Lost Debate The Promise and Perils of DOGE
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Feb 18, 2025 Zach Liscow, Yale Law professor and former Chief Economist at the Office of Management and Budget, dives into the truth behind Elon's Department of Government Efficiency. He questions whether fiscal policies genuinely ease burdens on taxpayers or merely push costs to future generations. The conversation highlights the complexities of government spending, the disparities in the tax code for the ultra-wealthy, and the challenges of infrastructure investment. Liscow emphasizes the moral obligations of leadership in navigating these fiscal waters.
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US Infrastructure Inefficiency
- Building public infrastructure in the US is slower and costlier than in other developed nations.
- Three main issues are litigiousness, weak state capacity, and poorly implemented federalism.
Examples of Weak State Capacity
- Boston's Green Line light rail project suffered due to only four to six state employees managing it.
- California's high-speed rail, a larger project, had too few, sometimes part-time, employees and incomplete plans.
Federal Spending Breakdown
- Most federal spending goes to entitlement programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.
- DOGE's impact is limited, focusing on smaller non-defense discretionary spending like USAID and IRS.