Posted originally on the CTH on ecember 6, 2024 | Sundance 

I have been waiting for someone, anyone, to outline the reality of what the Dept of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is all about.  Unfortunately, perhaps due to the history of the matter, it appears no one really “gets it.”  So, with that in mind, and accepting that even the operators of DOGE may not have a fulsome comprehension of the dynamic, here is what it all means.

Few people realize the last Federal Budget that passed through “regular order” was for Fiscal Year 2008, signed by President George W Bush in September of 2007.  Every budget since has been outside regular order; a series of continuing resolutions, omnibus spending packages and short-term funding mechanisms.  {CITATION}

That is correct.  In the past 17 years, all federal spending has been ‘short-term’ or ‘stop-gap’ spending measures, generally known as “Continuing Resolutions,” where the govt (House and Senate) continue to perpetually resolve to fund the government.  The CRs as they are known, punt the spending debate by accepting a baseline of prior spending and tweaking around the edges.

The key takeaway to begin thinking about DOGE is to understand that REGULAR ORDER has not been used since Fiscal Year 2008.

Title III of the Congressional Budget Act outlines a legal timeline that each President and Congress must follow {SEE HERE}.  Prior to 2007, Continuing Resolutions were only used to resolve short term arguments about spending priorities.

♦ BACKGROUND – The President is required by law to submit his budget by the first Monday in February.  Yes, even when an election takes place and a President doesn’t assume office until January 20th, the first Monday in February is still the legal requirement for the new White House budget proposal.

The Presidents’ budget is then submitted to The House of Representatives, where two weeks later the Congressional Budget Office, reviews the budget and issues an opinion as to the cost of the budget.   No later than six weeks after the President submits his budget all House committees send the House Appropriations Committee their spending proposals [April 15].

Through May and June, each budgetary appropriations bill from the House is sent to the Senate.  The Senate receives the House appropriations bills, then reviews through the Senate Appropriations Committee (Thune just picked Susan Collins as Chair).  The Senate proposes their spending priorities based on the House bill because the House has constitutional authority to originate all spending [June 15].  The House and Senate budgets are “reconciled” using parliamentary procedures [June 30] and then sent to the President for signature.

The fiscal year begins October 1st.

That’s the regular order process.

Again, regular order has not been followed since Fiscal Year 2008, signed by George W Bush in September of 2007.

♦ The Problem – When congress doesn’t follow regular order they end up with a series of “continuing resolutions” (CRs) where spending is decided on a short-term basis because they don’t have an agreed budget.  The problem with CRs is what’s called “baseline budgeting” where all prior spending is the baseline for the continuation of spending proposals.  The baseline accepts all previous spending priorities, then adds to them with the new spending needs.

Baseline Budgeting means congress keeps spending on all historic programs regardless of merit or benefit.  All the prior spending just continues, and new spending is added.  That means when an omnibus spending package is created (instead of individual appropriations bills), all the previous government waste is baked into the cake, and the funds are spent again – regardless of need.

EXAMPLE – If congress funds a trillion-dollar Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), and then doesn’t follow regular order in the next year, the TARP funds spent become part of the baseline of spending.  The trillion-dollar TARP can be spent again, and again, and again, as each subsequent year of CRs continues unfolding.

Now, imagine what exists within the system of federal spending when most of the expenditures of the past 18 years are never filtered out.  Eighteen years of smaller, albeit not insignificant, amounts of money continually piled on top of each other.  Imagine what lays underneath all those layers and layers of unreviewed spending.  That’s where we are.

To be fair, the House of Representatives under Republicans did pass almost all of their individual spending bills this past year and sent them to the Senate.  However, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer just ignored the bills, put them on a shelf and awaited the govt funding problem to surface so that another CR debate could take place.

Now, you might ask yourself how this ridiculous system can be stopped or put into check.  Well, the mechanism to shut down this nonsense lays in the power of a Presidential Veto.

A President can veto a federal budget that he/she feels spends too much money and subsequently send that budget back to congress.  This is where politics comes into play because essentially if the funding runs out the Presidential veto is shutting down the government.

Again, this has been our reality for the past 18-years as congress blames the President and the President blames congress.  Each of them playing a game of political chicken, daring the other to be blamed by the public for financial Armageddon.   Example Below:

.

Again, regular order has not been followed since Fiscal Year 2008, signed by George W Bush in September of 2007.  It’s been CR politics ever since.

♦ Now, along comes President Trump in term #2 which begins January 20, 2025.

As you start to think about DOGE, remember, in the background of the transition, using OMB Budget Director Russ Vought, the first Trump budget has been organized and will be submitted to the House of Representatives by the required legal day of February 1, 2025.

In part, it is transparently obvious why House Speaker Mike Johnson has been visiting Mar-a-Lago so much.  There is strategic budget planning afoot.

A Republican President Donald Trump is going to submit a “regular order” budget to a Republican controlled House.

The now Republican controlled Senate (John Thune) will be responsible for accepting each of the House Appropriations bills and responding accordingly to create a federal budget for Fiscal Year 2026.

I highly suspect President Trump is not going to accept another failed budget and yet another CR from a Republican House and Republican Senate.

The problem Trump faces is the Republicans will not want to be responsible for cutting out 18 years of fat from the spending process.  The democrats will wield the politics of these cuts in order to achieve electoral victory in the 2026 midterms….

…. Enter, Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy and DOGE.

That looming regular order budget, and/or the looming veto if it is not followed, is the sum and total purpose of DOGE.

Can you see it now?

.

In essence, Elon Musk is assembling DOGE as the weapon needed to hold a UniParty congress accountable to deliver a regular order budget.

Yes, hundreds upon hundreds of billions, perhaps trillions, can be cut out of the budget if “regular order” is followed. Each committee in congress will have to submit their spending proposal to the House Budget and Appropriations Committee, while Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are reviewing each of those proposals and putting them on BLAST!

DOGE may start reinforcing rules within the federal government as controlled by the Executive Branch.  However, DOGE isn’t going to be going into federal agencies per se’, to cut their spending.  DOGE can just wait for the Fiscal Year 2026 spending proposals those agencies are legally required to submit congress to come to them, then review and BLAST any of the fat.

Through this process, the Executive Branch is not in constitutional conflict with the Legislative Branch.  Congress can accept and submit any spending proposal they want, but DOGE can outline it happening in real time and pour sunlight on to it.  This is why DOGE and a Republican Congress working together is more effective.

When you understand what I have outlined above, then what follows below from Representative Tim Burchett makes more sense.  WATCH:

Just left the ⁦@DOGE⁩ meeting with ⁦@elonmusk⁩ and ⁦@VivekGRamaswamy⁩ and it’s clear to me that the problem is going to be the members in that room.

Cameo by ⁦@chiproytx⁩ pic.twitter.com/pEzNbAPhCF

— Tim Burchett (@timburchett) December 5, 2024

Burchett is saying that congress will never cut that 18-years of CR fat out of the spending bills, no matter what they say.  That 18-years of CR fat is huge. Think of the scale of 18-years of layers of spending as a result of baseline budgets and CRs.

What Burchett is not fully absorbing, is how a VETO from President Trump is now framed against the visibility of the political BLAST that Musk can provide.

Can you see it now?

Last point. Perhaps, just perhaps, one of the people with strong familiarity of this issue, Matt Gaetz, is going to be a key player.

Maybe there was a reason no one else wrote this.