I've been thinking a lot lately about the great 1980's film Princess Bride. In particular, one of the unforgettable lines in a movie with dozens of unforgettable lines.
It's Inigo Montoya's response to the self proclaimed genius Vizzini's exclamation "Inconceivable!".
Which brings me to the DOGE. Every time I hear Elon Musk talk about government efficiency, I hear Inigo Montoya in my head. Repeat after me.
"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."
But let's get a disclaimer in. I am for efficiency in everything. I'm definitely for it in government and recognize there is a ton of fixable inefficiency in government. I am not against the concept of government efficiency in any way based on what efficient actually means.
Webster says efficient means: "capable of producing desired results with little or no waste (as of time or materials)."
There's a mountain of evidence that the guy who paid 44 billion dollars for a company valued at less than half of that is oblivious to the no waste part of that definition and is iffy on the capable of producing desired results portion.
It could be argued by the casual observer that making the government more efficient requires a plan slightly more detailed than fire workers and stop paying legal commitments. Blatantly breaking laws is usually inefficient.
How many taxpayer dollars are you really saving by taking 100,000 taxpayers and putting them on unemployment? Add in the cost of fighting the lawsuits the government will ultimately lose and the back pay awarded when half of them get their jobs back. And since the work will still have to be done, we'll spend more on contract workers than we would have for employees.
So, seriously, maybe Elon doesn't understand efficiency at all? The clear evidence came this week and it had nothing to do with DOGE. On Tuesday, the state of Wisconsin held a special election for a seat on its Supreme Court. Elon took a special interest in the election for many reasons not the least of which is it's quite possible he could have a case before that very court in the near future.
It's estimated the South African spent $21,000,000 to steer the election to the conservative, Trump endorsed candidate. This included paying individuals $100 each to sign petitions and 3 people $1,000,000 each for a Republican vote. Unfortunately for Elon, fortunately for actual American Wisconsonites, Trump's candidate lost.
As of this writing, there is rumbling that the Donald is seeing maybe Elon wasn't the best choice to sell himself to. Not that he would admit it. There is an upside to keeping a guy around with a lower opinion rating than you.
The real silver lining to this dark cloud for Trump is that while Elon Musk was spending $21,000,000 to lose an election in Wisconsin, a different foreigner was spending $2,000,000 to win that election. Winning on one tenth of the investment? That is the gold standard of efficiency.
Clearly, if Trump wants a truly successful Department of Government Efficiency, he needs to give George Soros a call.