DOGE Can Rediscover the Power of Congress

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy's Department of Efficiency is Government flying higher than a meme stock.

- By Mike Gallagher

Like the SpaceX platform catching a Falcon rocket on re-entry, the two men have captured a weary country's imagination with a vision for an institution that could do the seemingly impossible: hold federal agencies accountable for failure, reduce profligate spending and promote productive reform.

In theory, such an institution already exists. It's called the U.S. Congress, and the founders envisioned it as the dominant branch of government. In practice, however, many Americans don't recognize this role for Congress because the legislative branch has systematically surrendered its constitutional authority to the executive and judiciary, especially when it comes to spending.

Messrs. Musk and Ramaswamy, with their "lean team of small-government crusaders," say their focus is "driving change through executive action based on existing legislation rather than by passing new laws." This is understandable given the dysfunction Congress displayed in the recent budget debacle. But if the DOGE men don't focus on reforming Congress's budget process, they will struggle to realize their ambition of revolutionizing the federal government and returning America to fiscal sanity. If the department focuses only on executive orders, it will pump water out of the swamp only to deposit it back in. DOGE will be remembered as a cheap public-relations stunt.