There is an elderly military saying about a certain material often found on parade grounds in the days of mounted troops that had a tendency to roll downhill. This is, of course, a metaphor for how pressure on senior officers tends to trickle down to junior officers, NCOs, and ultimately to the E-4 Mafia and private soldiers. But even in the military and government, good ideas sometimes go south.
As an example, we have a very good idea: the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) will be established by the modern Trump administration. Now, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds has announced the formation of a state-level DOGE for eradication in her State of the State address wasteful government spending in the Hawkeye State.
Governor of Iowa. Kim Reynolds (R) announced that it would establish a nationwide Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) within it Speech on TuesdayThat makes her the latest governor to signal efforts to cut wasteful spending along the lines of the newest federal agency.
“I like to say that we made DOGE before DOGE even existed,” Reynolds said.
“And to build on our success, I am launching our own state DOGE to drive even greater savings and efficiencies in both state and local government,” she added.
The Republican governor said Emily Schmitt, general counsel for Sukup Manufacturing, will lead the department.
“In just a few years, we have made our state a national model for bold, purposeful government. And we’re not giving up,” she said.
It turns out Iowa isn’t alone.
It was a similar story last week with the governor of New Hampshire. Kelly Ayotte(R) announced their decision to launch a DOGE Commission to “slash“Wasteful spending at her inauguration.” Governor’s address.
“We need to ensure that the government adopts more of the lean process in manufacturing, where waste is eliminated at every step in the process to achieve a better outcome,” she said.
I think good ideas can grow wings.
See related:Forget you, IRS – Trump wants to create the EXTERNAL Revenue Service
Speaker Mike Johnson commits to working with DOGE – but what about debt?
As I have said for many years, and I think anyone who studies these things will agree, it is in the nature of government to get bigger, more intrusive, and more pricey. The evidence of the last four years might well lead us to add “more corrupt” to that list too. But with the upcoming premiere of “Trump II, Rise of the Dark MAGA” and his support of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to get a chunk (hopefully several substantial chunks) out of federal spending, there seems to be a renewed emphasis on wasteful spending identify and eliminate.
Governments at all levels are wasting money. It’s a substantial part of what they do. There are no incentives for the government to be competent, at least there were no incentives until DOGE. In fact, the incentives all run in the opposite direction. There is no accountability other than elected officials being accountable to their constituents. But too many politicians deal with this by playing Santa Claus and promising a never-ending string of free stuff. They will be rewarded for their waste with re-election.
That could change now; The modern focus on tackling wasteful government spending could spread beyond Washington. I wouldn’t bet on the idea gaining much traction in Massachusetts or California, but you never know.
There are literally no disadvantages to this.
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