States embrace purging waste, boast of efforts before Trump and Musk

Eight Republican-led states from Iowa to Texas have started versions of President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency to stop wasteful spending, and politicians on each side of the aisle insist they were doing DOGE before it was cool.

State policymakers interviewed by The Washington Times said the $36 trillion national debt and the Trump administration’s laser focus on DOGE have supposedly made Republicans and Democrats serious about their perennial promise to trim the bureaucratic fat.

“This is a magic moment to shape the size and scope of government in our lives,” said Jonathan Williams, president and chief economist of the American Legislative Exchange Council, a network of conservative state lawmakers. “Voters are watching closely after voting in large numbers for President Trump to reduce the federal debt.”

Devon Cruz, national press secretary for the Democratic Governors Association, emphasized that most state DOGE efforts predate Mr. Trump’s enthusiasm and originated with pandemic-related financial crises.

“Last time he was in office, Donald Trump blew up the budget with unaffordable tax handouts to overwhelmingly benefit the wealthiest and tried to pay for them by cutting Americans’ health care,” Mr. Cruz said. “Meanwhile, Democratic governors are actually balancing budgets and lowering costs while making their states more efficient and responsive to the needs of their citizens.”

Emerging red state DOGE efforts have focused on eliminating wasteful spending in three areas: fraudulent Medicaid payments, including payouts to the deceased and people who don’t qualify; education spending, revolving around pushes to redirect tax dollars to parents to spend on schools of their choice; and transportation funds, targeting the common practice of diverting highway repair money to unrelated social safety net projects.

Blue state governors have trimmed archaic government regulations that penalized businesses. Some conservative lawmakers have supported their efforts and called for annual audits of obscure government land and building assets and programs.

Policy analysts say Republicans and Democrats have been equally guilty of perpetual budget increases, even though Republicans have increased the federal debt at a slower pace. It remains unclear which approach will win over voters.

“I think all this effort is going to change as they find what works and what doesn’t over the next few months,” said economist Richard Rahn, an adviser to President Reagan and a columnist for The Washington Times. “Both parties have a vested interest in the status quo, and we’re just at the beginning of a great empirical experiment.”

Republican DOGE efforts

At its annual conference in December, the American Legislative Exchange Council launched a Government Efficiency Coalition to coordinate with the Trump administration and congressional Republicans on state initiatives to reduce government waste.

Mr. Williams said more than 70 conservative policymakers from “most states” participated in a coalition conference call with Rep. Pete Sessions, Texas Republican and co-chair of the House DOGE Caucus. Attendees included legislators from Missouri, Kansas and North Carolina.

Mr. Williams estimated that 30 states will prioritize cutting spending in a bipartisan fashion during the current legislative season, while others will “shrug it off or want to spend even more.”

“The challenge with government efficiency efforts is that some people will check the box and not do anything, but it feels like Trump and Musk are the change agents we need,” he said. “I’m more optimistic than ever that we can change the swamp.”

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, announced last month the launch of a state DOGE advisory board to help enforce a 2023 law that she said had already saved taxpayers $217 million. The law consolidates 37 government Cabinet agencies into 16.

“We were doing DOGE before DOGE was a thing,” Ms. Reynolds said.

The Texas House of Representatives created a 13-member Delivery of Government Efficiency committee to help purge inefficiencies from state agencies. Building on that, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican, said a DOGE bill will be a top legislative priority this year.

Republican leaders in Kansas, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Wisconsin also recently launched DOGE initiatives.

Mr. Williams said he hasn’t seen Republican state lawmakers so eager to cut spending since Reagan coined the phrase “drain the swamp” and launched the Grace Commission in 1982 to cut government spending.

“The Grace Commission found some savings, but DOGE can go further and become more successful,” he said.

Democratic initiatives

Mr. Cruz touted the leadership of Democratic governors in recent years.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro ordered a streamlining of state services and business regulations in 2023, and Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont signed a bill in 2021 to slash outdated red tape.

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed similar legislation last year.

Also last year, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis rescinded 208 executive orders dating back to 1920. In December, he cut through them with a power saw.

“Today, I took a table saw to outdated and wasteful executive orders, cutting away at bureaucracy to make our government more efficient,” Mr. Polis said.

Unlike Republicans, Democrats have stopped short of targeting specific programs or government payrolls.

“The governor’s willingness to revisit some of his executive orders is a very small step in the right direction,” Colorado Senate Republicans said in December. “We urge him to take more substantial action to reduce the expansive regulatory framework that has grown during his tenure.”

Mr. Cruz said it’s better to cut regulations than programs. He pointed to the chaos caused by Mr. Trump’s executive order that briefly froze federal spending.

“Community health clinics in Virginia had to close their doors as a result of Donald Trump’s federal funding freeze, jeopardizing access to affordable health care, raising costs on patients, and threatening jobs across the commonwealth,” Mr. Cruz said.

States have the tools

Conservatives buoyed by Mr. Trump’s DOGE insist that decades of spending programs must die for elected state lawmakers to regain control over budgets from unelected bureaucrats earning six-figure salaries.

They point to transgender rights, gas stove bans and electric vehicle incentives as areas where the Biden administration tried coercing states into left-leaning policies as a condition of taking federal money.

Economists note that it took from 1776 to 1980 to accumulate the first $1 trillion of federal debt and then just 45 years to reach $36 trillion.

“I honestly believe Trump is serious about making cuts,” said Siri Terjesen, an economist and associate dean at public Florida Atlantic University. “The states already have the tools they need if they’re also serious about letting everyday Americans see who is spending their tax dollars on who.”