Elon and his Big Bull-DOGERS get Graded.

Elon and his Musketeers get an early Report Card from Voters.

Hint: It's not all about being more efficient.

By Greg Rabidoux

Years ago, and I mean many years ago, I wrote and then defended my Doctoral Dissertation before a rather skeptical, dare I say, slightly hostile Committee.

The Topic?

I asked what I thought was a fairly simple, straightforward question-Were we, as American Taxpayers getting our money's worth from our federal government?

Looking back now, I'm still proud of the work I put into that dang thing, relieved I eventually did get my PHD, but amazed at how naive I was for even asking the question.

Of course, we aren't getting our money's worth but it's not even that simple. Never was.

When Bill Clinton gave Al "I invented that" Gore the assignment of "Re-inventing Government" they immediately seized upon a clever and relatable visual for the voters. The massive amount of paperwork (see below), red-tape, and bureaucracy that often slowed down, if not completely stopped progress, innovation, and efficiency dead in its tracks.

They held a handful of press conferences, Gore went on a few liberal talk shows and smashed overpriced military ashtrays, they touted a few cosmetic changes here and there (use of automated answering services instead of live people, gee, thanks, Al) and quickly found out what many before had found out trying to do much smaller scale tinkering of government-the Bureaucratic Beast bites back. Hard.

I'd say they stumbled upon a perpetual "inconvenient truth" but with my (401k) tanking right now on tariffs and trade war talk (that's for another blog) I can't afford to be sued. So, let's just say this, Gore's "Re-invention of Government" discovered that there are truths about vested interests, wasteful spending and corrupt officials that you may never be able to re-invent or change. In his case, Democratic lobbying interests that essentially told Gore and Clinton "Re-invent this boys."

Besides, soon the Clinton Administration went from worrying about excess paper to soiled blue party dresses, unsmoked cigars, and in Bill's case, dodging plates flung at his head by wife and future presidential candidate loser, Hillary.

A few years later President Obama talked about cutting down the size and spending of the federal government but like just about everything he did it was much talk and much less action.

Which brings me to Elon and his DOGE Musketeers.

If you are led by reason at all, it is hard to argue with much of what they have already accomplished. Cutting billions of dollars on contracts that, at best, push narrow narratives in places many Americans have never even heard of or certainly will never benefit from such payments. Getting rid of millions of dollars of magnetic tapes to store data that were, emphasis on were, all the rage 70 years ago. Shedding light on caves, yes, caves, where we have thousands of metal files filled with paper folders to handle our social security retirement requests. Seriously?

And cleaning up Social Security rolls with millions of dead people who still get checks every month. Are we subsidizing zombies now?

By the way, Congresswoman Acasio-Cortez's family has apparently been receiving such checks for over 25 years, and they never made a peep. Nice.

But if reasonable minds can agree these are all good things, then why are Americans giving Elon and his Doge Musketeers such mixed grades at the moment?

Well, the short answer is many folks who are giving DOGE an "F" grade are very likely the same folks either firebombing Tesla cars or sympathetic to those who are, so the land of reason is not where they live or even visit.

But the longer answer is that a number of more reasonable people find it hard to give DOGE straight A's either. DOGE faces the same thing that Gore did when he went under the governmental hood and when I spent way too many hours researching government waste and fraud when I should have been learning a trade-It's not just about efficiency.

Effectiveness plays a big part too.

Efficiency says that Musk's SpaceX must be hyper-efficient in how it spends its money and hyper-effective in reaching its goals. Effective is when one of its rockets comes back to its launch pad (a beautiful thing as Trump has noted). But efficiency is how much it cost, how the money was spent, and the process and people that made it all possible.

And if either or both are less than satisfactory, Elon Musk as owner and CEO can make rapid changes, even those that involve making deep cuts.

I mean, it's a private company after all, right?

And therein lies the rub.

Our government is not a private company, and so tackling its make-over as if it were just another company Mr. Musk and his team just purchased and now need to strip it down for parts may not be the answer. Can we also make our government more effective and show measurable outcomes for taxpayer investments while increasing efficiency?

Unlike a private company, you can't just slash your way to success, people also need to be persuaded. The Beast can be tamed or sent into a rage.

Right now, far too many Americans see and hear mostly about the pain and not the gain. The stock market is plummeting, savings are shrinking and Musk's laying off people.

In other words, too many voters may be being told about micro-improvements but seeing some big, scary changes in front of them and their future.

In the private sector, the goal of sending a rocket into space and having it land right back on its launching pad is crystal clear. And convincing.

The vague goal of cutting 2 trillion, or 1 1/2 trillion, or maybe 1 trillion in a year, maybe more, maybe less, laying off thousands (even if deserved) or more, maybe less, but then focusing on transgender operas in Ireland one day and a "bat-cave" that processes social security payments the next, certainly stokes some micro-conversations but does not make for a coherent and compelling message.

How long until we all land safely back at the launching pad Elon?

As a filmmaker and scholar, I "got" the need for government to deliver its monies worth to taxpayers years ago, DOGE may just need to become a lot more effective in how they go about identifying governmental inefficiencies. Scalpel not a chainsaw, right?

My not so humble answer?

A lot more powerful stories of actual people that are and will be helped by DOGE rather than just numbers, numbers, and more numbers. Less Elon and more of those he's helping by slashing government.

More Show and less Tell.

And, oh yeah, Elon, while you're at it, recruit some smart, savvy women for the DOGE team and put them in front of the cameras. You are losing that demographic currently, big time.

Greg Rabidoux is an award-winning filmmaker, author, scriptwriter, and an early disciple of spending less of our hard-earned taxpayer money while doing more with what you already have.