马斯克计划通过 DOGE 削减政府成本

【中美创新时报2025 年 1 月 13日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）一群无薪的亿万富翁、科技高管和一些共和党大金主彼得·泰尔的门徒正准备以削减成本的名义在美国政府担任非官方职务。《纽约时报》记者Theodore Schleifer 和 Madeleine Ngo对此作了下述报道。

随着当选总统唐纳德·特朗普所谓的政府效率部准备与“浪费性”支出作斗争，它正准备派遣与其共同领导人埃隆·马斯克和维韦克·拉马斯瓦米有关系的人员到联邦政府各机构。

就职日之后，这群硅谷风格、眼界开阔的新兵将被派往华盛顿的各大机构。目标是大多数主要机构最终都有两名 DOGE 代表，因为他们正寻求削减成本，就像马斯克在他的社交媒体平台 X 上所做的那样。

这个故事基于对大约十几位了解 DOGE 运营情况的人的采访。他们在匿名的情况下接受了《纽约时报》的采访，因为他们无权公开发言。

在特朗普就任总统的前夕，DOGE 的结构仍然不定形且被严格控制。参与该行动的人士表示，保密和避免泄密至关重要，其大部分通信都是通过加密消息应用程序 Signal 进行的。

特朗普表示，这项努力将推动“彻底改变”，该实体将就如何削减浪费性支出提供外部建议。DOGE 本身无权削减开支——这一权力掌握在国会手中。相反，它预计将为项目和其他削减领域提供建议。

但部分行动正在变得清晰：许多参与的高管预计将在联邦政府内部自愿工作六个月，然后再回到高薪职位。马斯克表示，他们不会获得报酬——这对一些原本感兴趣的科技高管来说是不可能实现的——他要求他们每周工作 80 小时。其中一些人，可能包括马斯克，将是所谓的特殊政府雇员，这是一类特殊的临时工，他们只能在 365 天内为联邦政府工作 130 天或更短。

这些代表将主要驻扎在联邦机构内。经过高层官员的一番考虑，DOGE 本身现在不太可能以有组织的外部实体或非营利组织的形式成立。相反，它很可能更像是一个品牌，代表一群相互联系的有抱负的领导者，他们在联合群聊中对马斯克或拉马斯瓦米怀有忠诚。

“我们当中的愤世嫉俗者会说，‘哦，这是天真的亿万富翁介入这场斗争。’但另一方会说，这是对国家的服务，我们在建国时更常见到这种服务，”企业家特雷弗·特雷纳 (Trevor Traina) 说道，他曾在第一届特朗普政府工作，他的同事也考虑加入 DOGE。

“我认识的朋友生活丰富多彩，”特雷纳说，“他们同意免费工作六个月，离开家人，撸起袖子，试图真正扭转局面。你可以从任何一种角度看待它。”

DOGE 领导人告诉其他人，少数没有被派往机构的人将被安置在总统行政办公室的美国数字服务局内，该局由前总统巴拉克·奥巴马 (Barack Obama) 于 2014 年创建，旨在“改变我们政府对技术的态度”。

DOGE 预计还将在管理和预算办公室设有办事处，官员们还考虑在未来成立一个政府外的智库。

马斯克的朋友密切参与了选择将要被派往各个机构的人选。为 DOGE 进行面试的人包括硅谷投资者马克·安德森、肖恩·马奎尔、巴里斯·阿基斯和其他与马斯克有私人关系的人。一些获得蒂尔奖学金的人参与了 DOGE 的编程和运营，蒂尔奖学金是由蒂尔资助的一项享有盛誉的奖学金，颁发给那些承诺跳过或辍学成为企业家的人。为领导者介绍马斯克或拉马斯瓦米或他们的核心圈子一直是他们被选入部署的关键途径。

这些新兵被分配到他们被认为具有专业知识的特定机构。其他一些 DOGE 学员通过 X 引起了马斯克和拉马斯瓦米的注意。最近几周，DOGE 在 X 上的账户发布了招聘“极少数”全职受薪职位的请求，包括工程师和人力资源等后台职能。

DOGE 团队，包括那些拿薪工程师，主要在 SpaceX 位于白宫附近几个街区的市中心办公室的玻璃建筑里工作。一些与拉马斯瓦米和马斯克关系密切的人希望这些 DOGE 工程师能够利用人工智能寻找削减成本的机会。

这项更广泛的努力由两个背景截然不同的人负责：一个是布拉德·史密斯，他是一名医疗保健企业家，曾是特朗普第一任白宫的高级卫生官员，与特朗普的女婿贾里德·库什纳关系密切。史密斯在过渡期间实际上一直在管理 DOGE，特别注重招聘，特别是针对将嵌入机构的员工。

史密斯一直与史蒂夫·戴维斯密切合作，戴维斯是马斯克二十年的合作伙伴，被广泛视为马斯克在所有事情上的代理人。戴维斯加入马斯克的行列，例如，他会打电话给专家询问有关联邦预算的问题。

其他参与人员包括拉马斯瓦米的幕僚长和儿时好友马特·卢比；特朗普竞选官员乔安娜·威舍尔；以及与史密斯密切合作的麦肯锡合伙人 Rachel Riley。

尽管有如此强大的火力，许多预算专家仍对这项努力及其削减成本的雄心深表怀疑。马斯克最初表示，这项努力可能会导致 6.75 万亿美元的联邦预算“至少削减 2 万亿美元”。但预算专家表示，如果不削减社会保障和医疗保险等热门项目，这一目标将很难实现，而特朗普已承诺不会削减这些项目。

马斯克和拉马斯瓦米都重新定义了成功的意义。拉马斯瓦米上个月在 X 上强调了 DOGE 主导的放松管制，称取消管制可以刺激经济，“DOGE 的成功不能仅通过削减赤字来衡量。”

在上周接受营销公司 Stagwell 董事长兼首席执行官马克·佩恩采访时，马斯克淡化了总的潜在节省额。

“我们将争取 2 万亿美元——我认为这是最好的结果，”马斯克说。“你必须要有一些超额。我认为，如果我们争取 2 万亿美元，我们就有很大机会实现这个目标。”

本文最初发表于《纽约时报》。

题图：埃隆·马斯克的政府效率部正在招募亿万富翁、科技高管和其他人，在联邦政府内部工作六个月，以确定需要削减的领域。Omar Marques/摄影师：Omar Marques/Getty

附原英文报道：

Inside Musk’s plan for DOGE to slash government costs

By Theodore Schleifer and Madeleine Ngo New York Times,Updated January 12, 2025 

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency is recruiting billionaires, tech executives, and others to spend six months inside the federal government identifying areas to cut.Omar Marques/Photographer: Omar Marques/Getty

An unpaid group of billionaires, tech executives, and some disciples of Peter Thiel, a powerful Republican donor, are preparing to take up unofficial positions in the US government in the name of cost-cutting.

As President-elect Donald Trump’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency girds for battle against “wasteful” spending, it is preparing to dispatch individuals with ties to its coleaders, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, to agencies across the federal government.

After Inauguration Day, the group of Silicon Valley-inflected, wide-eyed recruits will be deployed to Washington’s alphabet soup of agencies. The goal is for most major agencies to eventually have two DOGE representatives as they seek to cut costs like Musk did at X, his social media platform.

This story is based on interviews with roughly a dozen people who have insight into DOGE’s operations. They spoke to The New York Times on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

On the eve of Trump’s presidency, the structure of DOGE is still amorphous and closely held. People involved in the operation say that secrecy and avoiding leaks are paramount, and much of its communication is conducted on Signal, the encrypted messaging app.

Trump has said the effort would drive “drastic change,” and that the entity would provide outside advice on how to cut wasteful spending. DOGE itself will have no power to cut spending — that authority rests with Congress. Instead, it is expected to provide recommendations for programs and other areas to cut.

But parts of the operation are becoming clear: Many executives involved are expecting to do six-month voluntary stints inside the federal government before returning to their high-paying jobs. Musk has said they will not be paid — a nonstarter for some originally interested tech executives — and have been asked by him to work 80-hour weeks. Some, including possibly Musk, will be so-called special government employees, a specific category of temporary workers who can only work for the federal government for 130 days or less in a 365-day period.

The representatives will largely be stationed inside federal agencies. After some consideration by top officials, DOGE itself is now unlikely to incorporate as an organized outside entity or nonprofit. Instead, it is likely to exist as more of a brand for an interlinked group of aspirational leaders who are on joint group chats and share a loyalty to Musk or Ramaswamy.

“The cynics among us will say, ‘Oh, it’s naive billionaires stepping into the fray.’ But the other side will say this is a service to the nation that we saw more typically around the founding of the nation,” said Trevor Traina, an entrepreneur who worked in the first Trump administration with associates who have considered joining DOGE.

“The friends I know have huge lives,” Traina said, “and they’re agreeing to work for free for six months, and leave their families and roll up their sleeves in an attempt to really turn things around. You can view it either way.”

DOGE leaders have told others that the minority of people not detailed to agencies would be housed within the Executive Office of the President at the US Digital Service, which was created in 2014 by former president Barack Obama to “change our government’s approach to technology.”

DOGE is also expected to have an office in the Office of Management and Budget, and officials have also considered forming a think tank outside the government in the future.

Musk’s friends have been intimately involved in choosing people who are set to be deployed to various agencies. Those who have conducted interviews for DOGE include Silicon Valley investors Marc Andreessen, Shaun Maguire, Baris Akis, and others who have a personal connection to Musk. Some who have received the Thiel Fellowship, a prestigious grant funded by Thiel given to those who promise to skip or drop out of college to become entrepreneurs, are involved with programming and operations for DOGE. Brokering an introduction to Musk or Ramaswamy, or their inner circles, has been a key way for leaders to be picked for deployment.

These recruits are assigned to specific agencies where they are thought to have expertise. Some other DOGE enrollees have come to the attention of Musk and Ramaswamy through X. In recent weeks, DOGE’s account on X has posted requests to recruit a “very small number” of full-time salaried positions for engineers and back-office functions like human resources.

The DOGE team, including those paid engineers, is largely working out of a glass building in SpaceX’s downtown office located a few blocks from the White House. Some people close to Ramaswamy and Musk hope that these DOGE engineers can use artificial intelligence to find cost-cutting opportunities.

The broader effort is being run by two people with starkly different backgrounds: One is Brad Smith, a health care entrepreneur and former top health official in Trump’s first White House who is close with Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law. Smith has effectively been running DOGE during the transition period, with a particular focus on recruiting, especially for the workers who will be embedded at the agencies.

Smith has been working closely with Steve Davis, a collaborator of Musk’s for two decades who is widely seen as working as Musk’s proxy on all things. Davis has joined Musk as he calls experts with questions about the federal budget, for instance.

Other people involved include Matt Luby, Ramaswamy’s chief of staff and childhood friend; Joanna Wischer, a Trump campaign official; and Rachel Riley, a McKinsey partner who works closely with Smith.

Despite all this firepower, many budget experts have been deeply skeptical about the effort and its cost-cutting ambitions. Musk initially said the effort could result in “at least $2 trillion” in cuts from the $6.75 trillion federal budget. But budget experts say that goal would be difficult to achieve without slashing popular programs like Social Security and Medicare, which Trump has promised not to cut.

Both Musk and Ramaswamy have also recast what success might mean. Ramaswamy emphasized DOGE-led deregulation on X last month, saying that removing regulations could stimulate the economy and that “the success of DOGE can’t be measured through deficit reduction alone.”

And in an interview last week with Mark Penn, the chair and CEO of Stagwell, a marketing company, Musk downplayed the total potential savings.

“We’ll try for $2 trillion — I think that’s like the best-case outcome,” Musk said. “You kind of have to have some overage. I think if we try for $2 trillion, we’ve got a good shot at getting one.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.