NEW YORK TIMES
Elon Musk walks toward Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland as he accompanies President Donald Trump on a trip to Bedminister, N.H., on March 21.
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It is sometimes difficult to underestimate the lack of critical thought that goes into making a reasoned assessment surrounding President Donald Trump’s efforts to achieve his policy goal of returning power to local and state governments (“DOGE is burning down house to kill a few fleas,” Star- Advertiser, Letters, April Opens in a new tab3) Opens in a new tab.
Power has been centralized under a federal system of governance consisting of 15 bloated Cabinet departments and more than 2,000 agencies (nobody seems to know an exact number), most of which fail miserably in accomplishment of their missions at an appalling cost. Of the former, the Department of Education is arguably the most glaring example.
It is not the goal of DOGE to sniff out a few bad apples within the massive workforce staffing these departments and agencies. Rather, its aim is to question the viability of these offices in the first place — are they worth their enormous expense? It is they, after all, that illustrate the colossal dysfunction of the overall organization.
Stephen Hinton
Waialua
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