Letter to the Editor (3)

Here’s a Letter I sent to the WSJ earlier this week. I’ll be turning this into a longer form article in the near future.

Editor:

Kyle Peterson masterfully uses humor to expose the massive task before DOGE by highlighting some of the absurd programs currently funded by Washington bureaucrats ("DOGE’s Challenge is Gargatuan," Commentary, 1/20/25). However, he only scratches the surface of the problem. If we assume that 99% of the money spent by the various departments and agencies in charge of his examples are waste that can be cut, we would only save about $618 billion. To us mere mortals, this is a big number. Against an overall budget of $7.3 trillion and with a projected deficit of $1.9 trillion, however, these savings mean little.

Congress needs to get its fiscal house in order and it needs to do so quickly. Cutting pet projects and improving “efficiency” will not be enough. Instead, Congress and the President need to shed responsibilities entirely and return them, as the 10th Amendment clearly says, to the States or the people.

David Hebert

Senior research fellow, American Institute for Economic Research

Grand Rapids, Mich.