Boasting is Easy, Governing is Hard

One of the best presidents America never had, Adlai Stevenson, put it bluntly when he said: “The ability to govern is the final test of politics, the acid, final test.”  Stevenson could have been talking to Elon Musk.

The world’s richest man, along with failed Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, have been tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to head something called the Department of Government Efficiency. It’s not a cabinet-level agency or a “Department,” but a likely home for authors of the Heritage Foundation’s controversial Project 2025 with its 900-plus-page proposal on ways to slash the federal government.

Musk and Ramaswamy set about their duties with much boasting. Musk has promised to “send shock waves through the system.” Ramaswamy has proposed to fire all federal employees with odd numbered Social Security numbers. And Trump has described their mission as “the Manhattan Project of our time.”

Headstrong business bigshots have talked big when taking government posts in the past. They’ve usually made a mess of their task and sullied their reputations. They’ve failed to understand that effective governing means working out society’s compromises and that means listening.

It also requires three fundamental rules of employment: Seek out quality people. Tell them not to cut corners. And back them to the limit. Ex-Nixon aide Egil “Bud” Krogh, who headed the “White House Plumbers,” gave warnings to incoming White House aides on not trying to game the system. Coverups tend to be uncovered.

There’s a wider point to make. Our public servants serve us well, anti-government demagogues to the contrary. Our civil service is almost never corrupt. Agencies are  required, under the Administrative Procedures Act, to consult before making decisions. The feds provide vital services, from food safety to weather forecasting.

The federal government is vital to creating and maintaining the nation’s infrastructure. Under the Biden-Harris administration’s infrastructure package, $1.55 billion is being committed to replacing the overburdened Interstate 5 bridge over the Columbia River between Vancouver and Portland. 

The federal government funds our basic health research. Robert Kennedy Jr. might disagree, but the development and deployment of the COVID-19 vaccine was a triumph equivalent to the mobilization of the nation’s resources during World War II.

Overall, alas, federal support for research and development has declined of late, but is still absolutely vital to our universities. The Defense Department gets a big chunk, but chief recipients are in the life sciences and engineering fields. The University of Washington, with its Health Sciences complex, has consistently ranked first or second in the nation for such federal support.

Privatization and devolution are catchwords for those who would slash the federal government. Yet, if you look closely, proposals to do so are knuckleheaded. If education is turned back to the states, as Trump has proposed, results will be vastly uneven — at a time when China is doubling down on science and technical education.

If Musk and Ramaswamy want to zero-out money to the National Endowment for the Arts — a longtime goal of ultraconservative Republicans in Congress — they will strip cultural experiences from the country’s students.

A few years back, Alaska’s late United States Representative Don Young fulminated against the NEA before a high school audience in Fairbanks. He cited a grant application by photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, renowned for pictures of male nudes and erotic themes. There was pushback. The kids appreciated NEA for music experiences that it brought to their school.

Walla Walla, in Eastern Washington, votes Republican, but two of its biggest employers are the Army Corps of Engineers and the Department of Veterans Affairs. The second Bush Administration proposed to close the Johnathan M. Wainwright Memorial VA Medical Center. The hospital is renowned for repairing limbs, its mental health and suicide-prevention services.

Senator Patty Murray and local VFW activists held a hearing at which a lineup of veterans testified to the quality of their treatment. If the medical center closed, they would have to drive more than 230 miles to Portland or Seattle for similar care.

When the chips are down, the federal government delivers, as in the Federal Emergency Management Agency response to the hurricane catastrophe in North Carolina, or the rapid reconstruction of collapsed bridges in Baltimore and Burlington, Washington.

Oligarchs like Musk and Ramaswamy do not understand social-service needs of ordinary people. Nor do they appreciate the extent to which their wealth is rooted in the infrastructure created by the federal government and its vital basic research work. 

Musk is particularly arrogant on this count. As well, there is the mother of all conflicts of interest. Musk runs six companies, SpaceX being the best known. It has received $21 billion in federal contracts to date, with billions more if the federal government pursues a mission to Mars. SpaceX launches military satellites, services the International Space Station, and is building a lunar lander.

Federal law is clear. Executive branch employees, and that includes unpaid advice givers, cannot participate in programs that impact their financial interests. They must divest or excuse themselves. However, the yet-to-be-created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is attempting a dodge. It has announced that Musk will “provide advice and guidance from outside of government.” And inside of Trump’s jet.

The nation’s progressives cannot afford to stay demoralized in the face of this threat.   Now, we have ninety years of social progress to defend.

This article also appeared in Cascadia Advocate.