Responses To False Allegations Against DOGE

By Blaine L. Pardoe

Many conservatives have had this same series of discussions with their leftist friends in the last few weeks. The rhetoric is incredible, as is their faux sense of panic. 

As such, here is a guide to assist you in responding to their outlandish concerns.

• “DOGE has no legal authority to do what it’s doing.” – “Actually, it does. Obama established the U.S. Digital Service. President Trump merely renamed it and gave it a more sweeping mandate.”
• “Trump and Musk have ordered government workers to show up at the office. This puts an undue burden on them and is unfair.” – “Federal workers were allowed to work at home because of the COVID crisis. That has been over for years. Federal employees should have never expected to stay at home indefinitely, especially when many major corporations ordered their staff back to the office. Living outside of D.C., I know of federal workers who are at the gym in the middle of the morning when they technically are on the clock. I know of one instance of a person that moved to another state and never told their manager.”
• “Having people work in the office will reduce productivity.” – “What is your proof? I called the Social Security Administration to ask a question and schedule an appointment two months ago. The wait time on the phone was almost two hours. Clearly, allowing people to work at home is not improving customer service, and as a taxpayer, I’m a customer.”
• “No one elected Elon Musk!” – “True. However, all the cabinet members weren’t elected either.”
• “Elon was never approved by Congress.” – “True. It should be noted that many high-level positions do not merit congressional approval. The president fills thousands of jobs without congressional approval.”
• “Federal employees need their jobs protected.” – “No one is entitled to a job for life. Federal employees are merely dealing with what real-world employees have been dealing with for decades. This should encourage better performance over the long term.”
• “DOGE is doing this without congressional oversight.” – “Incorrect. There is a congressional DOGE committee. Not that Congress has been effective at oversight, as evidenced by the abuses already uncovered.”
• “His accessing fragile government software and systems will cause irreparable damage.” – “Not true. First off, everything he is looking at is backed up. Second, making copies of the data does not put a system at risk.”
• “He’s using a bunch of young kids to do this work.” – “True. However, having worked at one of the Big Four accounting firms, I can assure you that your front-line auditors are almost always in their 20s. It isn’t at all uncommon in the industry.”
• “He’s laying people off without understanding what they do.” – “The DOGE team is not operating in limbo. They aren’t laying anyone off by themselves. They are making recommendations that the Senate approved heads of departments then can opt to act on, including the Office of Personnel Management.”
• “This is an extreme overreach on the part of President Trump!” – “How? He’s not investigating the legislative or judicial branches of government, only those that he is constitutionally responsible for administering.”
• “They can’t cut these jobs. Congress approves them.” – “Incorrect. Congress approves the money but not the headcount. That is an administrative responsibility under the Executive Branch of government that reports to the President.”
• “This effort is causing chaos.” – “Incorrect. While the pace of this is aggressive, it is not chaos but, in fact, very orderly. The source of chaos is the media and those opposed to DOGE saying that it is chaotic. It isn’t Elon’s fault that no one was doing this kind of work all along, which would have prevented this mess.”
• “These alleged savings are small compared to the overall budget.” – “What is the acceptable level of grift and waste? A million dollars? A billion? It is far more disturbing that you are comfortable with waste on this historic scale.”
• “The Inspectors General should have oversight, not Musk.” – “There’s a reason that Trump fired a large number of IGs. Clearly, they were not doing their jobs. Nor was the alleged congressional oversight.”
• “Elon Musk will have access to highly sensitive data about every American.” – “He will. But Elon has had a security clearance for years. He was also the person who created PayPal and was never accused of stealing the data of the millions of people who used that service. His worth is 400 Billion. I doubt seriously that he has intentions to steal money from you or anyone else.”
• “The actions of DOGE are creating a constitutional crisis.” – “They aren’t. Musk is acting as an auditor for the Executive Branch, and reports to the president. The only place that this alleged ‘crisis’ exists is with members of Congress and the media attempting to generate unnecessary fear.”

I hope that these tips have been useful for my fellow conservatives in responding to your friends who are suffering from TDS on the DOGE issues.