Although I materially agree with the point Megan McArdle is making in her latest Washington Post column:
Elon Musk is the latest in a long series of government reformers to go on the quest for the magic pot of money.
The magic pot of money is a Washington evergreen. Some politician or policymaker theorizes a fantastically large sum of government spending that can be easily excised from programs without affecting deserving beneficiaries or angering powerful interest groups. The belief in its existence has inspired many a politician to go on the hunt, but thus far, the quarry has proved elusive: The Reagan administration failed to find the “future savings to be identified” that its budget counted on to balance massive tax cuts. The architects of the Affordable Care Act failed to find the fabulous cost savings they believed to be hidden in the byzantine recesses of our health-care system.
Yet every generation, a new hero sets out to find these mythical riches so that they can be returned to their rightful owner, the American taxpayer. Musk thinks he is that hero, having suggested that with the support of the president, we can find $1 trillion in deficit reduction. And hey, he has certainly performed many epic feats. So perhaps he will finally slay the dragon of government inefficiency and liberate this pot of money from its hoard.
I’ve written as much here although not quite as sarcastically. Furthermore, I genuinely wish the exercise he’s going through were being done by the Congress. It is their job after all. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any way to get Congress to do its job. Also, one of the things that has been completely overlooked in this discussion is that what is being done now from a process standpoint should be an ongoing process. It is a task that is never completed.
And I have little doubt that 100s of billions in waste, fraud, and abuse will be found. Rather obviously the “Department of Government Efficiency” started with the low-hanging fruit, e.g. USAID, CFPB. I have little doubt that billions of FWA will be found in Defense, Social Security, and Medicare (where the real money is). In each instance the source will be different. For example, I suspect that most of the fraud in the Medicare system is retail rather than wholesale, e.g. billing services that aren’t covered as services that are covered, but that will be extremely difficult to root out.
But here’s the critical question. Okay, I understand you don’t like Elon Musk, how he and his team are proceeding, and what they’re doing. What’s your plan?







