With a name like DOGE it’s got to be good

We are living in a brave new world of memes, soundbites, and billion-dollar campaign war chests. Thus, chances are media savvy billionaires calling themselves DOGE might succeed in saving this nation from eventual bankruptcy, when other fiscal Cassandras were and are ignored.

Some reminders

As of December 31, 2024, the U.S. national debt was $36 trillion. As of September 30, 2024, the debt to GDP was 123%. What the country owes is greater than what the country produces to pay its debt.

For the last several decades, Congress – keeper of the nation’s purse strings — has shown no interest in cutting spending. Members feign anguish about raising the debt ceiling every year at budget time, then go ahead and raise it.

Voters seem content re-electing spenders and having their giggles at news of any ludicrous government expenditures.

Three outstanding producers of much giggle but little action

The late Senator William Proxmire (D-Wisconsin) issued 168 “Golden Fleece” awards from 1975 to 1988, informing the public of questionable ways Congress was spending taxpayer money. One of his best choices was a 1978 $97,000 ($400,489 today) study by the National Institute of Mental Health of activities in a Peruvian brothel.

Retired Representative Ron Paul (R-Texas) served in the U.S. Congress for 12 non-consecutive terms. While in Congress he was known as “Dr. No,” since he would not vote in favor of any proposal not expressly authorized by the Constitution. Imagine how much leaner, better, faster, cheaper government would be if every member of Congress did the same!

Current Senator Rand Paul (R-Kansas) has somewhat followed his father’s footsteps in speaking out against our big, expensive government. So far, Rand Paul has issued 10 annual “Festivus Reports” to acquaint voters of the frivolous ways their hard-earned tax money is spent by Congress. Judging by press reaction, one of the most giggle-worthy expenditures in the 2024 report is National Endowment of the Arts funding for ice-skating drag queens.

Enter DOGE

Soon after his presidential victory, Donald Trump appointed entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead an extra-governmental group tasked with dramatically reducing the federal budget and the national debt. These objectives are to be accomplished by drastically curtailing government spending, downsizing the federal workforce, and radically cutting regulations. This yet to be configured group has been named DOGE, an acronym for Department of Government Efficiency.

Never mind that, in addition to the government waste warriors mentioned above, we already have the Government Accountability Office and the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability shouting from the rooftops about the incredible amount of taxpayer dollars wasted by various and sundry federal government activities.

Never mind that DOGE will need to dodge all manner of pelts that will surely come its way – claims of extra-constitutional actions, challenges from the legion of entities feeding at the public trough, lawsuits from axed civil servants, dissatisfaction from the forever-growing mass of government-dependent voters, and reluctance from Congress members not willing to upset established sources of donations and votes.

How could DOGE miraculously succeed when others have failed?

• The power of constant soundbites

Most people these days tolerate (or welcome) a ceaseless stream of breaking news and social media notifications. Shortcuts into the populace’s conscious abound. So do media influencers who successfully promote or ruin products, people, and ideas. Just look at your Facebook or X account, and no further indication of this truth is necessary.

DOGE comes with the power of Elon Musk’s frequent soundbites in the news. It comes with the power of X. It comes riding on the waves of a populist movement made credible by the success and high visibility of leaders like Javier Milei of Argentina and Nayib Bukele of El Salvador.

• The power of ubiquitous memes

Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins coined the word “meme,” short for the ancient Greek word “mimeme” meaning cultural copying. Dawkins characterized memes as,

“… melodies, ideas, catchphrases or bits of information that leap from brain to brain through imitation, expediting their transmission.” The surprising power of internet memes, 09/28/2022.

Unsurprisingly, DOGE is a meme coin, Elon Musk’s favorite crypto currency. The coin came into being when a photo of a Shiba Inu dog named Kabosu went viral, and crypto innovators riding on the popularity of Bitcoin produced the DOGE featuring Kabosu. Take your pick as to whether DOGE stands for DOG-E coin or not.

Kabosu, RIP, died May 24, 2024, at the age of 18. But she will forever be remembered thanks to the Kabosu monument built in 2023 in her honor in Sakura City’s Sakura Furusato Hiroba riverside park. See featured image of this article, showing Atsuko Sato (who rescued Kabosu from an animal shelter) cuddling Kabosu at the Sakura monument.

May the fiscal salvation offered by the X owner and frequent poster come to pass.

• The power of excellence.

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are of the intellectual elites of our times. In the old days we had Nicolaus Copernicus, Isaac Newton, John Locke, Benjemin Franklin – minds that operated outside the accepted norm and thus produced what was unimaginable before they came along.

Nowadays with excellence justifiably comes monetary rewards. Musk and Ramaswamy are billionaires. And with money comes power. Musk contributed $259 million to groups supporting Trump’s 2024 campaign, most certainly because he did want to do what he proposed during an X interview with Trump: cut government waste.

One would be naïve to think members of Congress are not aware that plying ball might translate into re-election support.

• The power of sudden epiphanies.

Today, January 6, is Epiphany, also called the Day of the Magi and the 12th Day of Christmas. The word epiphany means a sudden realization of something, an unexpected grasp of reality.

Let’s hope that voters, Congress, and the legacy media soon come to the realization that the current national practice of borrowing to support spending is not sustainable.