Efficiency Without Vision Is Just Destruction

The Department of Government Efficiency—efficient at what, exactly? Fuel efficiency? Propping up fossil fuels? Efficiency can mean building a clean energy future, or it can mean doubling down on the past. It can mean swiftly deporting people, or it can mean efficiently constructing affordable housing. These are not just different policies but fundamentally opposing visions of the future.

I don’t just want efficiency—I want efficiency with purpose. A government led by people with a humane, forward-looking vision. The problem with Trump, Musk, and those who see governance as something to be broken or corrupted isn’t just that they are bad at it (though they are). It’s that their vision for the future is small, regressive, and rooted in a 19th-century mindset, not just in morality and human dignity, but in economic thinking.

America is the world’s strongest economy because it thrives at the frontier of ideas, deeply integrated with global innovation. But these so-called visionaries have no respect for that. They would unravel complex supply chains, alienate allies, and replace strategy with slogans. There’s no real plan to build, no forward momentum—just the illusion of strength while tearing down the very structures that sustain it.

Efficiency in service of a bad vision isn’t efficiency at all. Musk himself is a case study in how much can be achieved through public-private partnerships—every company he’s built has relied on federal funding. And yet, he now seeks to dismantle the very system that enabled his success, pulling up the ladder behind him.

I don’t oppose government efficiency. But I want it directed toward a future worth having—one that expands our possibilities, drives real innovation, and serves people. Efficiency alone is meaningless. It’s the vision that matters.