Results

Public Citizen Inc.

01/15/2025 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 01/15/2025 08:51

A Government Efficiency Proposal Based on Evidence, Not Pro-Corporate Ideology

January 15, 2025

A Government Efficiency Proposal Based on Evidence, Not Pro-Corporate Ideology

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, Public Citizen released a new report that provides a blueprint for what a government committed to "efficiency" should prioritize - and which rejects the faux efficiency agenda advanced by the Elon Musk-led, so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

"Every sign from DOGE suggests that it aims to use "efficiency" as a cover to shrink government, benefit corporations by cutting regulations, and advance a predetermined ideological agenda," said Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen and author of the report. "This report identifies what an efficiency agenda based on evidence, not ideology, would include - from slashing drug prices to ending privatized Medicare to reducing the wasteful Pentagon budget."

The policy interventions identified in this report could save Americans hundreds of billions of dollars every year and to raise hundreds of billions more, every year. These interventions include:

  • Measures to reduce prescription drug prices can save $200 billion annually.
  • Ending privatized Medicare can save $100 billion annually, while improving quality of care.
  • Modest reductions to the Pentagon budget would save $100 billion every year; while more aggressive, evidence-based cuts could save $200 billion annually.
  • Ending tax subsidies and handouts to oil and gas corporations would save about $20 billion annually.
  • Fair taxes on the rich and corporations could raise $500 billion annually, or potentially much more, as compared with the baseline of the expected extension of the Trump tax cuts.

The report also examines the broad record of regulation and shows that major regulations generate a positive economic return, disproving the notion that the DOGE can find social savings through regulatory rollbacks. And it makes the case for large-scale public investments that will generate positive economic returns (in addition to their non-economic benefits), including early childhood and clean energy transition programs.

Earlier this week, Robert Weissman and fellow co-president of Public Citizen, Lisa Gilbert, sent a letter to the Trump transition co-chairs requesting to be appointed to DOGE, citing the need for ideological balance as required by the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) and their years of experience researching and promoting the policies included in this efficiency agenda.