What would happen if the current administration was really working to increase government efficiency? One thing that would increase efficiency by a huge amount would be to adequately fund the IRS. In 2022, the IRS audit rates declined because of inadequate staffing. Audits of the most wealthy declined the most, supposedly because it takes more time, staff, and expertise to handle the complex income taxes of the very wealthy. While they still got audited at a higher rate than lower-income folks, the rate of their audits declined. Yet the returns to the government from audits of the top 10% of earners can return more than $12 for each $1 spent, much more than the returns from lower-income taxpayers.  

America's highest earners are expert at not paying their taxes. A 2021 study from the IRS and economists found that the top 1% of earners don't report nearly a quarter of their income. And the top 0.1% under-report twice as much. The Treasury Department has previously estimated that the top 1% evade $163 billion in taxes annually. (U.S Department of the Treasury, “The Case for a Robust Attack on the Tax Gap,” September 7, 2021)  

Clearly, putting more money into paying trained auditors at the IRS would reap large dividends for the government. But the administration is cutting IRS staffing! Why? 

Another area that would greatly increase government efficiency is to fully fund early childhood education. Investing in early childhood education creates upward mobility. Children who receive a high-quality early childhood education are more likely to earn higher wages, live healthier lives, avoid incarceration, raise strong families, and contribute to society. The benefits of high-quality programs from birth through age 5 also extend to their entire family, now and in the years to come. Limited or inconsistent access to child care means parents miss work, lowering household incomes and potentially leading to job loss. Many parents cannot work outside the home at all due to a lack of affordable, reliable care for their children. It is easy to see that insuring families have access to quality, affordable child care and early learning results in a more efficient and productive American workforce. Child care is an integral part of supporting a thriving economy, with 27 million Americans relying on it to go to work. (March 6, 2024, First Five Years Fund website) Employers rely on it as well, to support a robust workforce. Yet affordable childcare is out of reach for many.  

Investing in high-quality child care and early learning programs can generate up to $7.30 per dollar invested. Also, the availability of early childhood education programs attracts home buyers and increases property values by $13 for every dollar invested in programs. But the Trump administration wants to destroy the Department of Education, which is the major funding source of early childhood education. Why? 

The US spends more on defense than the next nine countries combined. Government efficiency would vastly improve by investing some of the very bloated military budget in domestic employment. The numbers are pretty amazing: for $260 billion, the government can buy the following: 1,794,000 federal defense jobs, 2,548,000 clean energy jobs, 3,718,000 healthcare jobs, and 3,978,000 elementary through higher education jobs. (War Spending and Lost Opportunities, Heidi Garrett-Peltier, PhD, Watson Institute at Brown University.) There is no question that if Trump and Musk wanted increase government efficiency, then they would invest more in education, clean energy, infrastructure, and healthcare, and less in defense. But Musk has not touched defense so far. Why? 

Our national debt is a real problem. Lowering it is the supposed reason the administration is making all those federal job cuts. However, it is obvious that lowering our debt is not what Musk and Trump are trying to do. If they were, the items listed above would be on the short list of actions to take. They are not. 

We the people need to assess what our government officials’ motives are. This means observing what they are doing, not what they are saying. I believe that Trump and Musk want to break agencies like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, thus causing the government to not work well, if at all. This will create massive frustration, anger and distrust, leading to increased hatred of the federal government. After that occurs, then Trump and Musk will take what they can of government assets and give it to private corporations and other entities in the form of contracts and tax breaks. This will not help us average people live more productive or happier lives. Instead, it will make us poorer and more unsure of the future while the upper 1 percent amasses even greater wealth. 

Elizabeth (Beth) Kinney moved to the valley in 1993, attracted to Alamosa by Valley-Wide Health Services. She worked as a family practice physician for seven years and then moved to emergency care. Kinney worked as an emergency physician first at the Alamosa and Rio Grande Hospitals and later at the Conejos County Hospital until retiring in 2017.