Now at full speed, DOGE's role remains an enigma

Nobody should object to a genuine reform effort to remove waste, fraud and abuse from government. That’s why, in concept, President Donald Trump’s so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” – headed by the imaginative billionaire Elon Musk -- enjoys accolades from the president and his supporters. 

According to a new court filing from the White House for a lawsuit challenging DOGE’s constitutionality, Musk is a “Senior Advisor to the president,” and a “non-career Special Government Employee.” DOGE, it says, is a “Component of the Executive Office of the president.” Those are the words of the frantic White House lawyers trying to clean up the mess that is DOGE as they fend off at least eight lawsuits resulting from the efforts of Musk and his team.  But Trump made it very clear that the entrepreneur often by his side in the Oval Office is in charge. 

And no reliable mission statement has specified what this “department” is supposed to be doing and how. The operation is opaque. Whom does it serve?

Don’t bother clicking on the DOGE website for an unbiased mission statement. It has tweets and rebuttals, claims of billions in “savings” already with trillions more to come. But the numbers are suspect and error-ridden. 

DOGE is guiding mass layoffs, which on Tuesday hit a staggeringly wide swath of agencies and locations. This will disrupt government services for ordinary citizens. Libraries close, national parks lose staff, careers of nonpolitical employees are cut short without cause.

Poorly executed cutbacks can be dangerously error-prone. Nuclear-safety employees were fired; now the administration is looking to rehire them amid concerns about jeopardizing national security -- as well as the bird flu experts whom they fired.

Engineers between 19 and 24, most linked to Musk firms, with little if any sign they know how public agencies work, play key roles for DOGE. 

More worrisome for the rights of taxpayers is data access for DOGE operatives. DOGE has been pushing to tap into an IRS system that keeps personal tax information of Americans. Privacy experts are alarmed. 

Michelle King reportedly quit this week as acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration -- after Musk’s staffers sought access to sensitive information on hundreds of millions of Americans  in programs SSA administers.

On Long Island, Musk's “shock and awe” has fed unfounded rumors that SSA checks will be skipped. Big public announcements should stop that.  

Musk’s potentially massive conflicts of interest go generally unaddressed. Suspicion grows when opacity is chosen over transparency. Does Musk want federal regulators of SpaceX corporation, with billions in government contracts off his back? Do cuts at the SEC and the specialized cybersecurity agency benefit him? Or could he privatize the role of FAA professionals he’s helping to get rid of?

Do we know his mission is all about "efficiency" and not killing programs Trump scorns? For all that we do not know, DOGE might as well be called the Department of Government Enigmas.