Making sweeping, careless cuts affects well-being

Ben Olinsky, Tribune News Service

Waste, fraud and abuse. These are the seemingly magic words the world’s richest man incants to justify the chainsaw he’s taking to our government in the form of his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). However, as Elon Musk steps back to a part-time role, the question remains: Were these words a mantra or mere flimflam? The Trump administration’s stated goal of reducing government waste, fraud and abuse is broadly popular among Americans, who experience the government’s bureaucracy firsthand and may not feel like their problems are addressed. Still, the face of the administration’s purported efforts to combat waste, fraud and abuse is widely unpopular, falling to a 33 per cent approval rating. Where’s the disconnect between the diagnosis and the treatment?

The answer lies in Musk’s strategy: Make sweeping, careless cuts that don’t minimize waste but decimate the government’s ability to preserve Americans’ safety, health and well-being. The National Weather Service staff was slashed. Scientists who review life-saving drugs were fired, alongside scientists who monitor and respond to infectious disease outbreaks. The secretary of Veterans Affairs announced massive funding cuts, ending contracts that help cover medical services, fund cancer programs, recruit doctors and provide burial services to veterans. Is this waste, fraud or abuse? The real agenda came into focus in January when the president illegally dismissed 18 federal inspectors general whose job is to uncover waste, fraud and abuse, giving even policymakers in both parties pause. He then terminated the head of the Office of Special Counsel — an ethics watchdog who protects whistleblowers — and gutted the Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Section. Is this about reducing waste, fraud and abuse — or greasing the skids for those who want to profit off taxpayers?

It’s similarly troubling how quickly Musk gained power over a government that influences his business interests. For example, the National Labor Relations Board filed a complaint in 2024 against Tesla’s Buffalo plant for illegally interfering with workers’ organizing. In February, DOGE stated it would close or downsize the NLRB’s Buffalo office. DOGE has also fought for access to Americans’ most sensitive information, from Social Security databases to IRS tax data. There’s no transparency about who accessed which systems, for what purpose and whether cybersecurity protocols were disabled to let them in. How can Americans know their private data hasn’t been compromised or used for personal gain? Was their information used to train Musk’s new AI model or to scope out competitors’ sensitive business strategies? We have no way of knowing. Musk is stepping away from Washington — at least several days a week— but the Trump administration’s DOGE agenda is far bigger than one man. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has fired countless doctors, scientists and experts, and now there are credible reports that the FDA plans to end routine food safety inspections. Secretary of State Marco Rubio tweeted that plans for reducing and restructuring his department were created under Trump’s leadership and “at my direction.”

And it’s not just the Trump administration. Congress has approved government spending cuts so ambitious that it’s unlikely they’ll be able to pass a budget that doesn’t include hundreds of billions in Medicaid cuts. While congressional Republicans argue their proposals target waste, fraud and abuse, in reality, they will rip away healthcare coverage from millions of vulnerable Americans — children, the poor and those with pre-existing conditions. If they genuinely wanted to eliminate fraud in the system, the administration wouldn’t have laid off government investigators tasked with rooting it out. Thankfully, DOGE has fallen dramatically short of Musk’s stated goal of $1 trillion in cuts. For all the chaos DOGE has caused, its online tracker claims only $160 billion in savings during Musk’s tenure — and only around $30 billion can be verified with credible receipts. In less than six months since Musk took the reins, DOGE’s actions may also have cost taxpayers $135 billion. Rooting out waste, fraud and abuse is a worthy goal, but it’s not what Musk or the Trump administration are doing. They’re repeating those words to justify destroying the good parts of government — the parts people rely on to meet their basic needs and will miss dearly when they’re gone.