President-elect Donald Trump announced he would create a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), spearheaded by entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, to find ways to save taxpayer dollars. Say what you will about the ability of Musk and Ramaswamy to build successful businesses, but it is likely that they have never encountered a challenge as difficult as downsizing the federal government.
To avoid falling into the dustbin of history like previous efficiency efforts, Musk and Ramaswamy will need to do more than carry a sink into federal agencies. They must take the kind of dispassionate approach they would to an ailing business put into receivership.
To put the US government in perspective, its $6.8 trillion budget is larger than the GDPs of Germany and Japan. Its roughly $2 trillion annual deficit is larger than the GDP of Mexico. And it has 441 agencies that employ more than 2.8 million civilian employees.
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