Swamp’s Smug Bureaucracy DOGE’s Bane

Kim Strassel made compelling argument that it won’t be enough for DOGE to shrink the behemoth bureaucracy’s size or reorg it but must rethink gov’t’s mission itself & find ways to strip it of its power to impose its own woke will on us.

One “how to” for instance the WSJ columnist gives is converting the “insanely complex … 16 million word” Tax Code from the labyrinth of loophole-riddled rules, incentives & handouts it has evolved into and replace it with a “flat” tax so the IRS bureaucrats can’t use their unchecked power arbitrarily against whomever or whatever. She opined: “When it comes to controlling the ranks of bureaucrats, the biggest priority isn’t reorganization or even cutting numbers … it's about destroying their mission, their power.” It’s also key to not fall into the trap of “happy talk of mass firings” which sound sexy “until one remembers that most bureaucrats are there because of complex programs mandated by Congress,” many of which were created to supposedly solve problems Congress helped create. Firings “might shave dollars … at Program X, but it still leaves the other half to double down on Program X mischief.”

Another for instance of “that threat” Strassel cites is a “recent New York Times lament for the ‘exhaustion’ felt by bureaucrats at ‘the prospect of a second go-round’ with Donald Trump. They express ‘anxieties’ about Trump ‘priorities’ that will clash with their own ‘expert’ opinions. They dislike any administration impeding their work on ‘climate change,’ ‘civil rights reforms’ and ‘regulatory protections.’ The piece ends with "the smug hope that the bureaucracy is now so vast as to provide it ’imperviousness.’ THIS [ed] is the arrogance & resistance the reformers are up against.”

Davd Soul