Musk's email was clumsy, but don't overlook his vital goal of federal efficiency | Opinion
I agree with the Department of Government Efficiency's mission, but Elon Musk's decision to send a mass email on a Saturday without warning was heavy-handed.
I'm a glutton for an overpriced Starbucks drink on occasion. Despite their expensive lattes, the Seattle-based chain announced Monday that it will lay off more than 1,000 corporate employees because of lagging sales.
It's unfortunate for those employees. No one wants to be laid off, but businesses must operate efficiently to make a profit and thrive. If they don't, they must make changes, often in the form of job cuts. That is how the private sector in a free market functions. It's a cutthroat world based on profit and loss, not feelings and Frappuccinos.
That approach in the private sector has turned America into a wealthy nation, with a more than $27 trillion gross domestic product that is by far the largest in the world.
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, understands all of that, of course. Commissioned by President Donald Trump to cut spending and squeeze out efficiency in our highly inefficient federal government, Musk sent an email over the weekend that shocked many of the more than 3 million people who draw a federal paycheck.
Musk email triggered chaos in federal agencies
In the Saturday email, Musk demanded that federal employees report by Monday on the work they had accomplished the previous week. If a worker didn't respond, Musk said he would assume that person had resigned.
Musk posted Monday on X that his demand was a check to see "if the employee had a pulse and was capable of replying to an email."
His message, however, triggered chaos in the federal ranks, and by Monday, several agency heads appointed by Trump told their workers to ignore the demand for accountability.
I agree with the Department of Government Efficiency's mission, but Musk's decision to send a mass email on a Saturday without warning was heavy-handed and clumsy.
The email also raised a lot of unanswered questions: Who would read the responses? Who would determine if an employee didn't respond appropriately? Would employees who didn't respond actually get fired? What if their job was actually vital, the person was out sick or on vacation?
It's easy to see why so many department heads quickly shut down Musk's edict.
Yet, his demand should have been an easy requirement for most federal workers. Almost any employee in the private sector could answer such a request in a few minutes. Why can't government employees?
It seems like the outrage over Musk's process − a mass email − is a convenient deflection. The real issue here is accountability. Does anyone really believe that our government is operating anywhere close to an acceptable level of efficiency? (If you say yes, then I have a Gulf of America to sell you.)
His email centered on the most important question Americans want to know about their taxes and their government: Are federal employees working effectively and spending our money wisely?
I'd bet a thousand Starbucks drinks that if Musk had run this pertinent question through all the proper channels before sending the email, naysayers would still be melting down.
Our federal government is too bloated
The phrase "paradigm shift" became popular in business years ago. Trump and Musk are declaring in a variety of ways that there's a paradigm shift underway in the federal bureaucracy.
The federal government's old assumption that deficits and the debt don't really matter is no longer acceptable. The idea that the government can swim in an ocean of red ink and still add federal jobs year after year has been invalidated. The belief that the government can simply print more money and rack up more debt without consequence − the definition of fiscal irresponsibility − is being discarded like a pile of "Kamala Harris for President" bumper stickers.
Why does this need to happen?
In an audit released in November, the Government Accountability Office reported: "During fiscal year 2024, total federal debt increased by about $2.3 trillion, with about $2.0 trillion of the increase in debt held by the public. The primary reason for increases in debt held by the public is a consequence of borrowing to finance annual budget deficits."
Fixing the massive federal deficit isn't just about keeping the auditors happy. When the government spends dollars it doesn't have and then prints more money to pay interest on its growing debt, it drives up inflation. Think about that the next time you buy groceries.
The debt also fuels the annual deficit, which in turn leads to even more debt. The federal government paid out more than $900 billion in interest payments in fiscal year 2024. Here's how the GAO phrased it: "Interest on debt held by the public has increased significantly over the last 3 fiscal years, from $497 billion in fiscal year 2022 to $909 billion in fiscal year 2024 (an 83 percent increase)."
This is just foolish. No business or household could continue to operate this way, and it's delusional to think our government can.
Can Musk make government operate more like business?
In the private sector, businesses either thrive or go under based on their efficiency and productivity. Starbucks will remain in business, not in spite of cutting more than 1,000 jobs but because of it. There's no reason the federal government shouldn't operate under this same paradigm.
Musk's approach is fast and furious and often seems chaotic. He likes to talk about the "fork in the road," meaning managers and employees need to choose a path that leads to success or continue down the road to failure. His weekend email was a signal that the federal government's fork in the road lies dead ahead.
I actually trust that the world's richest person, who leads some of the world's most successful companies, knows a lot more than bureaucrats about accountability and efficiency. Musk wants our government to emulate the world's most successful businesses, which regularly deliver innovative, even world-changing, products and services.
I don't think that's such a bad idea.
Nicole Russell is a columnist at Paste BN and a mother of four who lives in Texas. Contact her at nrussell@gannett.com and follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @russell_nm. Sign up for her weekly newsletter, The Right Track, here.