President-elect Donald Trump has confirmed the world’s richest man – Elon Musk – will co-lead a new department of government efficiency alongside former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
Trump said Musk and Ramaswamy “will pave the way for my administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies”.
In a post on X, Musk previously said he could axe as many as three-quarters of the more than 400 federal departments in the US, writing: “99 is enough”.
DOGE – as it will be known – will not be a government agency per se but will offer “advice and guidance”, partnering with the office of management and budget to “drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to government never seen before”.
If only Musk could do his thing in Britain, where waste chokes great parts of the government machine and potentially risks lives in an over-burdened (but also under-resourced) NHS.
One party which has focused on government waste has been Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, which warns that government spending has increased by nearly £200bn per year since 2019 with 600,000 more people in the public sector.
Reform claims this has led to far worse outcomes while growth is down and folks are receiving a worse service from a public sector where performance has collapsed.
According to Farage’s party, efficiencies could be found in many areas. This includes the Bank of England no longer paying interest to commercial banks on quantitative easing reserves, saving up to £40bn per year.
In addition, Reform argues that every manager across government must find savings without touching frontline services. Slashing wasteful spending, cutting bureaucracy and negotiating better value procurement across departments will enable lower taxes and more money in peoples’ pockets, while boosting the economy, claims Reform, thereby saving £50bn per year.
Farage and Reform also have the over-600 government departments, quangos and commissions in their sights. Scrapping many of these would go towards saving £5 in every £100 claims Farage’s party, in addition to maximising the opportunities of Brexit, which will involve an even greater bonfire of regulations.
While the Tories did little to trim the fat – despite austerity – this problem is likely to grow greater under Labour. To be clear, this need not be government stepping back or frontline services being axed.
If anything, cutting burdensome regulations frees up more cash for the frontline, rather than wasting resources on yet more managers and paper-pushers.
Had the UK had an eye on value for money perhaps billions wouldn’t have been wasted during the pandemic. Even Labour warned £26.8bn in spending was wasted under Rishi Sunak’s watch.
Britain can then only watch in envy as Musk is tasked with making US government leaner and fitter for purpose in the years ahead.
