Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE): Its stated goal is “modernizing federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity”.
I’m going to cut right to the chase and provide the solution to the national debt crisis right up front. “What the world needs now is love, sweet love. It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of.” Lyricist Hal David and composer Burt Bacharach hit it on the head with their 1965 hit song, “What the World Needs Now Is Love.” It was written in part to calm the differences between the pro-Vietnam war and anti-war factions.
In this DOGE eat DOGE world where every politician in our country is blaming everyone else for the current national debt crisis, what we really need is love, tough love. I’m talking about developing good options and making informed decisions with common courtesy, mutual respect, grace and dignity as guiding principles.
Our nation is basically bankrupt. In simple math terms — not high finance, not something that you need to understand the latest investment strategy and derivatives — we are broke. The solution will take tough love and common sense. This column is going to tick some of you off on both sides of the aisle. And some of it will be a little tongue-in-cheek. I’ll let you figure out what.
When I look at Penn State University, in particular the commonwealth campuses, and look at the PASSHE schools, and then I look at our federal government, I ask “What do they all have in common?” A lack of fiscal discipline and accountability.
Let me use a simple example.
We all drive by really nice houses that have expensive cars in the driveway. We see the owners eating at the nicest restaurants, wearing the finest clothes, bragging about the amazing vacations they take and living a status lifestyle.
Then we look under the hood of their financial car, and what we find is an engine in disrepair and a rusted frame. In other words, it’s all for show. It’s fake. They’re upside down on their mortgage, they’ve maxed out their credit cards and they’re in debt up to their eyeballs. Well, that in a nutshell is what we have with government and far too many institutions of higher education. Both political parties and university leadership are to blame because of the greed and lack of courage that it takes to “get things done” with the common good at the center of our thought processes.
In athletics we have always been taught that victory is the result of hard work, discipline, sacrifice, “we before me” and taking one for the team. At least that’s how it used to be. Don’t get me started on how poorly implemented and executed the transfer portal and NIL in college athletics have become. I agree both concepts were needed in principle, but in practice have taken us to a place where “me over we” has replaced “anything for the team.” What we need now is another longstanding athletic principle to guide us: “Expect more from each other; demand more from yourself.”
Fixing our national debt is going to be hard and painful. There is no way around it. But the solution doesn’t have to be as difficult as we think. It takes a heart shift as much as a mind shift to achieve a goal for the benefit of future generations.
Because I was there and witnessed (and by association am guilty of aiding and abetting) the excess and the waste at Penn State and Lock Haven universities, it saddens me to see what’s become of higher education. Colleges and universities across the country are closing, cutting programs and being forced to take draconian measures to survive. Hmmm sounds a lot like our federal government! The finger pointing is downright maddening because we have all been willing to turn a blind eye to the obvious for decades and allow the corruption to seep into our schools, our government and in society.
What we have here is a serious case of fiduciary procrastination and lack of accountability.
No one had the courage to make the tough decisions when they needed to be made. Politicians were too busy making sure they would get reelected and wouldn’t risk doing what needed to be done. So, when some of the institutions and programs that should’ve survived and even thrived, are cut, why are we shocked and surprised? It’s because we didn’t have the discipline over the years to do the right thing. It’s because we just kept kicking the can down the road and let it be somebody else’s problem that we are in the middle of the “great reset.”
As far as DOGE is concerned, it had to happen sooner or later. I’m not thrilled at the way it is being implemented, but I also understand it was done this way to grab everybody’s attention. President Trump and his big DOGE, Elon Musk, should’ve used a scalpel and not a hatchet from day one. The Musk chainsaw stunt was disgraceful and regrettable, BUT it sure did get everyone’s attention. As recently as today they seem to be listening to the public now and backing off a bit.
Sometimes, like with our own finances, it’s easier to go all in and take the pain all at once. Nobody likes to hear this, but it is just the plain truth. I don’t always agree with radio host and financial advisor Dave Ramsay, but using his “tough love” approach in his “Debt Snowball Strategy” in getting control over spending is essentially what DOGE is attempting to do with government waste.
Do I support DOGE? In principle, absolutely. But like so many well-intended strategies I think that its implementation and execution are flawed. I’m sure to get some negative reactions for my stance. So be it. My own 30-year-old son wrote to me a few weeks ago and applauded these necessary measures to spare future generations the burden of our baby boomer greed and lack of fiscal restraint. He realizes his own future children and grandchildren will benefit from sacrifices we all make for the greater good now.
I am a card-carrying member of the Common Sense party, which means I believe in social responsibility but with fiscal discipline. I believe in pragmatic, compassionate compromise with a healthy dose of “carefrontation.” That is, confronting difficult situations with dignity and grace. Tough love done without being a jerk.
Unfortunately, we have been spoiling the government and administrative child for far too long. Just like raising children with that mindset, we shouldn’t be surprised that we have created a selfish offspring who expects something for nothing and is too often a whiny brat.
Don’t shoot the messenger. Don’t be mad at the bill collection agency workers or the person who shows up to repossess your car that you couldn’t afford in the first place. We’re talking individual accountability from everyone. If you really truly want the social programs for the people who actually need them, then sacrifices have to be made somewhere.
If the result of what is happening is that fiscal common sense makes a return to running our government, then I’m willing to take the old Timex watch approach. I’m sure all of the gray-hairs like me out there remember the “It takes a licking but keeps on ticking” commercials.
Perhaps we needed the collective and cumulative crisis of the Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden fiscal mismanagement to wake up. The pendulum swings that created the DOGE world we currently live in have shocked our collective systems so that now we are forced to attempt to bring some fiscal discipline and sacrifice back into society. We need the 2025 version of Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neal working for the greater good.
In How the Elite Rigged Society (and Why It’s Falling Apart), New York Times political columnist and moderate conservative commentator on PBS David Brooks says, “Put moral formation at the center of your society.” He quotes English statesman Edmund Burke, known as the philosophical founder of modern conservatism, who said, “We should be modest about what we really know because culture is very complicated, and we should operate on it the way we would operate on our own father; gradually and carefully.”
So, in this DOGE eat DOGE world, what we need right now is some courageous fiscal carefrontation. We need to make these decisions with love, tough love.
“Let all that you do be done in love.” 1 Corinthians 16:14
