My Take | Bureaucratic waste is (usually) in the eye of the beholder
The modern state is all about big government and public spending. The right and the rich in the US like to rail against it while being directly or indirectly subsidised and supported
Everything Elon Musk does puts him in the spotlight. So after he was named by Donald Trump as the co-head of a newly created government efficiency unit tasked to slash and burn through the US federal bureaucracy, it has been a media circus.
By and large, the news reports have been cheering – and uncritical. After all, who doesn’t hate a government that squanders the hard-earned money of taxpayers? It’s a cost-free battle cry of politicians, though in the case of Trump, there may be a more sinister hidden agenda.
Never mind the rich in the United States pay some of the lowest taxes in the developed world – in some cases, even lower as a percentage of earnings than their own secretaries, as Warren Buffett once observed about himself.
Most likely, the efficiency brouhaha will amount to little. Such efforts are nothing new. They have been periodic throughout the history of the US presidency, whether Republican or Democrat. Teddy Roosevelt (1905), Ronald Reagan (1984) and Bill Clinton (1996) all launched similar efficiency – read cost-cutting – commissions. Their results have been, well, disappointing. Will Trump and Musk fare better?
Right-wing critics like to point out how wasteful the US federal government is. Certainly there are plenty of figures for them to cite, and ridiculous examples to shock and amuse.
According to the US Government Accountability Office, improper or incorrect payments amounted to US$247 billion in 2022, or US$2.4 trillion over two decades.
