WINNING THE BUDGET BATTLE

 

[Published in the Sunday Guardian of India and Newsmax]

The best way to effectively end waste and rein-in government spending is to have the U.S. Supreme Court declare the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 (Public law 93-344) unconstitutional.

America’s public debt is currently $36.22 Trillion. It was only $475 billion when the Congressional Budget Act became law in 1974.

The Congressional Budget Act created the current framework within which the Federal Budget is proposed, passed, and implemented.  It placed Congress firmly in the driver’s seat, and blocked future President’s from taking actions deemed constitutional and prudent for over 171 years.

The result was instant and dramatic.  In the six years prior to the 1974 Act, the federal budget increased on an average of $13.4 billion annually.  In the seven years after the Act, the federal increased by over $49 billion annually.

The Peterson Foundation for the study of the National Debt observed: “From 1950-1974, federal deficits averaged 0.7% of GDP. After the Congressional Budget Act was adopted, from 1975-2007, deficits averaged 2.5% of GDP. And when the Congressional Budget Act was enacted in 1974, real (inflation-adjusted) U.S. government debt per person was $3,240.”

Today, U.S. Government debt is $106,024 per person.

Expanding Presidential power usually erodes democracy, expands government, and facilitates the rise of an increasingly unaccountable “Imperial Presidency”.  Ironically, giving Presidents more power to control spending would do just the opposite.

The struggle over government spending has been a fundamental point of contention since the earliest days of our Federal Government.

Article I of the U.S. Constitution outlines the power of Congress to create laws [Sections 1 & 8] and the prevailing nature of those laws once signed by the President or passed over a Presidential Veto [Section 7].
Article II of the U.S. Constitution vests all executive power in the President of the United States [Section 1].

This division of power and responsibility was validated by Chief Justice John Marshall in 1825, "the difference between the departments undoubtedly is that the legislature makes, the executive executes, and the judiciary construes the law." [Wayman v. Southard, 23 U.S. 1, 44 (1825)]

Earlier, Chief Justice Marshall, in his famous Marbury v. Madison, defined the difference between political acts belonging to the executive branch alone as opposed to those executive acts governed by congressional enactments: “He acts, in this respect.., under the authority of the law, and not by instructions of the President.  It is a ministerial act which the law enjoins on a particular officer for a particular purpose...”
[Marbury v. Madison, 1 Cranch 137, 5 U.S. 137, 2 L.Ed. 60 (1803)]

However, what happens if Congress creates programs that eventually become unnecessary or obsolete? What happens if Congress continues to authorize and appropriate funds for those programs? What happens if Congress provides more funds than recommended by the Executive Branch or exceeds documented need?

President Thomas Jefferson was the first to test the boundaries of Executive authority to second guess Congressional spending. In the wake of the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, Jefferson reported that, "the sum of $50,000 appropriated by Congress for providing gunboats remains unexpended. The favorable and peaceful turn of affairs on the Mississippi rendered an immediate execution of that law unnecessary.... "

Following Jefferson’s precedent, subsequent Presidents selectively withheld appropriated funds on programs that were no longer needed. They also asserted they were effectuating congressional intent not circumventing it.

The Depression and World War II provided opportunities for President Franklin Roosevelt to stretch budgetary discretion beyond Jefferson’s “economy” precedent. He moved funds away from what he deemed less important programs to more pressing programs. Post war demobilization gave President Harry S. Truman additional opportunities to hold back Congressional spending. Truman impounded $735 million in additional funds appropriated by Congress to increase to 58 from 48 the President's request for Air Force groups.

This expanded justification for Presidential Impoundment of Congressional funds became bi-partisan when President Dwight D. Eisenhower, set aside $137 million appropriated for the initial procurement of Nike-Zeus anti-missile system hardware. John F. Kennedy impounded $180 million appropriated by Congress over the President's request for developing the B70 Bomber. Lyndon B. Johnson unilaterally decreased federal spending by $5.3 billion to mitigate the inflationary impact of the Vietnam War.

Congress initially supported the President’s role in managing public funds. The Anti-Deficiency Act of 1905 provided that appropriations may, “… be so apportioned by monthly or other allotments as to prevent expenditures in one portion of the year, which may necessitate deficiency or additional appropriations to complete the service of the fiscal year for which said appropriations are made."

The Revised Anti-deficiency Act of 1906 stated: "Whenever it is determined...that any amount so reserved will not be required to carry out the purposes of the appropriation concerned, he [President] shall recommend the rescission of such amount ..."

President Warren Harding’s Budget Bureau Director, Charles E. Dawes, further asserted that an agency was not required to spend its total appropriation if it could fulfill its objectives by spending a lesser amount.

Omnibus Appropriations Act of 1951, continued to expand Presidential flexibility on managing and controlling spending: “In apportioning any appropriations, reserves may be established to provide for contingencies or to affect savings whenever savings are made possible through changes in requirements, greater efficiency of operations, or other developments subsequent to the date on which such appropriation was made.”

Legislative liberals began to challenge Presidential spending control.  Congressman George H. Mahon (D-TX) raised concerns regarding the passage of the 1951 Act: "I would not object, as I know other members would not object, to any reasonable economies in government. But economy is one thing, and the abandonment of a policy and program of Congress is another thing."

Recipients of federal funds began to challenge Presidential control of spending.  The Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice Earl Warren, began to constrict Presidential impoundment and other executive branch practices to control spending. 

These new battle lines hardened when President Richard Nixon mounted a more aggressive and effective effort to rein-in federal spending.  The Supreme Court, even under centrist Chief Justice Warren Burger, continued to build legal precedents against Presidential budget frugality.

“Article I, Section 1, of the Constitution vests "[a]ll legislative powers" in the Congress. No budget message of the President can alter that power and force the Congress to act to preserve legislative programs from extinction prior to the time Congress has declared that they shall terminate, either by its action or inaction.... Thus, in absence of any contrary legislation, the defendant's plans to terminate the CAA functions and the OEO itself are unlawful as beyond his statutory authority.” [American Federation of Government Employees v. Phillips, 358 F. Supp. 60 (1973)]

Nixon continued to impound congressionally appropriated funds. During the 1973-1974 budget year, Nixon refused to spend $12 billion. Congressional Democrats, sensing the decline in Presidential power in the wake of the mounting Watergate scandal, passed the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974. Nixon signed the law on July 12, 1974, one of his final major acts in office.

After extinguishing the President’s ability to control spending the federal budget more than tripled in just ten years.  From $269 billion in Fiscal 1974 to $851 in Fiscal 1984. Annual federal spending is now $6.5 trillion.

When the Republicans retook the House of Representatives after forty years, Newt Gingrich tried to reassert the President’s role in budget management by proposing the Line-Item Veto.  This was a key part of his 1994 “Contract with America”. It became a rallying cry for fiscal “hawks” from across the political spectrum. Former President Ronald Reagan added his voice to the renewed effort: “When I was governor of California, the governor had the line-item veto, and so you could veto parts of the spending in a bill. The president can’t do that. I think, frankly—of course, I’m prejudiced—government would be far better off if the president had the right of line-item veto.”

The bill was introduced by Senator Bob Dole (R-KS) on January 4, 1995, cosponsored by Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and 29 other senators. Related House Bills included H.R. 147, H.R. 391, H.R. 2, H.R. 27 and H.R. 3136. The bill was signed into law by President Bill Clinton on April 9, 1996.

Budget “hawks” from both parties cheered, and President Clinton began using the line-item veto and budgets became balanced.  Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV), and others who opposed this “assault on Congressional prerogatives”, filed in court to void the law.  Their case was tossed out over lack of standing. Another case, filed by a city, succeeded in declaring the Line-Item Veto unconstitutional. [Clinton v. City of New York, 524 U.S. 417 (1998)]

On January 31, 2006, President George W. Bush proposed the “Legislative Line-Item Veto Act of 2006”.  Conservatives once again rallied to giving the President expanded budgetary powers. It was introduced in the House by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and passed overwhelmingly on June 22, 2006. However, the Senate killed similar legislation.

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) reveals daily evidence of how unbridled government spending wastes billions while lining the pockets of favored contractors and corrupt officials.

America is already barreling toward bankruptcy. Reestablishing the constitutionality of the President’s power to control spending is the only way to save us.

BATTLING FOR AMERICA'S SOUL

 

[Published in the Sunday Guardian of India]

President Trump and his Make America Great Again (MAGA) Movement are moving at lightning speed on a broad front to restore governmental integrity and restore American culture.

His revolutionary change agents are now confirmed and taking the helms in their respective agencies.  Along with legions of capable operatives, they are reversing decades of Leftist policies and eliminating large numbers of those loyal to the endless expansion of government.

Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are exposing billions of waste, fraud, and abuse.  Their wide-ranging audits of Executive Branch operations are well on their way to exceeding the $2 trillion budget reduction goal.

The battle over national governance is only a small part of the more fundamental battle over America’s core values and civic culture.

America is unique.  It is a country based upon ideas - not geography, language, or tribe.  Our historic sites and markers ground us in who we are, and why we are. 

America’s civic culture thrives because it has maintained a common frame of reference supporting freedom of expression, representative government, limited government, and government dispersed among states and locales – the fundamentals of a federal system and republican governance.

The resiliency and longevity of America’s civic culture is based upon its citizens learning and understanding how their government works and their role in supporting and participating in it.

America’s Constitution is about forming “a more perfect union”.  This means America is always a work in progress.  The Constitution itself is the greatest “rules of engagement” for collective action that has ever been written.  Looking beyond ourselves reaffirms our nation and our individual and collective roles in it.

A critical element is our collective memory and frames of reference.  Statues and historic sites exist to commemorate and remember, not to celebrate. Knowing and discussing our origin is fundamental to a civic culture where shared values hold us together.  Civil dialogue with those we disagree is the structure that allows our institutions, our communities, and ourselves to exist. 

America’s unique civic culture and collective identity is the antithesis to tyranny.  President Ronald Reagan referred to America’s example of freedom and representative government as “the shining light on the hill” that inspired freedom loving people worldwide.

Those promoting Communism, Fascism, and other forms of oppression have continually assailed America to neutralize challenges to their power. Internally, those wanting unbridled political power have made common cause with outside forces in their attempt to undermine America.

In 1927, Stuart Chase, one of the founding members of President Franklin Roosevelt’s (FDR) “Brain Trust”, met with Stalin and Trotsky to gain inspiration for taking over America. In his 1932 “New Deal” book Chase mused, “Why should the Russians have all the fun of remaking the world?” 

Guided by Chase’s vision, the Left set about to methodically capture and control America’s cultural levers.  Hollywood fell first. Most news media fell by the late 1960s. Print media was corrupted from the start. Pro-America outlets, like Time Magazine, succumbed as their conservative founders retired or died. Academia was conquered during the 1960s in the wake of the “free speech movement” and then the anti-Vietnam War protests.

During the 1980s, the Left targeted America’s 13,425 school districts. Leftist teachers replaced moderate pro-American teachers as they retired.  These Leftist teachers promoted revisionist history supported by new textbooks like Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States”, which became the standard high school textbook for a generation.

In some schools, world history courses narrowed to cover only events that occurred after 1200 AD. Large swarths of historical events and figures were eliminated.  The Texas State Board of Education voted to remove 450 historical figures. This included significant individuals like John Hancock. The National Assessment of Educational Progress reported that only 18 percent of High School graduates are proficient in American history.  

A parallel project was shrinking civics education to the point where only 23 percent of eighth-graders perform at or above the proficient level on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) civics exam, and only 26 percent of Americans can name all three branches of government. 

The election of Barack Obama in 2008 ushered in an era of divisiveness. Obama campaigned as a proponent and symbol of racial harmony. Once elected, Obama and his Administration launched a wide range of actions to racialize America.  By the end of his eight years, racial and sexual demographics became the lens through which private and public actions were viewed. 

The era of “wokism” replaced meritocracy.  Martin Luther King’s famous quote,” one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character” was completely turned upside down.  Divisiveness and “tribalism” ate away at America’s common framework and values.

An intensified phase of undermining America’s civic culture began after a 2011 Harvard Study revealed that participating in historical/patriotic celebrations promoted conservative voting patterns. The Left began to methodically demonize America’s founding narrative, encompassing events and people.

Denigrating the American Flag, removing the National Anthem, and ending 4^th of July were the Left’s trinity for destroying America’s civic culture.

Statues were removed.  Athletes “took a knee” to denigrate America’s National Anthem, a “Black National Anthem” was sung as the preferred “more inclusive” alternative.

The Left’s goal was to fundamentally shift the inspiring narrative of America’s founding in 1776 to the darker, anti-American, narrative of the 1619 movement.

Nikole Hannah-Jones, the intellectual force behind the 1619 movement, asserted the arrival of the first slaves at Jamestown was the true founding of America.  This was launched in 2019 as a counter to celebrating the 400^th Anniversary of the first democratically elected assembly in America.  Hannah-Jones barnstormed cable news asserting, “Independence Day does not mean the same thing to everybody.  We are forcing white people to confront what this holiday has meant to black people”.

On one show, Hannah-Jones’ assertion was supported by Leftist historian Jon Meacham, who reported that the July 4^th was “only about a document not about shaping a nation”.  Meacham asserted, “For generations we have looked at 1776 as our founding moment, our “nativity”, when it was actually 1619…For too long we have taught this one narrative that glorifies white supremacy, glorifies colonization.”

The Left elevated an obscure moment in America’s Civil War, “Juneteenth”, as the “more inclusive” alternative to celebrating the “white slave document” of the Declaration of Independence.

Juneteenth is based on the false narrative that slavery in America ended on June 19, 1865.  That was the day a Union General marched into Galveston, Texas and announced the Civil War was over and the slaves being held in that region were free. It took ratifying the 13^th Amendment on December 6, 1865, to officially free all of America’s slaves nationwide.  

The Left began an incessant drumbeat that America was “built by enslaved people on stolen land”. The noble narrative of a nation of immigrants thriving in freedom, commerce, and limited government, was replaced by shame.

The Left’s goal was to expand government to “right wrongs” and “make amends”. Key elements were reparations; Critical Race Theory (CRT); Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI); and Environmental, Social and Governance (“ESG”).

The Left’s echo chamber of controlling media, academia, entertainment, and government reached its zenith with the George Floyd riots of 2020.  Demonizing Trump and his supporters as racists, fascists, and Nazis became one of the vehicles for sweeping Joe Biden into power.  Leftist control of social media silenced dissent.  They were on the brink of totally remaking America in their image.

Then the world changed.

The Leftist agenda, to flood America with illegal immigrants, create chaos through weakening the police, and steer the justice system from going after criminals to going after Trump and his supporters ignited a massive backlash.

It became increasingly clear to a growing number of Americans, that they were being lied to by every entity they trusted. One by one, the Left’s carefully constructed reality fell apart.  Crime spiraled out of control in cities. Inflation soared. America’s weakened foreign and military policy emboldened tyrants and Americans died.

On April 14, 2022, Elon Musk purchased Twitter. Suddenly, one of the most important components of the Left’s fraudulent reality became the chief forum for exposing their lies.

President Biden’s steady mental decline became harder to hide. Trust in those who lied in order to gain, expand, and retain their power vanished. 

The 2024 election shocked the system back to reality.  The MAGA revolution and the DOGE audits gave new hope that America could be saved.

The struggle to save America is just beginning.

“We’re in the middle of a cultural revolution in America, and one of the biggest battlegrounds is the schools,” explained Moms For Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice.

There are 98,577 public schools in 13,425 school districts.  Each district is run by elected school boards where ultra-Leftist politicians dominate.  The 3,827,100 public school teachers are mostly liberal to Leftist. 94 percent of teacher union campaign funds go to Democrats.

In West Virginia, America’s most conservative Republican state, public school leaders promoted Che Guevara as their 2022 role model for Hispanic Heritage Month.

President Trump joined the battle by issuing an Executive Order on January 29, 2025, titled “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling”:

“In recent years, however, parents have witnessed schools indoctrinate their children in radical, anti-American ideologies while deliberately blocking parental oversight.  Such an environment operates as an echo chamber, in which students are forced to accept these ideologies without question or critical examination.  In many cases, innocent children are compelled to adopt identities as either victims or oppressors solely based on their skin color and other immutable characteristics…These practices not only erode critical thinking but also sow division, confusion, and distrust, which undermine the very foundations of personal identity and family unity.

Imprinting anti-American, subversive, harmful, and false ideologies on our Nation’s children not only violates longstanding anti-discrimination civil rights law in many cases, but usurps basic parental authority…Similarly, demanding acquiescence to “White Privilege” or “unconscious bias,” actually promotes racial discrimination and undermines national unity.”

Trump’s Executive Order directs federal agencies to end funding for any activities deemed undermining America’s civic culture. It is a clear signal that the decades long battle for the soul of America is a priority. 

While Trump is waging an office-by-office struggle to gain control of the Federal Government, parents and local activists are fighting to regain America-affirming education school-by-school, and classroom-by-classroom. 

Generations of young people are adults with at best ignorance about America, or at worst, a Leftist set of assumptions about their country.

What took the Left decades to destroy, may take years to reverse. Time is short.

All the world’s freedom loving people are watching.

 

 

HOW CONGRESS CAN HELP DOGE

 

Published on Newsmax Congress Desperately Needs DOGE-Focused Hearings | Newsmax.com

Congress can assure the success of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) by fulfilling its Constitutional duty to oversee the Executive Branch.

The House’s DOGE Subcommittee, Chaired by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, can act as a “Grand Jury”.  The Subcommittee can become a key forum for informing the public of existing waste, fraud, and abuse, building the nonpartisan case for cutting budgets and eliminating programs.  This existing information would be delivered by Inspector Generals who are tasked with performing objective reviews of the finances and operations of the Executive Branch.

The first hearing could review the Defense Department (DOD) failing its 7^th financial audit.

The recent independent financial audit documented that the DOD could not account for $824 billion.

The DOGE Subcommittee could simply have the accountants reveal what they found over the seven years of failed audits.  The Inspector General witnesses will not be hostile.  They will be eager to report their findings in the hopes that tangible reforms might finally be made.

DOGE-focused hearings will be an historic opportunity to bring fundamental and lasting change to the Federal Government.

Over the years, most Congressional Oversight Hearings were contentious as they convened to embarrass the Executive Branch.  Witnesses were hostile and refused to answer questions, obfuscated their answers, and outright lied.  Members ended up talking far more than the witnesses to make their case to counter the bogus testimony.

DOGE-focused hearings will be different. 

Witnesses from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the 73 Inspector General Offices could review the last ten years of their findings.  Each year they collectively report over $650 billion in ongoing waste and provide recommended actions. 

Few of their recommendations were implemented.

What great media moments could occur if credible, nonpartisan, professionals were allowed to present their findings. They would explain how the Executive Branch has squandered $6.5 trillion over the last ten years.  They would list unimplemented reforms, which could form the roadmap of eliminating countless programs and offices.

Waste is not partisan.  No one wants public funds misspent.   

The work of the DOGE Subcommittee could be bolstered by real oversight hearings as part of the Appropriation process.

Congress can control the Executive Branch through its Constitutional power of the purse.  What is funded exists and grows, what isn’t funded shrinks or vanishes.  

Appropriations Committees are mandated to meet and build the case for spending public funds.  Administration witnesses make their case for spending.  Appropriation Committee Members make their alternative case. What should occur is a dialogue designed to align Congressional intent, and Executive Branch actions, to public spending.  What should emerge is legislation with properly vetted financials.  Supporting these numbers should be the hearing record that builds a compelling case for how and why public funds should or shouldn’t be spent.

This rarely happens in Congress.  The result is Congress abdicating its spending control and destabilizing the Constitutional balance between coequal Branches.

There has been a steady decline in incorporating Congressional oversight into the Appropriation process. In 2015, there were 128 House Appropriation hearings prior to marking-up funding legislation. In 2024, there were only 71.  House Appropriators heard from only three of the 73 Inspector Generals.  No one from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) was involved.   The handful of “public” witnesses represented Washington-based stakeholder organizations.  No one from oversight groups documenting government waste and abuse were invited to testify.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Appropriation hearings lasted three or more hours.  Hearings in 2024 averaged less than two hours.  In most cases, only the Department/Agency Head testified.

On average only three to five Members of Congress attend these hearings; even though all Subcommittees have at least eleven Members (Defense has sixteen).

There were 43 Senate Appropriation hearings in 2024.  Three Inspector Generals appeared, and there was no witnesses from the GAO or government watchdog groups.

Reversing these trends will be a critical part of establishing DOGE-focused hearings.

Senate and House Authorizing Committees could also help build the case for DOGE reforms by holding their own series of oversight hearings featuring testimony from the Inspector Generals under their respective jurisdictions along with the GAO. 

DOGE-focused hearings with House/Senate Oversight, Appropriations, Authorization Committees could form an echo-chamber of evidence building a compelling nonpartisan case for reducing the size of the Executive Branch and its cost.

The findings of these DOGE-focused hearings will make it easier to pass legislation to eliminate programs, offices, and agencies.  It will also make the case for dramatically reducing the budgets and personnel of obsolete and ineffective Executive Branch activities.

Americans deserve cost-effective government.  DOGE-focused hearings will return Congress to its Constitutional role and responsibility.

DOGE vs FEDERAL LEVIATHAN

 

[Published on Newsmax]

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is igniting widespread support for a long overdue assault on bloated and obsolete Executive Branch programs and agencies.

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are applying advanced thinking and technology to eradicate unauthorized programs, “zombie” accounts”, and reclaim unexpended funds.  Their use of artificial or enhanced intelligence will reveal patterns of waste, fraud and abuse by mining years of Inspector General Reports and fraud hotline complaints. This pattern analysis will drive abolition, consolidation, and downsizing.

Finding the right court case and venue for overturning the unconstitutional Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 (Public law 93-344) will be integral to reining in wanton spending.

Citizen Oversight: BUDGET BATTLES

DOGE can build a national movement, and internal government network, to fundamentally change the Federal Government’s mindset and culture for decades to come.  DOGE is posed to have more impact on America’s domestic policy than any other initiative since the 1960s Great Society.

A NATIONAL MOVEMENT

DOGE is the framework.  “War on Waste” (WOW) could be their battle cry. 

Everyone has stories of federal government waste, fraud, and abuse (WFA).  Finding federal waste is like “hunting cows”.  It is everywhere and obvious.

DOGE could ask Americans to “blow the whistle” on WFA.  An online form would identify the program, WFA evidence, and estimated cost.  Everyone who submits a credible WFA case would earn a digital “Waste Warrior” (WW) badge to proudly display.  Best WFA submissions, and the WW heroes who found them, could be featured each month, maybe on the DOGE podcast.  DOGE, WOW, WW, WFA merchandise could become cultural icons.

Grassroots WOW clubs and online communities could further embolden Americans to expose waste nationwide.  These could partner with existing government reform groups like Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) and Open the Books.

THE INSIDERS

DOGE needs to work through allies within the Executive Branch to find additional WFA and to implement tangible and lasting change.

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) should be the central command center for implementing DOGE recommendations.   The appointment of Russell Vought is a terrific first step.  He will need to build a team within OMB to be fully effective.

Trump should reconstitute Ronald Reagan’s “Cabinet Council on Management and Administration” (CCMA) to drive DOGE reforms through the Executive Branch.  Reagan’s Counselor, Ed Meese, used the CCMA to hold agencies accountable for meeting domestic policy goals, cutting costs, and reducing personnel.  Each Cabinet Department and major agency had a full-time CCMA liaison to make sure these goals were met.

Insider whistleblowers are increasingly stepping forward.  They need to become the network to aid DOGE and identify additional WWs throughout the Executive Branch.

Another pro-DOGE network are career employees who have received graduate credits, degrees, and certificates from conservative academic institutions.  The Institute of World Politics (IWP), founded in 1990 by Reagan National Security officials, has seeded the defense and intelligence agencies with their graduates, all ready to make America strong again.  Since 2010, Hillsdale College’s Washington, DC campus has offered degrees in government to early and mid-career government employees.  Hillsdale College has been a bulwark of constitutional conservatism since 1844.

Trump’s non-career appointees, DOGE advisors, CCMA liaisons, and career allies need to make sure they quickly achieve full knowledge of Executive Branch operations.  The entrenched bureaucracy will fight reform with all resources at their disposal, which are substantial. 

One proven method is “management by walking around”.  It is amazing what can be exposed, and stopped, using this basic approach.  Early in the Reagan Administration, a political appointee visited ACTION’s loading dock.  They discovered crates of the book “Rules for Radicals” by Leftist Saul Alinsky being readied for distribution to community organizations across the nation. The shipment was stopped and the books either returned to the publisher or destroyed.

In another instance, a government warehouse manager asserted he needed to buy twelve additional forklifts to meet the tighter response time for shipping supplies.  A political appointee did a surprise inspection finding twenty inactive forklifts because there were not enough certified operators.  The manager was immediately fired.

Insiders can review contracts.  Outsiders must file Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests that will be slow-walked by the bureaucracy. 

Most federal contracts are poorly written and ineptly managed. This is intentional, as kick-backs and crony capitalism rule the day.  In one bizarre case, the General Services Administration (GSA) signed a multi-million contract to renovate the eighth-floor utility rooms at their headquarters.  An audit revealed the building only had seven floors. The contracting officer certified the fictious work was done, money was paid and split with the contractor. The contracting officer and contractor went to jail. 

Whether we love a program or hate it, we want every penny spent honestly, ethically, and effectively. 

DOGE could be the bi-partisan crusade that unites all Americans.