On November 20th local time, American entrepreneur Elon Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy detailed their "radical" plans to reform the U.S. federal government in a column in The Wall Street Journal, including large-scale cuts to federal institutions and reductions in subsidies to related organizations.

Behind this proposal is the "Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)" reform plan put forward by the Trump administration.

According to the plan, the first step is to thoroughly review the current system, have dialogues with experts from various government departments, and precisely eliminate unreasonable regulations. The second step is a large-scale downsizing operation centered around layoffs. Although the plan does not specify the number of layoffs, Musk has publicly stated that "the scale of layoffs will be proportional to the number of regulations eliminated".

Cutting multiple regulations.

The Department of Government Efficiency will collaborate with legal experts within government agencies and "use advanced technology" to identify regulations that exceed the authority granted by Congress. The team will then submit a list of regulations to Trump, who can immediately suspend the enforcement of these regulations through executive action and initiate a review and repeal process.

This will unleash individuals and businesses, stimulate economic growth, and simultaneously correct the "unauthorized overexpansion" of administrative agencies over the past few decades.

Achieving the goal at the 250th anniversary of the founding of the country.

Musk and Lamaswamy believe that with the results of the presidential election and six conservative Supreme Court justices, it is a perfect historical opportunity for the Government Efficiency Department to reform the federal government. Both are ready to take on Washington insiders and believe they can succeed.

Its goal is to complete all reform tasks and dissolve the Department of Government Efficiency by July 4, 2026, the 250th anniversary of the founding of the usa.

Attached: Musk and Vivek release: reform plan of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) (full text)

Our country is based on a fundamental principle that government should be managed by the people we elect. But today's usa is not like that. Most laws are not enacted by Congress, but by unelected bureaucrats who issue "rules and regulations"... There are tens of thousands of rules and regulations issued every year. Most enforcement decisions and spending decisions of the government are not made by the elected president or his politically appointed officials, but by millions of unelected, unappointed civil servants in government institutions, who believe they cannot be fired due to the protections of the civil service system.

This practice is undemocratic and contrary to the vision of the founding fathers. It brings great direct and indirect costs to taxpayers. Fortunately, we have a historic opportunity to address this issue. On November 5th, voters decisively elected Trump and authorized him to make comprehensive changes, changes that taxpayers deserve.

President Trump has tasked the two of us to lead the newly established Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE - also known as: the Department of Government Efficiency), to reduce the size of the federal government. The entrenched, ever-expanding bureaucracy poses a survival threat to our republic, and politicians have tolerated it for too long. That's why we are taking a different approach. We are entrepreneurs, not politicians. We are external volunteers, not federal officials or employees. Unlike government committees or advisory boards, we will not just write reports or cut ribbons. We will cut costs.

We are assisting Trump's transition team in identifying and hiring a small, elite team of government reformers, including some of America's sharpest technical and legal minds. This team will work closely with the White House Management and Budget Office in the new government. The two of us will provide advice at every step to the Department of Government Efficiency, to implement three categories of reforms: repeal regulations, reduce administrative management, and save costs. We will focus on driving reform through executive action based on existing legislation rather than enacting new laws. The guiding star of our reform will be the U.S. Constitution, with a focus on two key decisions made by the Supreme Court during the Biden administration.

In the case of West Virginia v. EPA (2022), the justices ruled that agencies cannot enforce regulations involving major economic or policy issues unless specifically authorized by Congress. In the case of Loper Bright v. Raimondo (2024), the court overturned the Chevron Doctrine, stating that federal courts should no longer defer to federal agencies on statutory interpretation or their rule-making authority. These cases collectively show that many existing federal regulations exceed the authority granted by Congress.

The Department of Government Efficiency will work with legal experts in government agencies to apply these rulings to federal regulations drafted by these agencies with the help of advanced technology. The Department of Government Efficiency will submit this list of regulations to President Trump, who can immediately suspend the enforcement of these regulations through executive action and initiate a review and repeal process. This will liberate individuals and businesses from illegal regulations never passed by Congress and stimulate the american economy.

When the president announces thousands of such regulations are void, critics will accuse of executive overreach. In fact, this is correcting executive overreach, as thousands of regulations issued by executive orders were never authorized by Congress. The president should obey Congress when legislating, not the bureaucrats within federal institutions. Using executive orders to add cumbersome new rules in place of legislation is a violation of the Constitution, but using executive orders to abolish regulations that wrongly bypassed Congress is legal and necessary to comply with recent Supreme Court authorization. Furthermore, once these regulations are completely abolished, future presidents cannot simply flip a switch to reinstate them, but must request Congress to do so.

The significant reduction of federal regulations provides a reasonable industry logic for large-scale downsizing of the entire federal bureaucracy. The Government Efficiency Office intends to collaborate with appointed individuals from various agencies to determine the minimum number of employees needed for an agency to perform the functions allowed by the Constitution and statutory functions. The number of federal employees reduced should be proportional to the number of federal regulations repealed: fewer employees are needed to enforce fewer regulations, and once their scope of power is properly limited, the regulations created by that agency will also decrease. Employees whose positions are eliminated should be respected, and the goal of the Government Efficiency Office is to help them transition to the private sector. The president can utilize existing laws to encourage them to retire early and provide voluntary severance pay to facilitate their dignified departure.

The traditional view holds that statutory civil service protections prevent the president or even political appointees from firing federal employees. These protections aim to shield employees from political retaliation. However, the regulations allow for 'reductions in force' not targeted at specific employees. The regulations further empower the president to 'prescribe rules governing competitive service.' This authority is very broad. Previous presidents have utilized this power to modify civil service regulations through executive orders, a practice upheld by the Supreme Court in the cases of Franklin v. Massachusetts (1992) and Collins v. Yellen (2021), ruling that they are not constrained by the Administrative Procedure Act when doing so. With this authority, President Trump can implement various 'rules governing competitive service,' from large-scale layoffs to relocating federal agencies out of the Washington, D.C. area, thus curbing the excessive growth of administrative institutions. Requiring federal employees to work in the office five days a week would lead to a wave of voluntary resignations, which we welcome: if federal employees do not want to come into the office, American taxpayers should not be paying them a premium to stay home during the COVID-19 era.

Finally, we are committed to saving costs for taxpayers. Skeptics question how much the Government Efficiency Office can control federal spending solely through administrative means. They point out that the 1974 Impoundment Control Act prevents the president from halting spending authorized by Congress. President Trump has previously deemed the law unconstitutional, and we believe the current Supreme Court is likely to support his viewpoint on this issue. However, even without relying on this stance, the Government Efficiency Office will help end the federal government's overspending, focusing on the annual $500 billion-plus federal expenditures that are unauthorized by Congress or used in ways Congress never intended, ranging from the $0.535 billion annually allocated to public broadcasting corporations and $1.5 billion given to international organizations, to nearly $0.3 billion allocated to progressive groups like Planned Parenthood.

There are serious flaws in the federal government's procurement procedures. Many federal contracts have gone unchecked for years. Conducting extensive audits during a payment pause can save a significant amount of funds. The Pentagon has recently failed its audit for the seventh consecutive time, indicating that the leadership of the institution is almost entirely unaware of how its annual budget of over $800 billion is being spent. Critics argue that without targeting welfare programs like Medicare and Medicaid that need to be reduced by Congress, we cannot effectively and meaningfully address the federal deficit. However, this shifts the focus away from waste, fraud, and abuse, which almost all taxpayers want to see end, and the Government Efficiency Office aims to immediately save expenses for taxpayers by pinpointing precise administrative measures to address these issues.

With the decisive electoral mandate and a conservative majority in the Supreme Court of 6:3, the Government Efficiency Office faces a historic opportunity to structurally reduce the federal government. We are prepared to confront the entrenched interest groups in Washington. We anticipate victory. Now is the time to take decisive action. The primary goal of the Government Efficiency Office is to eliminate the necessity of its existence by July 4, 2026... the deadline we have set for the project... At the 250th anniversary of our nation's founding, there is no better birthday gift than building a federal government that our founding fathers would be proud of.