In the military, talk about a particular substance rolling downhill is a metaphor for how pressure on senior officers flows downwards to junior officers, to NCOs, and eventually to the slick-sleeves.
But in the military as well as in government, sometimes good ideas also roll downhill.
For example, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) set up by the incoming Trump administration is a good idea. And, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds (R) has announced in her State of the State address the formation of a state-level DOGE to root out wasteful government spending in the Hawkeye State.
This announcement came Tuesday, making her the latest governor to signal efforts to slash wasteful spending in a measure modeled after the newest federal agency.
Reynolds said:
I like to say that we were doing DOGE before DOGE was a thing.
Further:
And to build on our success, I’m launching our own state DOGE to find even greater savings and efficiencies in both state and local government.
The Republican governor said Emily Schmitt, general counsel of Sukup Manufacturing, would lead the department.
And:
In just a few short years, we’ve turned our state into a national model for bold, get-it-done government. And we’re not stopping.
Iowa is not alone.
Similarly, last week New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte (R) announced her decision to launch a DOGE commission to “slash” wasteful spending in her inaugural gubernatorial address.
She said:
We need to make sure that the government is operating more like the lean process in manufacturing, where waste is eliminated each step in the process for a better result.
Anyone who has paid attention to the goings on of government—at least the Obama-Biden years, if not the last thirty—would agree, it is the nature of government to grow ever larger, more intrusive, and more expensive.
But with the impending premiere of “Trump II, Rise of the Dark MAGA,” and his tagging in Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to take a bite (hopefully, several large bites) out of federal spending:
[T]here seems to be a renewed emphasis on identifying and eliminating wasteful spending.
Governments at all levels waste money. It is a big part of what they do. There are no incentives for the government to be efficient, or at least, there were not until the DOGE. Indeed, the incentives all run in the opposite direction.
There is no accountability, except that in the cases of elected officials, they must answer to their voters.
But too many politicians deal with this by playing Santa Claus and promising a never-ending gravy train of free stuff.
They are rewarded for their profligacy with reelection.
That may be changing now; the new emphasis on rooting out wasteful government spending may spread beyond Washington—at least within the Red states and the states not quite sickly Blue.
The only downside to this would be for those on the dole being forced to make their own way—and that too will be a good thing.
