Photo from Free Malaysia Today.

Article I Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution states that Congress is relegated with the power, “To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.”

The constitution informed my writing in a previous Comenian article, where I explained that DOGE would largely exist as an advisory committee while official departments like the Office of Budget Management and the Government Accountability Office would play a larger role in managing government spending. However, I was incorrect because DOGE and the executive branch have abused their power, and Congress has failed to check that power so far. 

On Feb. 3, 2025, DOGE, or the Department of Government Efficiency, led by chairman Elon Musk, claimed that with President Trump’s support, it would eliminate the U.S.’s budget deficit. Afterward, DOGE took congressional duties into its own hands by de facto disbanding the United States Agency for International Development, firing most of the staff, and telling staffers abroad to return to the United States. Musk also tweeted, “We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper.” 

This has raised concerns about Musk’s actions’ constitutionality, leading to federal courts issuing orders to delay, although the Supreme Court has paused the orders to delay.

Simultaneously, Elon Musk, with Donald Trump’s permission, went on a firing spree, purging the civil service of roughly 200,000 civil servants and attempting to replace them with loyalists to centralize executive authority per the unitary executive theory, which argues that the president should exercise full control over all executive functions without significant oversight from Congress. Some of the firings gained significant attention because of conflicts of interest held by Musk and Trump, revealing why it’s important to have Congress weigh in on such matters. Remember, Trump is firing large numbers of civil service employees with Musk’s advice, and Congress has had no say as of today. Here’s a list of those firings:

1. DOGE fired 20 members of the FDA’s Office of Neurological and Physical Medicine Devices, who were reviewing Musk’s Neuralink.
2. DOGE fired Inspector General Phyllis Fong, who was investigating Musk for violating the Animal Welfare Act after Musk’s company killed 1,500 animals doing tests with Neurolink.
3. DOGE fired FAA workers for investigating his companies and argued SpaceX engineers could replace air traffic controllers.
   1. Yes, the department is experiencing turnover and staffing issues and cannot afford to lose more personnel.
   2. A week later, Elon Musk requested their return, tweeting,  “There is a shortage of top-notch air traffic controllers. If you have retired but are open to returning to work, please consider doing so.”
4. DOGE fired the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration staff, who were fired while investigating Elon Musk’s self-driving tech.
5. DOGE fired the National Labor Rights Bureau chair pursuing Tesla for racial harassment.
6. DOGE fired the Department of Defense inspector general who was investigating SpaceX’s failure to share information about foreign leader meetings and security breaches.
7. Trump fired competent high-ranking military generals and replaced them with loyalists.
8. DOGE fired thousands of IRS workers, which will cost us an estimated $500 billion in revenues – many times more than what DOGE has managed to cut
9. DOGE ceased all operations of employees working at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency formed after the 2008 financial meltdown.
10. DOGE fired anyone in the DOJ who investigated Trump at one point.
11. DOGE fired and then attempted to rehire nuclear warhead workers.
12. DOGE fired 1,000 employees from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
    1. This cut people off from the Veterans Crisis Line and cut funding for researchers working on helping burn pit victims recover from combat injuries.

What about spending cuts? DOGE promised Americans it would solve the debt crisis, not fire the civil service. 

Well, Elon Musk claims that he cut $65 billion out of the $2 trillion yearly budget deficit. However, he only has enough evidence to indicate he cut nine billion dollars.

  Subsequently, his co-partisans passed a $4.5 trillion tax cut over the following decade. Nevertheless, what did DOGE cut, and what happened to budgets? Is it also following constitutional rules by working with Congress to cut spending? No, it is bypassing Congress, which controls spending on this, too. Raising concerns over what a lawless and unaccountable executive led by Trump and Elon might cut. Here’s a list:

1. DOGE cut a $2.5 billion Verizon contract within the FAA and replaced it with a SpaceX contract.
2. DOGE cut billions allocated to aid the vets who are Homeless, suffering from PTSD, and burn pit victims.
3. DOGE cut $900 million from the Department of Education.
4. DOGE cut Healthcare funding for 9/11 first responders.
5. DOGE increased the government’s purchasing of electric vehicles to 400 million dollars worth of “armored Teslas” and removed contracts from Tesla’s competitors. 
6. DOGE cut billions of dollars of cuts from U.S. Healthcare spending.
7. DOGE cut research funding for scientists and healthcare workers working on cures for diseases.
8. DOGE claims it cut 92% of foreign aid contracts.
9. DOGE cut $200 million worth of social security.
10. DOGE cut billions from the treasury.
11. DOGE cut $173 million from the Department of Agriculture
12. DOGE cut $133 million from the Department of Transportation.
13. DOGE temporarily cut money allocated to combat the spread of Ebola.

Now, did DOGE accomplish its publicly stated goals? Well, we do know roughly $9 billion worth of spending cuts were verified, but that doesn’t even pay for one percent of the new four-and-a-half trillion dollar tax cuts. Therefore, as of now, the federal budget deficit will drastically increase because although DOGE has been successful in partisan purges of the civil service, it has not been successful in reducing the budget substantively due to drastically decreased revenues and a failure to properly cut spending. In fact, the inspector generals Musk removed during the purge of the bipartisan civil service were responsible for cutting more wasteful spending in their careers than the entirety of DOGE.

Instead, DOGE highlights a growing trend in our national politics where politicians undermine the truth with politically convenient narratives such as “draining the swamp” or “efficiency” to justify self-serving power grabs while dodging accountability. This restructuring of the state by DOGE, bypassing Congress’s role in checking the executive branch, erodes the checks and balances put on executive power to keep tyranny at bay. All the while, the lack of transparency in DOGE contributes further to a sense of powerlessness in our politics, where people feel that no matter how hard they try to reach their government, their government remains unaccountable to them.

In conclusion, DOGE represents a fundamental power shift in the federal government, where the purging of the bipartisan civil service fundamentally challenges the norms that uphold U.S. democracy. If Congress and the courts fail to end this or do not take actions to ensure accountability and reverse the systemic damages afterward, a new precedent will be established for future U.S. presidents to erode whatever checks still remain on their power., DOGE is not an aberration, but it could represent the early beginnings of a radical transformation of the U.S. government as we know it to a more authoritarian system where power is increasingly centralized and held by the whims and egos of one man at the expense of the many. 

However, through DOGE comes a lesson: unchecked power leads to unchecked incompetence and corruption, which shows that the slow pace of our government due to the many checks and balances on power is an asset, not a flaw. Therefore, those checks on power built into our constitutional republic must be defended. However, only we, the people as one and without fear, can do the work necessary to defend the republic and preserve its greatness in the face of any threat seeking to undermine it.

Therefore, I encourage you to call your Republican and Democratic representatives about DOGE, protest whenever you can, support our civil service members fighting back against this takeover, and show no fear in speaking up boldly and patriotically in defense of the republic.  Your voice matters, especially right now when the republic is screaming for your help.