President Donald Trump has selected Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to head the non-government Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, to reform and modernize government, generating huge savings along the way.

Musk, the world’s richest man, has promised to cut $2 trillion from the government’s annual $6.7 trillion budget. He did not declare how long this would take.

But be very careful.

Even if $100 billion, or about one-sixth of the federal budget, could be cut every year, it would take 20 years to reach the $2 trillion mark. That does not account for the uncontrolled real annual cost increases of 5 percent to 7 percent in spending, which by 2044 could accrue to a total federal budget of about $24 trillion in that year's dollars. (At 7 percent annual growth, principal doubles every 10 years).

And with mandatory spending taking up about 60 percent of the budget, defense about 13 percent and interest payments on the national debt of 14 percent, less than one-seventh of the budget can even be cut under current law.

Beyond these fiscal realities, Musk and Ramaswamy would be well advised to review the hundreds of studies aimed at government reform dating back to Sen. Harry Truman’s investigation of defense........

© The Hill