Other Views: Musk puts down the chain saw, but the damage is done | Opinion | yakimaherald.com

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FILE - Elon Musk holds up a chainsaw he received from Argentina's President Javier Milei, right, as they arrive to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC, at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, Feb. 20, 2025, in Oxon Hill, Md.

The roughly $100 million SpaceX Starship rocket that blew up last month coincided with Elon Musk’s costly flameout overseeing the Department of Government Efficiency.

SpaceX, one of Musk’s companies that has benefited from at least $38 billion in corporate welfare from the federal government, termed the failed rocket mission a “rapid unscheduled disassembly.”

The same sterile description could apply to Musk’s brief and destructive tenure running the made-up DOGE initiative. But instead of a rocket blown to bits, tens of thousands of lives have been turned upside down while the health and safety of the American people has been damaged.

DOGE was supposed to weed out waste, fraud and abuse, but instead turned into a wasteful, fraudulent and abusive exercise. Musk did grave damage while finding little to no savings and making the government more inefficient.

Initially, Musk promised to slash $2 trillion in spending, but quickly lowered that estimate to $1 trillion. In the end, after all the chain saw waving, he cut only $160 billion. That paltry sum by federal standards — about 2.3% of the nearly $7 trillion budget — doesn’t include the $135 billion in estimated severance costs to taxpayers or the litigation fees and lost tax collection from cuts to the IRS staff.

One of Musk’s minions recruited to make cuts explained why DOGE was a failure: “The government works,” the engineer said in an interview with Fast Company. “It’s not as inefficient as I was expecting.”

While the savings were minuscule, the damage is incalculable.

Musk’s dismantling of foreign aid programs through the U.S. Agency for International Development has already led to an estimated 300,000 deaths — most of them children.

More than 250,000 federal employees have been fired or bought out, according to one estimate, leaving many to battle mental health and stress issues.

More than 8,500 contracts and 10,000 grants were terminated with little to no thought of the repercussions.

The Department of Veterans Affairs suffered one of the cruelest hits, imperiling services and patient care. That seems fitting since President Donald Trump dodged serving in the Vietnam War and called fallen soldiers “suckers” and “losers.”

DOGE hobbled many other government agencies that help and protect average citizens, including the Social Security Administration, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Federal Aviation Administration, federal parks and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Perhaps more consequential is the slashing of jobs and more than $2.6 billion in contracts at the National Institutes of Health, upending medical research and clinical trials aimed at finding cures for diseases like Alzheimer’s, cancer and AIDS.

The cuts — combined with other reckless attacks on higher education — are expected to lead to a brain drain as scientists relocate labs to other countries as the world’s best and brightest students go elsewhere. Meanwhile, cuts to the Food and Drug Administration will undermine the safety and efficacy of the nation’s drug and food supply.

Bottom line: The health of Americans will be impacted for generations to come. The same goes for the safety and security of the country.

DOGE cuts undermined efforts to combat terrorism. Cybersecurity efforts aimed at stopping attacks by foreign adversaries were also hit with cuts.

While Musk unleashed widespread damage in a short period of time, he apparently helped himself.

A Senate report found that Musk’s influence over the government could help him avoid more than $2 billion in fines lodged against his business interests, which include SpaceX, Tesla, the Boring Company and Neuralink.

While polls showed a growing backlash aimed at Musk, even among the Republican base, he had the full backing and support of Trump.

That is, until he didn’t.

After criticizing the Trump-backed House spending bill — which is expected to add $2.4 trillion in debt over the next 10 years — Musk was eased out the door and the nomination of an ally to lead NASA was scrapped.

But unlike many in Trump’s orbit who are cast aside, Musk was given a warm Oval Office send-off, likely because of a desire to keep the more than $288 million in campaign donations coming.

After the damage was done, even Trump asked advisers if DOGE was “all bullshit.”

Even worse, it was deadly and malicious. And the fact that the president enabled it should shock the conscience of every American.

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