“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,” said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of American Action Forum, a right-leaning think tank.
“Other than that, clear sailing,” he told The Hill.
Trump announced Tuesday evening that the pair of tech entrepreneurs would jointly lead the panel, which will “provide advice and guidance from outside of Government.”
The panel created an official government account Wednesday on the social platform X — which is owned by Musk — writing, “Working overtime to ensure your tax dollars will be spent wisely!”
Musk and Trump previously discussed the prospect of a cost-cutting panel during the campaign, as the tech titan threw his support behind the Republican candidate with multimillion-dollar contributions to his own pro-Trump super PAC and amplifications of Trump’s message on X.
While DOGE is now set to become a reality, experts are skeptical about what it will actually be able to accomplish.
“It sounds to me like an outside commission that will give OMB recommendations on what they think should be done to improve government efficiency, and as such its powers are entirely advisory,” Holtz-Eakin said.
“They don’t have any authority to do anything other than say, ‘We think this will be good,’” he said. “Evidently, Mr. Musk has a lot of free time, and if he wants to waste it, that’s fine.”
Read more in a full report at TheHill.com.
