Elon Musk put on notice that his pet program could become a 'cheap public-relations stunt'

A former Republican lawmaker warned Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy’s new Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, must go "full founders mode" — or risk being remembered as a "cheap public-relations stunt." Instead, they ought to focus on reforming Congress’s budget process, said Gallagher, and do so the way the tech companies attack problems — going "full 'founders mode,' Silicon Valley slang for a maniacal effort to fix the hardest problems at every level of an organization," he said. "Unlike other proposals to tackle entitlement spending, the bill would create discrete rescue committees for each of the federal trust funds that are at risk of insolvency—Social Security, Medicare Part A and highways," noted Gallagher, adding that each committee could then bring its solutions to chamber floors for a vote — and congressional leaders can't kill them "merely to shield members from making tough votes." "If DOGE harnesses the American people’s dissatisfaction with Washington, lays out a bold package of congressional reforms and uses Mr. Musk’s unique platform to push legislators to vote on that agenda, we could realize the DOGE vision of 'a federal government that would make our founders proud,'" Gallagher concluded.