elon, doge, budgets;

As a general rule, most organizations, businesses, agencies, and even households building budgets start by asking themselves a simple question: What did we spend last year?  To answer, they compile a list of expense categories and the amounts spent in each one.  Next, they look ahead to the coming year to see which categories will require a bump up and where they can cut.  Finally, they look at projected revenues to see whether they can expect to cover planned spending.

In such a process, last year’s budget serves as the “baseline” for this year’s budget.

That’s a perfectly reasonable approach if the goal is performance more-or-less on par with last year’s.  An entity displeased with past performance and contemplating major reforms must take a radically different approach.

“Zero-Based Budgeting” rejects using last year’s budget as a baseline.  Instead, it sets the baseline for each category at zero.  It then considers each contemplated expenditure, one at a time, and asks whether current circumstances can justify it or require it.  If so, it gets added to the budget.  If not, it’s rejected.

Though zero-basing may have begun in the world of budgeting, it’s a powerful concept that can be applied quite broadly.  I’ve long advocated its deployment in regulatory reform, and I’ve used it in my day job to revamp college admissions processes. 

Stripped to its essentials, zero-based reforms reject inertia and incumbency as reasons for doing anything.  They begin assuming nothing, review everything from first principles, and retain only that which is justifiable given current circumstances.

President Trump assumed office believing that the performance of the Executive Branch—not just last year, but for decades—has been entirely unacceptable.  A majority of Americans agree with that assessment.  Under such circumstances, preserving existing structures as a baseline would have been deeply foolish—not to mention counterproductive and destructive.

He thus called upon Elon Musk and his team at DOGE to zero base the entire government.  That’s exactly what DOGE has been doing. ......more......