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President-elect Donald Trump announced on Nov. 12 the creation of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed by Tesla, SpaceX and X.com owner Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, which will exist “outside of government” but will serve an important function monitoring and offering recommendations to the President and the White House Office of Management and Budget for ways to optimize the expenditure of federal taxpayer dollars by the executive but also with what is allocated at the legislative level.
Since 1980, the gross national debt, now $35.9 trillion, has grown 8.8 percent a year on average, breaking largely from its postwar trajectory of 3.5 percent average a year from 1946 through 1979. (During World War II, from 1940 to 1945, it grew an average 30 percent a year). Debt is incurred when expenditures exceed revenues, resulting in the issuance of U.S. treasuries to borrow the difference.
The spending itself is broken into two categories, mandatory spending, which comprises of items like net interest on the debt ($889 billion in 2024), Social Security ($1.45 trillion), Medicare ($839 billion), Medicaid ($567 billion) and so forth, all coming in at $5.05 trillion, comprising nearly 73 percent of the $6.9 trillion total budget.
The other $1.9 trillion is the so-called discretionary spending for all of the departments, agencies and the 3 million non-military personnel, presumably the focus of Musk and Ramaswamy’s efforts, with a view towards reducing redundant personnel, reforming the federal contracting process, rebuilding antiquated systems and eliminating unnecessary programs and regulations — a complete optimization and modernization of the federal government.
After that, on the mandatory side of the ledger, DOGE presumably would want to reevaluate eligibility for the government’s safety net programs but also to identify areas of waste, fraud and abuse, eking out whatever savings present themselves.
The greatest savings, however, could come from not spending cuts per se, but the return on investment for the government’s $7.3 trillion of intergovernmental holdings of U.S. treasuries — i.e. the trust funds — that at the moment only earned an average interest rate of 4.1 percent, and an effective interest rate of 2.4 percent in 2024, according to the Social Security administration.
That’s not a very good rate of return in today’s economy, and is barely keeping up with inflation, let alone salvaging the shortfalls in the Social Security and Medicare trust funds, which will dry up completely around 2033 according to the Trustees. The problem is low fertility and demographic decline that has resulted in relatively fewer taxpayers to pay into the system.
Barring a turnaround in childrearing — a generational project at best — that means the most “efficient” means of shoring up the trust funds would not be with tax hikes or deferring retirement age, but in increasing the rate of return for the trust funds.
For example, the federal Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) for federal employees has traditionally earned about 6.8 percent a year. If the same exact model were adopted for Social Security, Medicare and other government trust funds, instead of buying useless treasuries, it could resolve the current deficits rapidly, and instead grow the funds to about $12.5 trillion by 2032. Anyone got any better ideas?
The alternatives, some combination of tax hikes and never letting people retire, combined with the debt still continuing to grow astronomically, are not particularly appetizing.
Just looking at the growth of the national debt, if it were to continue growing at 8 percent a year, the national debt would grow to be about $100 trillion by 2032 alone. In the meantime, the economy’s Gross Domestic Product has only grown by 5.5 percent on average since 1980, and along that continued pace, would only equal about $45 trillion.
That would put U.S. debt to GDP at more than 200 percent in just a short eight years. That’s just two more presidential terms. By then the trust funds will be exhausted and who knows what sort of interest rate crisis we might find ourselves in. We’d be on the brink of default by then.
But if anyone can find a way to optimize how the massive federal government allocates resources, when Congress and the presidency have failed for almost a century, perhaps it is Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy’s DOGE.
Trump has set July 4, 2026 as a deadline for DOGE to complete its work, in time for America’s 250th anniversary, but clearly the work to be done is actually long overdue. We’re on borrowed time, but the DOGE could be just the sort of novel idea that can produce a plan for the President’s budget to be submitted to Congress for adoption — before it is too late. Time’s up.

Robert Romano is the Vice President of Public Policy at Americans for Limited Government Foundation.

ABBEVILLE – Funeral Services for Mrs. Shirley Mae Theresa Green Campbell, 71, will be held at 11 a.m. on Saturday, November 16, 2024, at Lighthouse for Jesus Church with Pastor Donnie Bolden, Sr. officiating.
Interment will follow at Pleasant Green Cemetery.
Visitation will be held at Lighthouse for Jesus Church in Abbeville beginning at 9 a.m. until the time of Service at 11 a.m.
Where do we begin?
It would take a great deal of time to put in words the life of Shirley; that much time we do not have, so in a brief summary, let’s begin.
To start off, Shirley was a great woman of God. Her actions, intentions, personality, character, attitude and words reflected the Word of God! A woman that did not complain about anything.
She was soft spoken, yet her words carried heavy wisdom and conviction. Shirley was a very organized and clean person; she was a hard worker who would not settle for anything other than the best. She raised her children in the Lord and with the word of God.
Shirley was married to Pastor Donald Campbell for 51 years!
She was faithful to her husband, her children, and her duties as a wife, mother, grandmother, and great grandmother. Shirley was a woman of honesty, integrity, commitment, and joy. Shirley was a praying woman. She modeled the terminology ‘prayer warrior’. Shirley would spend countless hours per week praying, reading her bible, and seeking God. Shirley’s attitude was abnormal. She had a golden, diamond, and priceless attitude. She lived this life with joy, faith, and peace. Shirley came from a big family raised in the country of Erath.
She was one of 15 siblings. Again, this is just a brief small sample size summary of the life of Shirley. Shirley’s legacy has been etched in eternity.
She was a great example of what a woman of God should be inside and out. To God Be The Glory For The Life Of Shirley Mae Theresa Green Campbell! Amen & Amen!
She is survived by her husband of 51 years Pastor Donald Campbell, Sr.; two daughters, Bethany Nichols and her husband Lonnie, and Alanna Campbell and her fiance’ Keithan; three sons, Arlyn Campbell and his wife Darvina, Christopher Campbell and his wife Bridget, and Wendel Campbell and his wife and Rochelle; a step-daughter, Vanessa Barquet and her husband Bernard; a step-son, Donald Campbell, Jr. and his wife Erika; eighteen grandchildren, Azariah, Orion, Caden, Abigail, Aireyonnah, Erron, Hosea, Zachariah, Aireyelle, Michael, Kailani, Tyler, Bryce, Elijah, Charity, Gracious, Dylan, and Cameron; nine step-grandchildren, Brandon, Brianna, Fabian, De’Asiyah, DeLaiyah, Donald, James, Leroy, and Donavan; eight great-grandchildren, Clements, Jr., Kamari, Daniel, Maeleah, JaMichael, Zahan, Faith, and Isaiah; three brothers, Martin Green, Sr. and his wife Phylis, Scottie Green and his wife Ethelyn, and Randy Green and wife Jenny; and nine sisters, Betty Campbell, Margaret Green, Linda Green, Brenda Brailey, Dorita Cole and her husband Willard, Juanita Perro, Leona Antoine and her husband Harold, Veronica Green, and Gustavia Green.
She is preceded in death by her parents, Edward and Loulda Green; and two brothers, Norris Green and Loveless Green.
Serving as pallbearers will be Christopher Campbell, Arlyn Campbell, Wendel Campbell, Larry Wilson, Eugene Campbell, and Timothy Bourque.
Serving as honorary pallbearers will be Scottie Green, Randy Green, Tyler Campbell, Hosea Campbell, Bryce Campbell, Erron Jenkins, and Elijah Campbell.
You may sign the guest register book and express condolences online at www.davidfuneralhome.org
Frioux-David Funeral Home of Abbeville at 2600 Charity Street (337) 893-3777 will be in charge of the arrangements.