Until recently, it was unimaginable that a US government department would be named after a memecoin that its creators started as a joke. But the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), whose name is inspired by the memecoin Dogecoin, is now real, and the world's richest man, Elon Musk, along with fellow billionaire businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, is in charge of it.
For many, it is still unbelievable, and even Musk, who first started posting about DOGE a couple of months ago, has admitted that he can't believe it has become a real thing now.
"I still can¡¯t believe DOGE is real," Musk said on X. He, however, added that DOGE will be successful in what it has been tasked with.
"But I think it¡¯s actually going to work," he said.
The Department of Government Efficiency, as the name suggests, is aimed at making the US government more efficient by reducing unnecessary spending and regulations.
During an election rally, Musk claimed that DOGE could slash at least $2 trillion from the US federal budget, a number that many economists on both sides of the political spectrum have expressed doubts about.
Also read:?History of Dogecoin and how Elon Musk became the 'Dogefather' of the Memecoin
In a recent article in The Washington Post, Musk and Ramaswamy explained how they aimed to make DOGE work.
According to the duo, they and "a lean team of small-government crusaders" embedded at federal agencies will review regulations to identify ones they deem invalid.
The review will be guided by a pair of recent US Supreme Court decisions that placed significant limits on agencies' rulemaking powers, they said. DOGE will present its findings to Trump, who could issue executive orders immediately pausing enforcement of specific rules and directing agencies to repeal them, according to the op-ed. Federal regulations impact every facet of American society, from education, healthcare, and immigration to environmental pollution, drug safety, tax policy, and labour rights.
DOGE will also recommend mass layoffs across federal agencies and identify billions of dollars in government spending that is invalid because it was not authorised by Congress.
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