Department of Cost Cutting?

Trump has talked about utilizing Elon Musk as a government efficiency expert.  Musk himself has posted about a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which neatly aligns with a cryptocurrency that is associated with him.  Clever.  The new idea from Trump was a Secretary of Cost Cutting.  Much as I want government spending trimmed, a new department is not the way to do it.  The department might work worders for an administration or two, but it would soon suffer the fate of all government agencies: a desire to grow.  Soon, the trick of cost cutting would match the current definition.

Today, government cuts are made to the rate of growth.  So, if the Department of Superfluous Spending had a budget of $20 million this year and was projected to get a 10% increase, the Department of Cost Cutting could announce a $1 million cut so that the budget for next year is only $21 million.  Yes, all those budget cuts through the years have been of this sort.  The DOGE would adopt this strategy within a decade and become a useless waste of taxpayer money, like most government agencies.

Even if Elon does a miraculous job, it will only be a brief pause in the ever-expanding government.  Congressional action is required to shrink government.  Departments must be eliminated, not merely partially defunded.  Funds will just pour back in down the line.  Follow Argentina's Milei and slash government agencies.

Acting-President Jill Biden

For the first time in nearly a year, President Biden had a cabinet meeting on Friday.  He offered a two-minute scripted statement and then gave the floor to First Lady Jill Biden.  Jill offered remarks on progress regarding women's health, which took about 5 minutes.  Joe answered a couple of questions before the press was ushered out.  The cabinet secretaries cannot be blind to the obvious decline in President Biden.  Literally everyone knows that President Biden is not up to the task.  He has taken more vacation time than any president in American history because he is not really the president.  He's a figurehead and every cabinet member and Vice President Harris are entirely aware of that.

Section 4. Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

25th Amendment to the Constitution

Why has this not been invoked long since?  Everyone at that cabinet meeting and VP Harris know who is calling the shots and, so far, are happy to go along rather than remove President Biden.

However, this oddly timed and broadcast cabinet meeting does make one suspicious.  The ridiculously early June debate resulted in Joe Biden ending his re-election campaign.  Will this cabinet meeting provide similar basis for invoking the 25th Amendment and handing the presidency to VP Harris before the election?  Wow, that would be something.  Would a few weeks as President Kamala Harris improve her electoral chances?  This would be an unprecedented October Surprise.

Secretary to President

In the early years of the republic, it was common for cabinet secretaries to be candidates for the presidency.  This has become less common over the years.

1. Thomas Jefferson (1790-1793) was the first secretary of state under President George Washington.  However, he was preceded by John Jay, who was acting secretary.  Jefferson only served during Washington's first term.  He ran for the presidency on Washington's retirement and received the second most electoral votes, which made him John Adams' vice president.  That he and Adams were in rival parties made for an awkward combination.  Also, in future elections, the presidential and vice-presidential candidates ran together.  Of course, that created a new problem when Jefferson won the 1800 election.  Jefferson and his 'running mate' Aaron Burr both received the same number of electoral votes.  Who was president and who was vice president?

2. James Madison served as Thomas Jefferson's secretary of state (1801-1809).  From that post, he went directly into the presidency upon Jefferson's retirement.

3. James Monroe was tapped to be Madison's 2nd secretary of state (1811-1817).  In 1814, he was asked to also serve as the secretary of war, which he did (1814-1815) for the conclusion of the War of 1812.  When Madison retired to his Virginia plantation, Monroe became president.

4. John Quincy Adams was secretary of state (1817-1825) to James Monroe.  As with Madison and Monroe, he was promoted to the presidency, though not without controversy.  Though he had fewer electoral votes than Andrew Jackson, he was selected by the Congress in the contingent election (Jackson had failed to get a majority of the electoral votes).  Henry Clay, who had finished 4th in the 1824 Election, had thrown his support to Adams.  Adams then appointed Clay to be secretary of state.  Jackson cried 'corrupt bargain!' and would be back for a rematch in 1828.

5. Martin Van Buren served as Andrew Jackson's first secretary of state (1829-1831).  He only stayed in the post for a couple of years before moving on to Minister to the United Kingdom (1831-1832) and then serving as the VP for Jackson's second term (1833-1837) before becoming president himself.

6. James Buchanan was secretary of state (1845-1849) for James Knox Polk, but did not become the presumptive nominee at the end of Polk's term.  Where the State Dept had been a clear steppingstone to the presidency in the early republic, it had faded by this time.  Like Van Buren, Buchanan served as Minister to UK (1853-1856) after being secretary of state and ran for the presidency in 1856.  Buchanan is the last secretary of state to be elected to the presidency.

7. Ulysses S. Grant served as secretary of war (1867-1868) for President Johnson.  He was only in the post for 4 months.  While serving, he was also the commanding general of the Army, a position he had held since 1864 and would not relinquish until he was inaugurated as president in March 1869.

8. William Howard Taft served as the secretary of war (1904-1908) for the majority of President Theodore Roosevelt's second term.  He was Roosevelt's handpicked successor and was elected to the presidency in 1908.

9. Herbert Hoover was the secretary of commerce (1921-1928) for President Warren G. Harding.  He stayed in the post after Harding's death and through Calvin Coolidge's presidency.  He is the first and only commerce secretary to win the presidency.  He is also the last cabinet secretary to reach the presidency.

Clearly, a cabinet post - especially as secretary of state - was an ideal launching pad for a presidential run in the first 40 to 50 years of the republic.  Today, it is better to make the leap from senator or governor.  Beware a cabinet post if you have pretentions to the presidency!