Under the leadership of President Trump, the federal government is having a long overdue and important discussion about reducing the size and scope of government. Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has done yeoman’s work in the opening months of the administration, leading to an estimated savings of $170 billion dollars to date, or more than $1,000 per taxpayer.
Musk acknowledges that there's much more to be done. One obvious next target is the federal antitrust process.
Right now, two separate agencies inexplicably oversee the responsibilities of promoting competition in government. Both the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division do the job of one agency. Even the FTC’s website concedes “their authorities overlap.”
House Republicans wisely initiated a legislative effort to consolidate the antitrust within the DOJ. Whether it’s a legislative fix or Musk’s wood chipper at DOGE, the job needs to be finished.
There are more than just potential government savings on the line. It’s also the prevention of further economic ruin. Under the stewardship of the Biden-appointed Lina Khan, the FTC became an uncontrollable runaway train. Adopting a “ready, fire, aim” approach, Khan initiated countless and meritless lawsuits on a whim, more interested in grabbing headlines and scoring political points than implementing sober-minded, thoughtful policy that prioritizes the interests of consumers.
Almost overnight, the FTC morphed from an agency that most members of the public had never heard of (let alone cared about) to a weaponized arm of government seeking to remake and reshape the private sector. In fact, Khan even dismissed the wisdom of the consumer welfare standard, long the guiding light of American antitrust policy making, outright, advocating instead for a more proactive approach from regulators.
Whenever a progressive starts talking about the need for more government “proactivity,” buckle up for a bumpy ride, as many of America’s leading innovators learned the hard way. Under Khan’s regime, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft and countless others found themselves spending precious resources fending off the full force of the federal government. Many of these cases dragged on for months and years. Some are still winding their way through the legal process.
Duplicative, taxpayer-funded federal agencies with shared and overlapping missions often fail to serve their intended purpose and a drain on resources. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released its annual blueprint of recommendations to reduce duplication and costs, and identified measures that could unlock billions of dollars in savings for the government.
In the early months, the Trump Administration made clear that there are no sacred cows. Their early restructuring of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and more recently, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), sent clear signals that there was a new sheriff in town. The CFPB, a brainchild of far-left Senator Elizabeth Warren, was another example of a politicized, unaccountable agency that, even if created with good intentions, had far exceeded its authority and overstayed its welcome.
In his inaugural address to the American people, President Trump vowed the U.S. will “restore the integrity, competency, and loyalty of America’s government.”
It is now time for conservative lawmakers to act on that call, and take common sense steps, like that of consolidating federal antitrust efforts, to streamline and downsize the bloat of government to move America closer to our next Golden Age.
