DOGE was a huge hit with the right. Exposing fraud, waste, and abuse is a populist no-brainer at a time of massive debts and deficits. The exposure of the depth and subterfuge of DC’s duplicity has been breathtaking. Crime, by its nature, is breathtakingly numbing.

My position has remained unchanged. DOGE is an effort to compel our government to live within its means…our means…the collective means of citizens. But more than that, DOGE is the demonstrable evidence that Congress has not been doing its job for years, decades.  Congress, if one reads and interprets the U.S. Constitution correctly, is the bona fide Department of Government Efficiency.

Congress is the elected eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and hands of oversight, charged with ensuring economic stewardship of the nation’s treasure. Congress has been an abysmal failure; DOGE proved that to us. We now know oversight and accountability were almost non-existent for the past 60-70 years. Congress approved the money, handed it out like candy, and never scrutinized its distribution. At least that is what Congress wants us to believe. It seems incongruous to me that seasoned Senators and House members could not have known of the depth of fraud.

But what of DOGE now, post-Elon? Now that Musk has left DC and DOGE to heal his wounded companies, what becomes of DOGE? What is the go-forward plan for its long-term survival and effectiveness? Let me rule out any notion that Congress will assume its constitutional obligation of insisting on government efficiency. There will be no self-examination. However, DOGE will continue because it must continue. Cats are out of their proverbial bags. We know the fraud has occurred.

When asked whether DOGE would continue after its scheduled termination date of July 4, 2026, Elon Musk offered an interesting response:

“I think so, it’s up to the president.”

Yes, DOGE will continue as a kind of front man for Congress and its escapades.  After all, what could be more effective than having a public voice such as DOGE in place, watching things, but wholly lacking any real authority to implement lasting, permanent, budgetary change? Toothless and fangless, DOGE will continue to unearth the sandals, the mismanagement of resources, and the myriad financial abuses and crimes inherent in the American government.

Just this past week @DOGE posted another discovery of spending abuse:

Contracts Update!

Over the last 7 days, agencies have terminated 312 wasteful contracts with a ceiling value of $2.8B and savings of $470M, including a DoD $286k professional and management development contract for an “entrepreneurship course at Harvard University”, and a $485k… pic.twitter.com/iHwMhZgyzY

— Department of Government Efficiency (@DOGE) June 26, 2025

The effectiveness of DOGE, post-Elon, is bleak. Yes, it will continue to roll forward, but with diminishing fanfare, a hollow shell of its former self. In this sense, DOGE will fit right in with the DC machine and its array of institutions, rudderless and powerless to create real fiscal accountability.