President Donald Trump has made the elimination of government waste central to his second term. The Department of Government Efficiency has taken a chainsaw to legacy programs and institutional recipients of government welfare. Gone are entire institutions such as the U.S. Agency for International Development and the U.S. Institute for Peace. National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service will lose government grants. More than a quarter-million bureaucrats have received buyouts or pink slips.

Given the size of U.S. debt, downsizing is necessary, though Trump and de facto DOGE chief Elon Musk’s inattention to law or process raised hackles. Other critics point out that despite all the headlines about fat-trimming and cost-cutting, Trump and the DOGE team have overstated the savings to the people. To be fair to the White House, though, stopping the flow will bring increasing savings over time.