'Hey, you can’t do this': Expert blows hole in Musk and Ramaswamy's big plans
In a column expressing skepticism that Donald Trump's proposed "Department of Government Efficiency" will be able to accomplish, an expert at the Brookings Institution, who played a key part in former Vice President Al Gore's "Re-inventing Government" initiative, told the Washington Post's Dan Balz that the incoming administration is in for a dose of political reality.
With the president-elect selecting wealthy entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to head up the off-the-cuff department, Elaine Kamarck pointed to multiple instances where cuts would be unpalatable to Trump's MAGA fans.
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As Balz wrote, Musk and Ramaswamy "have huge ambitions and no humility about what they are undertaking," before adding, "What they have talked about amounts to a wholesale attack on federal agencies designed to eliminate thousands of regulations, reduce the federal workforce by an order of magnitude that could cripple the delivery of vital services, and effect cost savings that would amount to nearly one-third of the federal budget, or the entire discretionary part of the budget and then some."
Karmack cited the Border Patrol, with 19,000 Border Patrol agents, and asked where the cuts would come from when border security was the main plank of the Trump campaign.
According to Balz, "There are about 1,800 air traffic controllers, she said. Would Trump’s team cut that workforce significantly, causing potential flight cancellations and disruption?" with Kamarck predicting " “It will take about a week and Congress will say, ‘Hey, you can’t do this."
"And how deeply would he try to cut the workforce at the Social Security Administration, at the risk of checks not being sent out promptly or other breakdowns in a program that he has otherwise vowed not to touch?" Balz asked.
With Ramaswamy and Musk boasting, "We expect to prevail," Balz wrote, "Those words no doubt reflect the aggressive approach the president-elect and his advisers hope to take once he is sworn in. Meanwhile, executive branch employees are bracing for what could be coming and opponents are preparing to resist through legal and other channels. Whether Trump’s shock troops, led by Musk and Ramaswamy, are truly ready will be known soon."
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