US presidential candidate Donald Trump said he would appoint Elon Musk to head a government efficiency commission if he is elected to office in November.
“At the suggestion of Elon Musk, who has given me his complete and total endorsement… I will create a government efficiency commission tasked with conducting a complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government and making recommendations for drastic reforms,” Trump told the Economic Club of New York.
There are parts of the federal government that are wildly inefficient. So it isn’t entirely misguided to want to improve that. Appointing Musk to redesign the government’s operations is a terrible idea (based on Tesla operations).
At the federal level most of the perceived inefficiencies are really just bloated budgets to ensure funds are available when needed, like for the military. The perception of inefficiency usually comes from the public not accepting the need for redundancy or that a lot of regulatory work is time consuming and expensive.
When conservstives talk about efficiency they mean fire people and slash budgets they oppose existing, like the NOAA. They don’t actually mean efficiency.