Elon Musk’s DOGE benefits from being whatever people want it to be

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy received a rapturous welcome to Capitol Hill Thursday as questions piled up about exactly what the goals are for their extra-governmental “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE).

Musk wasn’t overly interested in clarifying as he moved between meetings.

At one point, as he passed, a reporter shouted out “What’s DOGE?” The world’s richest man didn’t stop and only offered a chuckle in response.

But the duo’s (perhaps strategic) ambiguity may be helping the effort for now, with a range of players from Republicans to Democrats to business leaders all offering supportive words but offering dramatically different reasons.

Some business leaders like the idea of regulation cuts and a more stable deficit situation, not to mention the potential business opportunities that DOGE may provide.

Some on the left like the idea of slimming down defense spending.

Republicans, meanwhile, are often more eager to use DOGE to take what House Speaker Mike Johnson often likens to a blowtorch to the regulative state.

For now, the ebullient mood on Capitol Hill Thursday was part of a range of clear early economic tailwinds President-elect Donald Trump is enjoying even as he won’t take office for another six weeks.

As the business world awaits details on another round of tax cuts, Trump got another boost when bitcoin topped $100,000 for the first time Wednesday night.

Thursday’s meeting was orchestrated by Speaker Johnson, who said Thursday that he saw his and his colleagues’ roles in the DOGE effort as about launching investigations to find the waste, fraud, and abuse in government and then to “lay it bare for the American people [and presumably DOGE] to see.”

“We have a lot of great ideas that we’re discussing,” added Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia after the meeting. Greene is set to lead many of those negotiations at the chair of a DOGE subcommittee in 2025. She added that one of the big topics of her meeting with the leaders concerned interest on the national debt.