The problem about DOGE is that we already have something that is supposed to reduce excessive spending, THE GAO. Why not just appoint them to this?
The short answer: RESULTS
The long version:
1) History of ineffectiveness. Congress has basically ignored GAO’s recommendations. GAO now has 3000+ employees & 15+ departments which have generated miles & miles of mostly unread or otherwise ignored reports with zero significant change to show for it
2) Optics & Action. DOGE is Trump’s creation and he has the power of the election mandate behind him. The idea is that the later will spur action
3) Trust. Trump has learned an important lesson from his first term: Don’t trust the establishment. I would say he knows 100% without a doubt that the GAO is about as “independent” and “nonpartisan” as you are
4) Ground up. Simply put…why appoint Elon & Vivek to an existing bloated, bureaucratic, ineffective agency? Much smarter to just let them start from scratch & run things efficiently & effectively from the ground up like they have done with everything else in their professional lives. The objective is results not status quo
5) No doubt their DOGE team will read all of those reports from GAO. My guess is that they already have. Probably the ONLY people that have read them all cover to cover. I know Congress hasn’t read them in their entirety
6) One of the DOGE team’s key roles will be to filter through those stacks of unread GAO reports, mine out the most important stuff, prioritize it, then present it in condensed form to Congress in a very public way that will most assuredly spark action…which leads us to…
7) Transparency. This may be the most important catalyst for actual change of them all. GAO can’t or won’t (doesn’t matter which) be as transparent as DOGE will be. This is the part that will hold Congress’ feet to the fire
8) Coffee is for closers. ABC.