As a fiscal conservativekknew1, the columnist David French held some hope for Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency before President Trump took office. Those hopes were quickly dashed. In this conversation with the Manhattan Institute’s Jessica Riedl, French reckons with what Musk and his department have wrought on the government and argues that DOGE will do little to ameliorate the proposed tax cuts in the budget resolution recently passed by the House.

This conversation was recorded on Friday, Feb. 28.

lendapgElon Musk and the Useless Spending-Cut Theater of DOGEThe columnist David French speaks with a fellow fiscal conservative about what the Department of Government Efficiency should actually be doing.

Below is a transcript of an episode of “The Opinions.” We recommend listening to it in its original form for the full effect. You can do so using the player above or on the NYT Audio app, Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube, iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts.

David French: I’m David French,66jogo an Opinion columnist at The New York Times and a fiscal conservative.

At first glance, you might think I would be excited for an initiative like Elon Musk’s DOGE, but I’m not. Even though I believe the federal bureaucracy could use some efficiency, I’m actually pretty appalled at what I’m seeing out of Elon Musk and the Trump administration. So is my friend Jessica Riedl. Jessica is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and, like me, is a fiscal conservative.

Jessica might be one of the nation’s foremost experts about the federal budget and about America’s fiscal realities, and she has taught me an enormous amount about those issues. So I am delighted that Jessica is joining us for this conversation.

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

More bleak headlines follow: “Bidenomics FAILED.” “Bidenomics is a RECORD FAILURE.” “Americans’ incomes down THREE STRAIGHT YEARS.” “Unemployment RISING.” “America may soon be in a RECESSION.”kknew1