Elon Musk's DOGE and FDR's Fight for Efficient Government
Washington D.C., USAWed Jan 08 2025
Back in the 1930s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was stressed out by a massive government that was hard to manage. He felt there were too many agencies doing similar things, and he couldn't control them all. This was a big deal because the Supreme Court had said these independent agencies could do whatever they wanted without the president's oversight. FDR was really upset about this.
Fast forward to today, and we see people like Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy talking about similar problems on social media. But FDR was dealing with this way back in 1937. He wanted to make the government work better for regular people. So, he set up a committee called the Brownlow Committee to fix things.
The committee said that making the government efficient wasn't just about cutting waste. It was about making sure the government could do what the people wanted it to do. They suggested big changes, like cutting the number of agencies from over 100 to just 12. FDR liked these ideas and told Congress about them.
Other important people also talked about these problems in the 1930s. They worried that the government was getting too powerful and that it was becoming like a dictatorship. Congress tried to fix some of these issues with the Administrative Procedure Act in 1946.
Even presidents from both major parties have complained about the government being too hard to control. For example, Harry Truman and Jimmy Carter both had problems with the bureaucracy. Over time, the government has become so big and complicated that no one can keep track of everything it does.
Making the government simpler won't be easy. Some people benefit from the current system and won't want to change it. But FDR's words remind us that making the government efficient is important for our freedom. He said that we need to work together to make the government better.
Today, we have another chance to make the government more efficient. With groups like DOGE and efforts from other leaders, we can try to fix these problems. Everyone should support this, no matter which political party they belong to.
https://localnews.ai/article/elon-musks-doge-and-fdrs-fight-for-efficient-government-85b09ac8
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questions
Could the growth of bureaucracies be a secret plot to maintain power by a select few?
Imagine if the FDA had to decide the optimal amount of peanuts in peanut butter via a reality TV show. How would that go?
How have the challenges faced by FDR in managing government efficiency evolved or remained the same in modern times?
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