OPINION:
Kevin O’Leary of “Shark Tank” fame told CNN’s Abby Phillip in a recent interview that President Trump and Elon Musk only have a few short months to make a dent with their Department of Government Efficiency cuts and that they should move into fast-forward mode, or it’ll all be for naught.
The midterms do dawn. If DOGE isn’t kicked into high gear — into higher gear — into highest gear — the midterm results could indeed put a halt to Team Trump’s waste-cutting measures.
The best plan for DOGE would be to slash first, ask questions later. It’s easier to grow government than slow government’s growth. The programs that are necessary will rapidly reveal themselves, and it won’t take long for the political class to reinstate them.
“Cut everything,” O’Leary said, The Hill reported.
“Cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, more, more cutting,” O’Leary said.
It’s the best tactic.
“I think the issue is they’re not whacking enough,” O’Leary said. “There’s this concept in private equity, when you get a bankrupt company and you go in there, you cut 20 percent more than your initial read, and then you find, like a pool of mercury, the organization gels back together again.”
Yes. That’s actually a life principle.
Businesses that face bankruptcy are put in spots of deciding the ultimate of what’s necessary, what’s unnecessary, and then cutting, cutting, cutting to the core in last-minute desperate moments to determine if they can avoid bankruptcy. Either they live or die. Either they swim or sink. Either way, they quickly sift out the unnecessary and the wasteful and attempt to build from the basics.
Similarly so a household facing financial distress.
Ever go from a two-income earning family to a single-income earning family overnight? It doesn’t take long to determine needs versus wants — absolute necessities versus luxuries. It doesn’t take long to cut, cut, cut to the very basic.
It doesn’t take long to realize that much of what was purchased over the months, even years, was not necessary; perhaps impulse buys; perhaps even foolhardy.
“Always cut deeper, harder when there’s fat and waste,” O’Leary said.
Then build up; then build based on a solid foundation.
“DOGE’s wrecking ball to the IRS will hurt taxpayers and help the rich,” MSNBC News just reported.
Does anybody believe that?
So much of what the federal government has been doing over the decades has involved dipping into taxpayer pockets and spending without accountability, without transparency, without care or concern. It’s so easy to spend other people’s money, especially when nobody’s watching how it’s spent.
DOGE should be a bipartisan effort. That Democrats are largely the ones resisting is both curious and enlightening. Who defends wasteful spending? Only the wasteful spenders.
Who supports wasteful spending? Only the recipients.
And therein lies the problem: Democrats, who’ve mostly become socialists, love to dip into others’ pockets and promise voters free stuff. If they drum out more voters in the midterms than Republicans, DOGE comes to an immediate halt.
“They’re not cutting enough,” O’Leary said.
Tick, tick. Time grows short.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “God-Given Or Bust: Defeating Marxism and Saving America With Biblical Truths,” is available by clicking HERE.
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