Playing Offense: Using DOGE's Reckless Cuts to Highlight Democratic Government Efficiency

Where to start.

The first 100 days of the Trump regime has caused countless damage that the next Democratic president will have to undo. From the dismantling of programs such as USAID to the war against the National Institute of Health to the dismantling of the Department of Education, this administration had done everything in its power to undermine effective, efficient government programs under the guise of cost-cutting. It has been a long-standing Republican and Libertarian dream to shrink the size of government and with Trump at the helm and feckless Republicans sitting idly by in Congress, they finally have a chance to do so. The programs and departments they are axing are by no means the most costly. But they are inline with Democratic values and ideals. After all, a program like AmeriCorps puts back so much more to the communities it serves than its cost alone. But because the program primarily serves low-income communities of color, it is seen as expendable for an administration determined to shut down social justice programs under the guise of government efficiency. 

Suffice to say, the next Democratic president will have his hands full to undo all that has been done.

And that's part of the Republican strategy. Because for them to continue to appeal to their shrinking base, they have to maintain the myth that the Democrats are the party of big government spending. The next Democratic president who takes the helm will have to rebuild the Department of Education and the National Institute of Health. He will have to figure out how to reinstate programs like USAID and AmeriCorps. Doing this will cost money and when you spend money to create government programs and expand departments, you are playing right into the Republican narrative of the government being run by "tax and spending" liberals. It's the political equivalent of being a bull in a china shop and somehow blaming the owner of the shop for spending money to clean up the mess that the bull created. 

What remains to be seen these next 32 months is whether the GOP base continues to buy this longstanding Republican lie. Because as we know, federal government, if done right, can serve as a force for good in people's daily lives. We're seeing this in states like Arkansas, that are being denied federal disaster relief. We're seeing concern from red states whose workforces consist of part of the 80,000 proposed job cuts to the Department of Veterans Affairs, the overwhelming majority of whom are veterans themselves. Deep red Oklahoma is in the midst of losing thousands of FAA and NOAA jobs through cuts to those departments. The Leopards Eating Faces Party has been busy these past 3 months realizing that their lord and savior's ongoing job cuts impact them and not the uppity brown and black folks around the corner.

When out of power, Republicans are the party of perpetual grievance. It's very easy for them to distort the facts and blame Democrats from anything from inflation to gas prices. But when Donald Trump campaigns on a promise to downsize government and then Elon Musk goes in and cuts your job, then it's hard to see how Republicans won't be blamed. Sure, there are some of the True Believers who see their job loss as sacrifice for the greater good (whatever that might be). But for the most part, it's clear that Donald Trump and Donald Trump alone is to blame for what's going on. There's a reason he has the lowest 100-day approval rating of any president over the past 80 years. These job losses are not something he can pass off to Joe Biden, although he will surely try. There is a direct correlation between the actions of the Trump Administration and people's daily lives and it is negatively impacting even his most ardent supporters.

For the first time in my lifetime, Democrats have an opportunity to counter the longstanding Republican narrative about the evils of government. They now can point to jobs provided by the VA, NIH, and Department of Education. They can demonstrate how and why it's critical to fully staff the FAA and NOAA. It's no longer hypothetical; Republicans have taken a chainsaw to the federal government and we're seeing the impact in real-time. The next Democratic administration will have a mandate to restore these programs. Republicans will bitch and moan about the cost. But the real cost was demonstrated when these departments were cut, throwing tens of thousands of workers and their families into chaos. It's no longer about Democrats being the part of big spending; it's about the real impact of people's lives.

An argument in favor of big government that has eluded Democrats for a generation.