when the time it takes to process a Social Security claim becomes untenable, Trump will have to put a check on Musk’s power. Yes, this time there aren’t people around Trump to act as guardrails. But this means that Trump is set to politically self-destruct. In a strange way Trump going after Social Security might be a good thing. It’s his greatest mistake.

People hate chaos. When it comes to things like retirement benefits, they expect their government to be able to respond. There are too many members of Congress who have to listen to too many of their constituents who are too scared that the government they rely on in their everyday lives is ceasing to function. This isn’t why voters put Trump in the White House. Dysfunction was not his mandate. The American people will simply not tolerate, for instance, half an hour wait times to talk with a human being. They will not put up with being told that a process that is notoriously too long already is going to take yet more time. Social Security can be relied on. Millions of people do and should. But the agency has had problems for years. The one thing that Trump has right in that there is a need for reform. But it is the exact opposite of what Trump and Musk are doing. SSA has needed more staff for decades. It has needed a process that is more streamlined and timely for years.

Not only do millions of people get Social Security, millions more assist people who get the benefits–people who work with the disabled and low-income senior citizens in particular. Their frustrations with the program’s problems were set to boil over before Trump. If things get even worse there will be an open revolt. Non-governmental organizations from all over the country will demand the situation be rectified long before things get bad enough that benefits will stop.

Social Security is one of the best ideas that America has ever had. However, change is needed at the agency–in the exact opposite direction DOGE is taking. People can and will understand this. Trump can play to his base. But he is not powerful enough to ignore the entirety of the American people. If he tries, it may be the thing that at last brings him down.

Who Knows About Efficiency?

Government workers will be facing, especially over the long term, some of the worst consequences of the new Trump administration. For them, change means not only the end of a career, but also a feeling of helplessness as they watch years of hard work being dismantled right before their eyes. As they are forced to leave, and as the risk of the government unraveling grows ever greater, the voices of these workers will and can become crucial in combating the chaos that is bound to ensue in a second Trump presidency. These are the people who know all too well, and better than anyone else, just how much damage is really being done to the rule of law and the ability of the American government to meet the needs of the American people. It is they who most understand that you cannot treat the Federal bureaucracy like an entity whose sole goal is making money. Yes, reforms to the bureaucracy are needed, but not by corporate executives. Changes need to come from the people who are doing the day to day work of the government, who have the expertise to know best how to deal with waste, fraud, and abuse.

The realities of responsible cuts to government spending are extremely difficult. Rather than waste, fraud, and abuse; most programs are serving a purpose and doing so in a reasonably efficient manner. Cutting government spending will mean reevaluating priorities–a notoriously difficult process.

Simply shutting down entire departments with no regard for the functions those departments have, will not, in the long run, seek to balance the budget; it will only sow chaos. You can shut down a department, but you cannot shut down the need that those government departments and their employees help fulfill. Some other way of filling the void created by this absence will eventually emerge. The only thing “gained” by the wholesale abdication of the responsibility of a government to its citizens is a power vacuum. Trump can cut whatever he likes; but people will find a way to get the things they need from their government. Denying citizens access to critical functions of their government is a recipe for chaos and will accomplish nothing else.

Civil Servants are not perfect people and they are dealing with a system badly in need of reform. However, there is no other group of people who can better tell us how to streamline government: what is most critical, what we can afford to let go, and how we can inject fiscal discipline into an admittedly broken system. If Trump really wants to tackle inefficiency he should start by listening to federal workers, not declaring them to be the enemy. He is demonizing the very people who could most help him reach his stated aim.

“Efficiency” is a smoke screen. What Trump really wants is a government non-responsive to the needs of common American citizens. Hopefully, eventually, the people who voted for him will come to that realization.

What if You Get it Wrong?

One thing is utterly lost on DOGE. The federal government is not a corporation. He is unable to understand that a government agency does more than just spend appropriated money. Government agencies have very specific purposes–intangible purposes. USAID, for instance, its purpose is American soft power. The problem is that you can’t put a dollar value on that, and therefore in Musk’s mind it has no purpose. But government is about all the things in life that you can’t put a dollar value on.

Take something as seemingly economic as farm subsidies. Being from a rural state I have seen Washington politicians convince themselves that things like crop insurance are solely economic matters. Anybody who lives here will tell you differently. The politics of farm subsidies is about what kind of farming we will have–the life and death of the family farm. What seems to be a matter of mere money is in actuality an existential fight about what it means to be a farmer. Money is not the point.

All of government works this way. Things that seem to be about dollars and cents are really about the things that cannot be bought and sold. By ensuring the government meets the needs of vulnerable populations, Social Security protects our democracy. The Education Department provides oversight, ensuring kids have the resources they need to learn. Expertise is a resource that cannot be bought.

The biggest problem with Mr. Musk is recklessness. When SpaceX fails a rocket blows up. When the government fails, a generation of children are not able to function as workers and citizens. A “move fast and break things” approach may work in the corporate world where the worst thing that could happen is for your venture to go bankrupt. But if the government goes bankrupt there is a lot more at stake than man never making it to Mars. Millions of people will have their lives impacted in really serious ways. I am all for reform. Washington does need to be shaken up. But no one has the right to just put a stop to the business of government. If Twitter shuts down while Musk remakes the company people can’t Tweet. If Musk shuts down USAID for a while millions of people who rely on emergency food aid will be in danger of dying of hunger.

What we have never heard from anyone in the Trump team is an acknowledgement of the terrible responsibility that rests on their shoulders. These people may be the smartest people in the room in Silicon Valley, but that doesn’t mean they are psychologically equipped to deal with a situation in which mistakes cannot be made, and where you have to get it right the first time. We can live without Twitter. Millions of people here and all over the world cannot live without the American government. With power comes responsibility. Have Trump and Musk ever, in their hubris, ever stopped to consider the consequences if they get this wrong?