Opinion | Why we ‘Democracy Defenders’ are demanding information about DOGE
Dec. 27, 2024, 4:00 AM MST
By Virginia Canter, chief anticorruption counsel, State Democracy Defenders Fund, Richard W. Painter, MSNBC Columnist and Gabe Lezra, policy director for State Democracy Defenders Fund
The so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” is officially a mere advisory commission. But DOGE is nevertheless poised to help restructure the federal government and perhaps upend decades of regulation of everything from vehicle safety to space exploration. Co-chair Elon Musk is one of the most politically powerful private citizens in the country, as evidenced by his role in the recent budget crisis in Washington. Through his wealth and his ownership of X, he has enormous influence over President-elect Donald Trump, lawmakers in Congress and the national narrative.
In announcing the creation of DOGE, Trump wrote that the commission would pave the way for his administration to “dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.” Musk’s companies receive billions of dollars in government contracts. DOGE’s broad mandate could give Musk vast sway over the very same agencies that administer those contracts, as well as agencies investigating his companies.
The scope of the potential problem we are facing is immense. Musk’s companies have been the subject of more than a dozen federal investigations or reviews with various agencies, including the Federal Aviation Administration, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service, the National Labor Relations Board, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration, the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission, among others.
Most recently, Musk reportedly failed to secure from the Air Force “high-level security access” due to “potential security risks,” and he and SpaceX reportedly “triggered” at least three federal reviews for noncompliance with federal reporting protocols in place to ensure the protection of state secrets.
The second Trump administration is already setting itself up to be more corrupt than Tammany Hall was a century ago. And DOGE appears to be the icing on the Trump corruption cake.
Musk alone has an absurd level of conflicts of interest, which in any other presidential administration would be disqualifying.
That Musk also couldn’t get “high-level security access” from the Air Force is another reason why Musk was an awful choice to co-chair DOGE.
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