Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have a singular directive under the new Trump administration: make cuts. And lots of them.
President-elect Donald Trump has tasked the pair with running the new Department of Government Efficiency – or DOGE, a likely nod to Musk’s favorite cryptocurrency – that will oversee massive spending cuts. Ramaswamy and Musk, the world’s richest person, say they hope to gut roughly one-third of the federal government’s annual spending through the new advisory commission.
These cuts could deeply affect Georgians, as many rely on the federal programs and employment opportunities that could be on the chopping block.
Cuts to Georgians’ federal entitlements
Concrete details about DOGE are still sparse, though Musk has floated the idea of firing government workers and contractors to help reach his stated goal of $2 trillion in savings. In reality, much of the cuts would likely also need to come from what economists call “transfer payments.”
Americans receive these payments directly – through government programs like Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, food stamps, veterans’ benefits, and unemployment benefits – without needing to exchange a product or service.
Counties in Central and South Georgia are particularly reliant on transfer payments, according to a study from the Economic Innovation Group.
The counties that relied on these payments the most were Quitman, where 47% of all residents’ income comes from government transfers, followed by 44% of the income in Calhoun. Clay, Telfair, Johnson, and Hancock counties get 43% of their total income from government transfer payments. Half of these counties – Quitman, Telfair, and Johnson – overwhelming voted for Trump in the 2024 election.
Georgians are far from the only ones who benefit from transfer payments. These payments now account for nearly 18% of total personal income in the United States, according to EIG.
In a recent interview with Axios, Ramaswamy discussed potential plans to make cuts from entitlement programs through rooting out alleged waste and fraud.
“Right now, there are hundreds of billions of dollars flowing out the door of all of those programs ending up in the hands of people who, even under the statute, should not be receiving those payments,” Ramaswamy said.
While it was too “premature” to discuss sweeping cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security, Ramaswamy noted, broad cuts to these programs would be “a policy decision that belongs to the voters” and their congressional representatives.
Cuts to Georgia’s federal workforce
The impact of these potential cuts extends beyond South and Central Georgia. The metro Atlanta area, though its residents are less likely to rely on transfer payments, has a significant share of federal workers.
In a Nov. 20 op-ed with The Wall Street Journal, Musk and Ramaswamy outlined how they planned to make steep cuts to federal spending. One of their main objectives: pursue “large scale firings” of federal workers.
Ramaswamy made a similar proposal last year while running for president, saying on Musk’s X that on Day One, he planned to “instantly fire 50% of federal bureaucrats.”
The latest Census data shows that roughly 2.8% of workers in greater Atlanta are federal employees. Far from “bureaucrats,” the 89,807 federal employees work a range of positions, from mail carriers to air traffic controllers to staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Putting so many Atlantans out of work would likely be detrimental to the state’s economic and personal wellbeing.
‘Shockwaves through the system’
In total, the United States has around 2 million civilian employees working in federal positions, according to a 2024 Congressional Research Service report. If DOGE cuts them by half, as Ramaswamy suggested, the government could save about $100 billion per year in salaries. It’s still, however, a far cry from the promised $2 trillion in savings.
But Musk is no stranger to these types of cuts. The billionaire cut 80% of Twitter’s workforce when he took over the platform last year. As of October 2024, the social media platform is, ironically, worth 80% less than what it was when Musk bought it.
The depreciation of X hasn’t seemed to deter Musk, who has hyped up DOGE everywhere from social media to Capitol Hill.
In a statement, Musk said DOGE will “send shockwaves through the system, and anyone involved in government waste, which is a lot of people!”
Melissa Cruz is an elections reporting fellow who focuses on voter access issues for the USA TODAY Network. You can reach her at [email protected] or on X, formerly Twitter, at @MelissaWrites22.
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