The Fake Government ‘Efficiency’ Agency Known As DOGE Already Faces Multiple Lawsuits

One of the many new executive orders signed by President Donald Trump on Monday was the long-hyped creation of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). DOGE is portrayed as a sort of government efficiency and innovation office, but it’s primarily flimsy cover for the extraction class as they eliminate corporate oversight, consumer protection, labor rights, and the social safety net.

The program was supposed to be spearheaded by two of the country’s biggest bloviating weirdos, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. Ramaswamy is already leaving the agency because he purportedly wants to take a shot at becoming the Governor of Ohio (though other reports suggest he somehow managed to annoy most of the people at a fake government agency already filled with annoying people).

DOGE has other issues already as well. While it’s not a real government agency, it does appear to qualify as a federal advisory committee (FACA). And FACAs do have documentation, transparency, and other rules they have to follow, including producing meeting minutes, filing a Charter with Congress, having “fairly balanced” ideological representation, and maintaining some semblance of public open access.

Not surprisingly, Musk’s fake government efficiency agency has allegedly done none of those things, resulting in several new lawsuits that may or may not result in any reform of note.

One of the lawsuits was filed by the The American Public Health Association, the American Federation of Teachers, Minority Veterans of America, VoteVets Action Fund, Center for Auto Safety, and CREW. It calls DOGE a “shadow operation led by unelected billionaires who stand to reap huge financial rewards from this influence and access.”

“Plaintiffs and those they represent believe that the government should work for the American people and be transparent, efficient, and effective – and that the government can and should do better,” the complaint states.

Another lawsuit, filed by Public Citizen, filed in conjunction with the American Federation of Government Employees, also alleges the fake government agency is playing fast and loose with government rules.

Yet another lawsuit, filed by National Security Counselors, also points out how the setup of DOGE seems wholly disconnected from how the government is supposed to work.

It’s clear DOGE supporters (including lots of corporate backed deregulatory “innovation” think tanks) want to have their cake and eat it too. They want DOGE to be respected as a serious thing, while simultaneously having to do none of the serious things adults have to do to be taken seriously in the world of government policy:

“Sam Hammond, senior economist at the Foundation for American Innovation, who has been supportive of DOGE’s efforts, said the initiative will primarily implement ideas within the executive branch and White House, which he said would exempt it from FACA requirements. If Trump does treat DOGE as a FACA, then it should follow the required reporting rules. But for now, he said, “DOGE isn’t a federal advisory committee because DOGE doesn’t really exist. DOGE is a branding exercise, a shorthand for Trump’s government reform efforts.”

When announced, the press went out of its way to frame DOGE as a very serious thing. Of course it’s mostly a vehicle for access (read: corruption). And a way to put a lazy shine on what will be a brutal and very harmful dismantling of federal consumer protection, labor rights, environmental law, and social safety programs, which will result in very real suffering at unprecedented scale.

Musk himself admits this suffering is coming, but hopes he can bedazzle a lazy press with enough bullshit that they softsell and downplay the broad, percussive looming harms to the American public. Meanwhile fake government official Musk is already walking back claims that his fake government efficiency agency would drive some two trillion in overall government savings.

You’re supposed to ignore the fact that this is because the stuff usually most in need of cutting — fat and purposeless corporate subsidies (see: the Starlink kerfuffle) and the bottomless well of military and intelligence overbilling — are precisely the sort of stuff billionaire extraction class parasites enjoy glomming on to. The stuff deemed “inefficient” is the stuff that doesn’t benefit them personally.