​It should be news to no one that the amount of debt the federal government has amassed over the decades is unsustainable. If it continues to escalate like it has been, particularly over the past several years since COVID-19, the nation will inevitably be engulfed in a financial solvency crisis.

Therefore, it is imperative that something be done about this problem – but what?

​Enter the department of government efficiency (D.O.G.E.). According to their website, the agency aims to “identify and eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse in government spending, with the goal of cutting billions from the Federal budget.”

With a description like that, who could object? 

Already, D.O.G.E. has uncovered countless cases of misappropriated funds and even likely criminal activity bleeding the federal government of billions of dollars (the Pentagon has 20 billion dollars unaccounted for). However, with these discoveries and corresponding budget cuts have come other, much more controversial cuts.

​One such government department facing cuts, if not outright abolition, is the Federal Department of Education. Instead of getting bogged down in arguing the pros and cons of this proposed move, I will focus exclusively on the consequences of eliminating the Department of Education.

Among its many other roles, the Department of Education supports higher education in the form of grants and loans to both individuals and institutions. The amount of money the Department of Education provides is no small sum.

​Due to decades of money being poured into the niche of higher education, it has grown utterly dependent on federal aid. If this federal aid were to get suddenly yanked away, the consequences on the economy would be immense, and in the short term, disastrous.

College faculty would be laid off, tuition would skyrocket and enrollment would consequently plummet. College towns would suffer and any other sector of our economy that touches higher education would feel the ripples of a sudden lack of funds.

While higher education would eventually recover, likely becoming more affordable and effective in the process, this would take time. By the time headway is being made, the next election cycle will have arrived, and the only thing the public will have experienced will have been pain. Copy and paste this description for whatever other federal department D.O.G.E. decides is “non-essential.”

If the current administration decides it is expedient to take orders from Musk and make cuts to the federal budget willy-nilly, without regard for the consequences, they will be steamrolled in the coming election cycles. The resulting blue team administration will undoubtedly reverse the D.O.G.E. cuts, and likely even the good ones, causing the current administration’s efforts to have been for nothing. 

​The moral of the story here? Before embarking on a course of action, consider the consequences and prepare to take the appropriate measures to mitigate the negative consequences of that action. Put another way, if the goal is to eliminate the Department of Education or any other federal department, consider what these departments will be replaced with.

These departments exist for a reason. If this question is not considered, then it is only inevitable that the hubris will be humbled come November.

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Categories: Opinion