GOP states go ‘DOGE-ing,’ mimicking Musk’s branding as they call attention to spending cuts

Republican governors and lawmakers in more than a dozen states are tapping into Elon Musk’s brand, borrowing from his Department of Government Efficiency’s approach — and in many cases, its name — to draw attention to their own bids to slash spending.

Republican governors and lawmakers in more than a dozen states are tapping into Elon Musk’s brand, borrowing from his Department of Government Efficiency’s approach — and in many cases, its name — to draw attention to their own bids to slash spending. The state efforts have been slower to start and smaller in scale — a reality that follows years of fiscal austerity in states where Republicans have long been in power, and where budgets are already required to be balanced. In most cases, governors and lawmakers have merely added new names, or launched new committees, to highlight reductions for which they’ve spent years claiming credit. Unlike the federal DOGE, many of those state efforts are task forces led by appointed conservative business leaders and empowered only to issue recommendations. “There is a very real possibility that whatever recommendations come out of their state DOGE groups will actually be put in practice by legislatures. But they can’t do it on their own,” said Whitney Tucker, the director of state fiscal policy research for the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Most state budgets’ biggest areas of spending are K-12 and higher education and health care — particularly programs like Medicaid, where costs are shared with the federal government and states face legal restrictions on the changes they can make to eligibility and coverage. Other major budget drivers include transportation, prisons and pensions. Unlike the federal government, which can operate at a deficit, states are already required to balance their budgets — which means, especially in Statehouses where Republicans control all levers of the government, the party has already implemented many of its fiscal priorities. Further steep cuts would quickly be felt in classrooms, by motorists and more.