In the first few weeks of President Trump’s second term, the Trump administration has unleashed a barrage of executive orders and other actions intended to dizzy his detractors. So far, he has been successful. However, his opposition has taken a unique interest in President Trump’s efforts to streamline government. President Trump has tasked Elon Musk and a team of tech gurus—under the Department of Government Efficiency (“DOGE”)—to perform “audits” of key federal agencies by examining their expenditures and identifying fraudulent or wasteful spending.
Thus far, DOGE has introduced the American public to countless examples of wasteful spending. Senator Joni Ernst highlighted some of this waste: USAID “authorized a whopping $20 million to create a Sesame Street in Iraq.” Like many of you, my X feed has been filled with countless similar examples. Remarkably, the public disclosure of this wasteful spending and the Trump administration pausing USAID’s operations has sent Democrats into a frenzy. To most Americans, the United States Agency for International Development (“USAID”) is an obscure agency that plays little to no role in domestic affairs. So why are the Democrats and institutionalist Republicans (i.e., Mitch McConnell) so concerned?
For the first time, the White House is ordering a top-to-bottom review of all agency expenditures for key government agencies, including Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, USAID, Treasury’s Fiscal Service payment system. We expect that the list of agencies under review will continue to expand. As an auditor, I find this entire situation relatable. During an audit, the auditee generally wants to share as little information as possible to avoid opening themselves up to anything that could result in undue risks to the organization. In this case, we are witnessing DOGE perform audits of federal expenditures at a scale never seen before……..
The level of histrionics and panic emanating from Democrats, progressive non-profits, the corporate media, and other progressive allies is a tell-tale sign that the administration is damaging the power of permanent Washington by both bringing transparency to and cutting wasteful or corrupt federal expenditures buried deeply within each agency.
Aye, the discovery process is an ongoing embarrassment to all of those who had their hands in the cookie jar!! They are all getting exposed and we are seeing much of the corruption and cronyism that has gone on since, at least, time immemorial. I would make a bet that graft went on as far back as Washington! His tax collectors had him going to war agains the Whiskey Rebellion for some reason, didn’t they? All of the teeth gnashing, shrieks of dismay and whining from the Democrats and other leftists is just an indication of whose ox is getting gored. Good for us, bad for them!! Especially since it has been so good for them and bad for us for such a long time.