DeSantis’ DOGE Plan is a Trojan Horse

Given Gov. Ron DeSantis’ penchant for political theater, full embrace of a far-right extremist agenda, and need for attention, it’s not surprising that he would attach himself to the Trump-Musk DOGE project.

Despite the utter chaos the project has created at the federal level, DeSantis recently announced the creation of a Florida version of the Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE) task force, which he claims will target and eliminate “waste” in state government, save taxpayers money, and “ensure accountability” in Florida.

The Florida DOGE task force will work similarly to the “department” created by President Donald Trump and led by Elon Musk, the tech billionaire who is unelected and unaccountable to the American people. Musk and his minions have orchestrated the slashing of agency budgets since Trump came back into office on Jan. 20.

Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried’s response to the announcement captures the absurdity of DeSantis’ action.

Florida Democrat Chair Nikki Fried speaks at a press conference involving Occupy Tally on April 4, 2023. (Photo by Danielle J. Brown/Florida Phoenix)

“Republicans have been in total control of Florida’s government for nearly 30 years, and he wants to talk about government waste?” she said.

“Ron has consistently passed the largest state budgets in Florida’s history, illegally spent millions of taxpayer dollars to run political campaigns to take down Amendments 3 & 4, and just allocated $250 million to fund his political stunt on immigration. Don’t lecture us on wasting taxpayer dollars.”

Fried argues everyone knows “this isn’t about reigning in spending — it’s about Trump endorsing Byron Donalds instead of Casey DeSantis. Maybe Ron should have considered the political consequences before he decided to run against the leader of his party for president.”

DeSantis said the DOGE team will likely shutter 70 boards and commissions this year to cut costs. Meanwhile, the task force will review 900 positions in state agencies to ascertain whether they should be cut.

His intention to have the task force “identify potential wasteful spending in college and university operations” should be viewed as dubious after he signed legislation last year that banned public colleges and universities from using taxpayer money to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

Institutional memory

The governor’s hostility towards Black Floridians and his crusade to eradicate any programs to level the social, political, economic, and business playing fields continue unabated. It’s likely that DOGE will be just another tool to eviscerate any entity deemed a threat to DeSantis’ implementation of an arch-conservative imprimatur on Florida.

There is also the fear that Florida will lose experienced civil servants who not only carry out critical government functions but also carry with them critical institutional memory. As it has played out nationally, the DOGE carousel will distract state employees from focusing on the people’s work.

If past is prologue, this political power move will increase fear among employees that they may lose their jobs, inducing paralysis among the ranks.

Most of all, Florida government’s best employees may seek greener pastures to the detriment to the state’s people.

DeSantis said the task force will use artificial intelligence to reduce “bureaucratic bloat.” He said the DOGE team will be a continuation of the cost-cutting measures he has overseen during his six years in office. The governor boasted that Florida saved $3.8 billion in last year’s budget and has paid down 41% of state debt since 2019.

DeSantis’ plan comes even though Florida has the lowest number of government employees per capita of any state and $14.6 billion in cash reserves. Yet DeSantis is looking to slash 740 full-time jobs and scrap as many as 900 more related “off-the-books” positions.

Democrats pushed back by noting that Florida already has in place a voter-approved government efficiency task force created in 2006 that carried “an almost identical mandate;” Florida DOGE therefore itself is an example of unnecessary spending. The effort is really an attempt to flatter Trump and Musk to restore DeSantis to his party’s good graces.

GOP pushback

If Floridians are lucky, the significant pushback verbalized by the leaders of both of Florida’s Republican-supermajority legislative chambers may end up with DeSantis’ cockamamie plan being tossed to the trash pile.

Sen. Ben Albritton via Florida Senate Speaker Daniel Perez via Florida House

“Let’s focus on what matters. Let’s pass actual reforms rather than symbolic gestures,” Daniel Perez, the Florida House speaker, told members on the legislative session’s opening day. “Let’s repeal government programs instead of reshuffling them. Let’s swing for the fences and not just try to get on base.”

Perez turned the knife a little deeper when he said that “DeSantis, a self-styled fiscal conservative, benefited from a 70% budget increase for the executive office of the governor over his six years in office.”

Senate President Ben Albritton, a member of the existing efficiency taskforce, said in remarks to the Senate that he was proud that Florida already “has a great framework for accountability,” and that he and other lawmakers had made a substantive number of recommendations “to improve flexibility [and] simplify processes.”

“The fact is we are a state and nation of laws that should be created by elected officials accountable to the people who elected them, not appointed professional staff,” he said.

None of this may matter though, because DeSantis has his eyes firmly set on running for the White House in 2028, which necessitates rebuilding the frayed ties with Trump and his loyal supporters, as well as positioning his wife Casey to run for governor when he sets down in 2027.