The key lesson emerging from the reforms launched under DOGE in the United States is the urgent need to strike a balance between speed and durability of change.
DOGE — the Department of Government Efficiency — is a temporary executive department created by President Trump on January 20, 2025, by executive order. It is designed to operate without Congressional approval until July 4, 2026, with the goal of carrying out a fundamental restructuring of federal spending, employment and technology infrastructure.
Its main objectives include:
- cutting bureaucracy by eliminating excessive regulation and simplifying administrative processes
- reducing federal spending (target savings: $1 trillion)
- modernizing government operations through IT and AI
- deregulating the economy by removing outdated rules
- creating a new digital “operating system” for the federal government, based on full-scale digitization, blockchain-based transparency, and AI-driven automation of processes.
Political controversy from all sides
DOGE faces criticism across the political spectrum — from conservatives warning of destabilization, to Democrats citing the lack of democratic oversight, to policy experts at Brookings and Harvard warning of chaotic cuts to critical institutions.
How DOGE was created
DOGE was formed by transforming the U.S. Digital Service (USDS) into the U.S. DOGE Service, operating inside the Executive Office of the President. It is based on executive orders including:
- Establishing and Implementing the President’s DOGE — January 20, 2025
- Cost Efficiency Initiative — February 26, 2025
- Workforce Optimization Initiative — February 11, 2025
Interestingly, the foundations of DOGE go back to the Obama-era Digital Services Act, though — as former Obama officials note — they lacked the political will to implement deep cuts.
DOGE is authorized to operate until July 4, 2026, with a mandate focused on long-term modernization of federal IT systems and AI-led regulatory automation. It also includes blockchain-based transparency for tracking government spending and contracts.
However, hundreds of lawsuits have already been filed, challenging its constitutionality, and ongoing political conflict is threatening reform momentum.
Who is running DOGE?
DOGE was initially led by Elon Musk, who resigned in May 2025. He was replaced by Amy Gleason.
The budget reached $40 million by February 2025, funded through inter-agency transfers.
Hundreds of contributors — many unpaid volunteers from Silicon Valley — were recruited to bypass federal labor regulations and operate at extreme execution speed.
DOGE teams reportedly work 80–120 hours per week, modeled on startup-level intensity with the explicit aim of “outworking” the bureaucracy before established political interests can react.
Every federal agency was required to form a DOGE “SWAT Team” (leader + engineer + HR specialist + lawyer), coordinated centrally by USDS.
DOGE’s structure uniquely blends:
- Silicon Valley talent
- military-style execution
- large discretionary power to override agency inertia
Contributors include prominent figures such as:
- Joe Gebbia — co-founder of Airbnb
- Marc Andreessen — Andreessen Horowitz & Meta board member
- Antonio Gracias — Valor Equity Partners, Musk ally
- Baris Akis — Human Capital Fund (U.S. Treasury payments modernization)
Early results (January–August 2025)
While overall impact is debated, DOGE has already produced measurable outcomes:
- approx. $205 billion in federal spending savings (3% of annual federal budget)
- over 222,000 federal employees terminated
- thousands of contracts canceled, including 11,000 unused Microsoft Power Apps licenses, saving the IRS $12.3 million
- first-ever successful digital transformation of the U.S. federal pension system, after 35 years of failed attempts
- billions in fraudulent payments detected through AI auditing
However — DOGE is unlikely to reach its $1 trillion savings target by July 2026.
Most controversial impact: USAID dismantled
DOGE’s most severe disruption has been the near-dismantling of USAID, the U.S. foreign aid agency:
- 83% of USAID programs canceled within weeks
- from 6,200 projects to 1,200, mostly limited to crisis and health response
- budget cut by ~$8 billion
- major job losses and collapse of development, democracy and anti-poverty programs globally
Other institutions targeted include:
- Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) — effectively eliminated
- Department of Education — $900+ million contracts canceled
- EPA, NEH, and CFPB — facing severe funding pressure or attempted shutdown
DOGE is also criticized for mass firings without impact assessment, bypassing Congress, and destroying long-term institutional expertise.
Parallel reforms — Big Beautiful Bill (July 4, 2025)
On Independence Day 2025, the Big Beautiful Bill was passed — implementing one of the largest welfare cuts in U.S. history:
- Medicaid tied to mandatory work requirements
- 4.7 million removed from SNAP food assistance
- 20,000 jobs eliminated at the Department of Health (HHS)
- 15 million undocumented immigrants excluded from benefits
- major increases in border security funding
- third-largest tax cut package since 1980
Despite $5 trillion in tax changes, income tax brackets remained untouched. Instead, new “no tax on tips and overtime” exemptions were introduced.
Critical assessment
- 80% of U.S. households will see lower net income, mainly due to social benefits cuts
- federal deficit is expected to increase by $3 trillion over 10 years
- reforms favor top earners, deepening income inequality
- dollar stability and U.S. fiscal reputation could be at long-term risk
What’s missing in DOGE?
DOGE has not touched the largest structural drivers of U.S. federal spending:
❌ Defense (no comprehensive Pentagon audit)
❌ Medicare/Medicaid structural reform
❌ Social Security, the largest mandatory spending item
Instead, DOGE has focused primarily on process and technology optimization, not core budget restructuring — significantly limiting its long-term fiscal impact.
Final lessons
DOGE proves that digital transformation and AI can drastically reduce costs — especially via automation, contract auditing and IT modernization.
However, it also reveals the dangers of hyper-rapid reform, including:
⚠ destabilization of essential public services
⚠ erosion of institutional memory
⚠ legal instability due to bypassing democratic oversight
The real lesson: transformation must be fast — but also structurally sustainable.
Robert Kowalski
Member of the Polish Economic Society, co-founder of Gyfted.
Entrepreneur with Silicon Valley background in Bitcoin and Stanford University.
