(Column at National Review Online by Dan McLaughlin, March 27) lon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have blown through Washington like nothing since, well, Donald Trump. For small-government conservatives, the energy directed at cutting government bloat has been exhilarating. DOGE recommendations have exposed wasteful spending, driven the layoffs and firings of federal workers in significant numbers, and led to efforts to abolish or drastically restructure many federal agencies and programs.
Even the most urgent of causes, however, needs to be pursued within the law. That’s not just because the rule of law is an important good in itself, but also because failing to follow the law makes it far less likely that beneficial reforms will be implemented.
Musk’s aims in cutting government are just. Some agencies are excessively overstaffed (the Veterans Administration comes to mind), employing people who either do minimal real work or make work by spending our money unnecessarily. Multiple departments, agencies, and functions should be abolished, such as the Department of Education. Many sinecures in employment and contracting for the political Left constitute an unfair political advantage for one side at taxpayer expense, to no public purpose, as exemplified by some of the egregious grants made by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The president has a right to demand that the executive branch obey the chain of command that places the one popularly elected executive at the top.
Defenders of the status quo will use every lever at their disposal, however frivolous, to obstruct what needs to be done. But that, too, is why we should be concerned where there are valid complaints.
Eight categories of legal challenges oppose the activities of DOGE. Few of them arise directly under the Constitution, but many raise constitutional questions about what the executive can do without Congress, or against its expressed will. Several have led to district court setbacks for DOGE, but none has yet been fully adjudicated by appellate courts, much less the nation’s highest court….. [The full column is here.]
