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As Musk exits DOGE, a look back at previous efforts to cut waste, fraud and abuse – and how they fared
As Elon Musk steps away from his official role at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), he joins a history of presidential administrations that have attempted to streamline government—with mixed results.
While former Presidents Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson and Grover Cleveland all tried to downsize the judiciary, treasury and civil service, respectively, it wasn’t until the 20th century that the federal government grew into the bureaucratic behemoth it is that has drawn true DOGE-type attention.
Though often seen as the bigger spenders, some Democrats joined Republicans in the 1990s to shrink the size of government and make it more accountable to taxpayers.
«We know big government does not have all the answers,» former President Bill Clinton said during his 1996 State of the Union.
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Presidents Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, Lyndon Johnson, left to right. (Getty)
«We know there’s not a program for every problem. We have worked to give the American people a smaller, less bureaucratic government in Washington — and we have to give the American people one that lives within its means.»
«The era of big government is over,» he said, in a phrase that had largely been considered the closest emulation of DOGE thought until Musk arrived on the scene.
Clinton also sought welfare reform and emphasized personal responsibility over dependency on the state.
The Arkansan also called for slashing the bureaucracy by 200,000 jobs and worked with then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., to balance the federal budget.
President Donald Trump’s efforts to do the same have received a very different response from the left.
Clinton, working with congressional Republicans – while also frequently sparring with them — was able to reduce the federal workforce somewhat and establish a budget surplus but also failed to realize entitlement reform, something that more recent fiscal hawks have also struggled with.
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JFK, left, Robert McNamara, right. McNamara went on to also lead the Pentagon under President Johnson. (Bettmann/Getty)
Clinton won his 1992 upset as a centrist, after incumbent Republican George H.W. Bush was lambasted for reneging on his «Read my lips – no new taxes» pledge, with a statistical boost from industrialist independent H. Ross Perot, who won the votes of many erstwhile Bush supporters.
Clinton and then-Vice President Al Gore established a National Performance Review (NPR) that drew some parallels to today’s DOGE, and cut the bureaucracy to 1960s levels.
He went on to win reelection over otherwise popular GOP stalwart Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan., in 1996.
In 1980, actor-turned-California Gov. Ronald Reagan took the White House with promises similar to another celebrity-turned-politician who would do the same 36 years later.
The Gipper did not succeed in abolishing the Department of Education – created only a few years prior by former President Jimmy Carter – something Trump has also sought.
But, he reinvigorated a new generation of conservatives who still praise him for slashing income taxes, seeking to «starve the beast» via forced discretionary-spending cuts, and took on public-sector unions when he essentially won a dare against Air Traffic Controllers who went on strike by firing them all and prohibiting their rehiring.
Reagan’s closest iteration of DOGE was the 1982 Grace Commission, studying cost-cutting and efficiency – and led by Maryland chemical executive J. Peter Grace along with dozens of «commissioners» plucked from the private sector.
In the executive order creating the Grace Commission, it was tasked with examining «the entire federal government for areas of inefficiency, mismanagement and waste, and to recommend savings without raising taxes or cutting essential services.»
Within its three-year lifespan, the commission reported $424 billion in savings, including waste, fraud, abuse, overpayments to government vendors and billions in unpaid taxes.
Reagan, however, faced the same resistance from the proverbial «Swamp» in trying to implement the commission’s findings.
«We’re not trying to hurt anyone. But the American taxpayer is being ripped off,» Grace said at the time.
While ushered in as a conservative pragmatist, Reagan’s later years saw budget deficits grow, and the national debt more than double. The Dow also lost nearly one-quarter of its value on «Black Monday,» Oct. 19, 1987.
The other contemporary president known for trying to «DOGE» government was Texas Democrat Lyndon Johnson. LBJ was known for rapidly expanding government through his «Great Society» social programs but also took aim at streamlining the Pentagon and Defense apparatus.
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Efforts at the Pentagon largely failed, as the ongoing Vietnam War also accentuated costly balance sheets.
Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, a Kennedy holdover and former Ford Motor Company chief, was employed to make changes at the Pentagon.
He instituted what was called the Planning Programming Budgeting System, which sought to bring a more streamlined approach to managing the Pentagon’s budget.
However, the vast size of the defense bureaucracy—along with resistance from some military leaders—undermined the effectiveness of Johnson’s and McNamara’s reform efforts.
Presidential,Executive,White House,Elon Musk,Presidential Deficit,Bill Clinton
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MINNEAPOLIS, MN – The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is reaffirming its support for diversity, equity, and inclusion, better known to millions of Americans by its acronym, DEI.
The DNC’s Resolutions Committee, meeting on Tuesday during the second day of the national party’s annual summer meeting, unanimously passed a resolution affirming what it highlighted as the «American Values’ of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
The approval of the resolution, which will face a vote by the full 400-plus DNC membership on Wednesday, comes amid relentless conservative backlash against DEI programs in recent years.
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The Democratic National Committee’s Resolutions Committee meets at the DNC’s summer meeting, in Minneapolis, Minnesota on August 26, 2025. (Paul Steinhauser – Fox News)
During the 2024 election cycle, now-President Donald Trump and Republicans repeatedly criticized Democrats for their longstanding support for DEI efforts and transgender rights, turning the Democrats’ stance into a political liability.
Republicans spent tens of millions on ads last year bashing transgender women in female sports. A commercial targeting then-Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s 2024 presidential nominee last summer and autumn, argued that «Kamala is for they/them, Donald Trump is for you.»
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Following last year’s election setbacks, when Democrats lost control of the White House and Senate and failed to win back the House majority, some in the party have second-guessed their support for DEI and transgender rights.
Trump, in the opening months of his second term in the White House, has signed several executive orders taking aim at transgender and DEI policies implemented by then-President Joe Biden and by major universities and corporations.
President Donald Trump has signed executive orders that take aim at diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts implemented by former President Joe Biden as well as by major corporations and universities. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
But DNC committee member Bill Owen of Tennessee, who spoke in support of the resolution in front of the panel, took aim at Republicans as he praised DEI values.
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«These are American values. This is what America was built on,» Owen said. «And to my Republican friends and fellow citizens…who profess to be active Christians, I remind them that D.E.I.is the very foundation of the Christian church. I get a little emotional on this, but Jesus loves little children. All the children of the world. Red and yellow, black and white.»
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks at the Democratic National Committee’s summer meeting, on Aug. 25, 2025 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Paul Steinhauser – Fox News)
«This week’s DNC meeting has proven once again just how disconnected Democrats are from the values and priorities of everyday Americans,» RNC communications director Zach Parkinson told Fox News Digital. «The DNC reaffirmed their party’s support for radical, racist DEI ideology and insulted Christians across the country by saying DEI is ‘the very foundation’ of Christianity. It’s no wonder Democrats’ approval rating is in the toilet.»
The vote by the Resolutions Committee on the DEI resolution came a day after Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate on the Democrats’ 2024 national ticket, said in an address at the DNC summer meeting that «we’re proud to be a diverse party. We are proud of the diversity of this country. We’re not shying away from diversity as a strength and equity as a goal and inclusion being the air we breathe. That’s what we should be doing.»
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DEI efforts have been aimed at fostering fair treatment and full participation for all people, particularly those who have faced discrimination or underrepresentation.
But Trump, upon returning to the White House at the beginning of this year, called DEI efforts «illegal and immoral discrimination programs» and «public waste.»
dei,democratic party,donald trump,tim walz,kamala harris,elections,politics
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Reform UK proposes deporting 600,000 asylum seekers in sweeping new immigration crackdown
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Reform UK said it’s prepared to deport 600,000 asylum seekers from Britain to prevent «civil disorder.»
Party leader Nigel Farage said the plan includes withdrawing Britain from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), repealing the Human Rights Act, and scrapping international treaties that block forced deportations, Reuters reported.
The ECHR, a cornerstone of U.K. human rights law, has repeatedly been used to halt deportations of migrants deemed to be in the country illegally, the BBC reported.
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British Reform Party leader Nigel Farage poses in front of a mock departures board during a Tuesday press conference in a hangar at Oxford Airport in Kidlington, England. (Joanna Chan/AP )
«We are not far away from major civil disorder,» Farage told a press conference. «It is an invasion, as these young men illegally break into our country.»
Dubbed Operation Restoring Justice, the plan is the «only way» to stop small boats crossing the English Channel, Farage said, adding that migrants intercepted at sea should be detained and deported.
«If we do that, the boats will stop coming in days because there will be no incentive,» he claimed.
Labour Party Chairwoman Ellie Reeves criticized the announcement, saying it lacked detail.
«Today, we got none of those things, nor a single answer to the practical, financial, or ethical questions about how their plan would work,» she said.
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British Reform Party leader Nigel Farage shows the Operation Restoring Justice program during a press conference in a hangar at Oxford Airport in Kidlington, England. (Joanna Chan/AP)
The announcement followed weeks of small protests over mass migration and crimes committed by some asylum seekers.
Britain received a record 108,100 asylum applications in 2024, many from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, and Bangladesh.
Polling shows immigration has overtaken the economy as voters’ top concern. Reform UK, despite holding only four seats in Parliament, is leading in surveys of voting intentions, Reuters reported.
British Reform Party leader Nigel Farage addresses journalists during a press conference in a hangar at Oxford Airport in Kidlington, England, Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025. (Joanna Chan/AP)
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Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook dismissed the proposals as «a series of gimmicks» that would not work. Reform’s opponents and several charities said the plan would amount to Britain abandoning its human rights commitments.
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Policías enmascarados en los pasillos judiciales: el miedo se apodera de los migrantes en Estados Unidos
Agentes federales detienen a un hombre fuera de las audiencias de la corte de inmigración en el Edificio Federal Jacob K. Javits en Nueva York. Foto EFEEstados Unidos,Inmigración en EE.UU,Donald Trump,Migración
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