Over time, more will be learned about how DOGE operated and what impact DOGE had. But it seems likely that even Musk will agree that DOGE has failed to expose the massive fraud within the government that he continues to predict.
DOGE is said to have served a “higher purpose”.
As Musk continues to fixate on fraud in the federal budget, his allies in government and Silicon Valley have begun to criticize anyone who criticizes DOGE's failure to achieve its promised goal as missing DOGE's “higher purpose,” The Guardian reported.
Five allies granted anonymity to discuss DOGE's goals told The Guardian that DOGE's goal was to “fundamentally” reform government by eradicating “taboos” around hiring and firing, “expanding the use of untested technologies and reducing resistance to groundbreaking startups seeking federal contracts.” Now the federal government can operate more like a business, Musk's allies said.
The libertarian think tank the Cato Institute praised DOGE for producing “the largest peacetime workforce reduction ever,” even as it acknowledged that DOGE had little influence over federal spending.
“It is important to note that DOGE's goal was to reduce the budget in absolute real terms, without reference to a baseline projection. DOGE did not cut spending in either case,” the Cato Institute reported.
Currently, DOGE still exists as a decentralized entity, with DOGE staffers assigned to various agencies to continue to reduce alleged waste and detect suspected fraud. While some fear the White House will choose to “reauthorize” DOGE to implement more government cuts in the future, Musk has insisted he would never again lead a DOGE-like government effort and the Cato Institute said that “the evidence supports Musk's assessment.”
“DOGE had no noticeable effect on the spending trajectory, but it reduced federal employment at the fastest pace since President Carter, and probably even before,” the Institute reported. “The only possible analogies are demobilization after World War II and the Korean War. Cutting spending is more important, but cutting the federal workforce is nothing to sneeze at, and Musk should look more positively at DOGE's impact.”
Although the Cato Institute joined allies in praising DOGE's dramatic reduction of the federal workforce, the director of the Brookings Institution's Center for Effective Public Management, Elaine Kamarck, told Ars in November that DOGE was “cutting off the muscle, not the fat” because “they didn't really know what they were doing.”
