Congress and Constitution: Experts claim Musk’s DOGE plan may face real obstacles

While Americanbillionaire Elon Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy look all set to unleash their United States “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) on the USbureaucratic splurge, experts have warned their ambitious agenda might soon face roadblocks.

The DOGE aims to slash government costs by $2 trillion within the next two years by restructuring federal agencies.

However, experts have noted that the executive branch may scuttle their ambitious strides.

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of American Action Forum, was quoted as saying by the Hill, “There’s the executive branch that might be in their way. The Congress might be in their way. The Constitution is a bit of an obstacle.”

Holtz-Eakin added that the DOGE’s powers will be fully advisory and it will just give recommendations to the government agencies, without having any real authority.

“They don’t have any authority to do anything other than say, ‘We think this will be good,’” the expert said. “Evidently, Mr. Musk has a lot of free time, and if he wants to waste it, that’s fine,” he stated.

Darrell West, a senior fellow at the Center for Technology Innovation at the Brookings Institution, meanwhile expressed doubts over the authority and status of DOGE since it has not been created by Congress.

“But since this was not created by Congress, we don’t know what its authority is and what status it has,” West said. “I mean, any American can make suggestions on ways to cut the government budget, but the question — is anybody going to pay serious attention to this?”

However, West warned that Musk had to be taken seriously only because of his closeness to President-elect Donald Trump.

“Musk has the ear of the president, so people have to take it seriously just for that reason,” West was quoted as saying by The Hill.

Trump, on Tuesday (Nov 12) declared that Vivek and Elon would be spearheading the DOGE arm of his government. Trump in a statement said, “It will become, potentially, ‘The Manhattan Project’ of our time. Republican politicians have dreamed about the objectives of ‘DOGE’ for a very long time.”

(With inputs from agencies)