Many of us will never have to honor of stepping into the Oval Office. For if we did we would show great respect and humility for the history of that sacred room, and certainly not wear a baseball cap and dress like a thug like Elon Musk who cares NOTHING for our republic. 

Taking on this problematic federal government is for serious people and his 15 minutes are up. Still, the question remains: What can be pragmatically done to eliminate the $36T deficit and reduce the bloated dysfunctional federal bureaucracy? 

I had the privilege of meeting the late and, frankly, great Dr. Tom Coburn, the outstanding Senator from the Great State of Oklahoma whose plan in 2011 is exactly the type of thinking we should have in Washington. While I strongly disagree with the method in which President Trump is dissecting the federal government at warp speed, I do agree wholeheartedly with him that the time is up for this outdated and bloated bureaucracy to be taken down to size which will result in a much more manageable government that is reflective of our national priorities. 

Senator Coburn was a genius who took it upon himself to create a $9T plan in 2011 that would have reduced our nation's long-term debt, plus take on reducing the pork throughout the government. His plan would have resulted in $3T from entitlements, $3T from discretionary spending and other accounts, $1T from Defense, revisions in the tax code equating to $1T, and about $1T in interest cost when our total federal deficit was $14.7T. Imagine if we had taken on this challenge when we had the opportunity. 

Respectfully, President Trump during his first term added $8.4T, which doesn’t include $4.8T in COVID-19 relief to our debt, still to his credit, a considerable amount was due to policies in place before he assumed office, meaning our debt grew from $19.95T to $27.75T. 

Let’s face it, the numbers are staggering and only ballooned to the current level due to the continuous fiscal irresponsibility of our government under the Biden Administration, which to his credit though produced the best economy on the planet after the pandemic. Even as inflation ballooned to over 9%, it was reduced to 2.7% when he left office. 

Now we have the Musk Mirage. Yes, the wealthiest man on the planet who is going to shave $2T from the federal coffers. Thus far, he’s about $1B, so another $1,999B to go towards his unrealistic goal without any debt reduction plan! The deeper you go, the more impossible it becomes to take on this monster. But this isn’t Mission Impossible and we are the United States of America which has faced challenges throughout our history and succeeded where others have failed. 

As a fiscal and limited-government conservative, we, as a nation, must have a real plan and, more importantly, the people in place who can realistically take this on, which we don't. Our inept Congress has just proposed cutting a ridiculous minimum of $1.6T over 10 years to help offset President Trump’s $4.5T worth of tax cuts and $300B for mass deportations, plus increasing the debt ceiling adding another $4T to our national debt. Any member of Congress who votes for this is NOT a fiscal conservative. 

Allowing the Executive Branch's illegal powers to dissect the system without any consequences mirroring the reprehensible Project 2025 will only decimate this republic as the so-called Deep State is rising before our eyes; the rule of law will continue and adherence to the Constitution is without question, a point that the Vice President missed at Yale. 

The path forward must be to revisit the thinking of Senator Coburn and others who have offered real solutions to take on this federal bureaucracy, not those whose loyalties to our nation are questionable. 

Our goal must be $18T over 10 years while simultaneously cutting our trade deficit. This won’t be easy, but it can be accomplished using his same methodology, without eliminating USAID, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, plus keeping other key domestic and international programs advantageous to the prosperity and security of this nation. 

The tax breaks are eliminated, a new tax code is created and Congress gets a pay cut. Every department and every single expenditure dispersed from the treasury is pragmatically reviewed over two years with a formal plan in place by the end of 2026. 

This plan will include a reduction in the level of government employees which will be systematically reduced by 50% over 10 years, and every single building and property down to the paper clips used will be thoroughly scrutinized and subsequently reduced finally creating an ultra-efficient federal bureaucracy; our states get back more autonomy which is what the framers wanted. 

President Trump should concentrate his power on adapting our infrastructure to the new climate we face as our current is obsolete, energizing our domestic workforce with new training and re-tooling our factories with economic and energy incentives that attract more foreign investment bringing this nation back to the level of productivity necessary to keep our trade deficit down and debt manageable with annual debt reduction mechanisms. We don’t need Greenland, the Panama Canal, or Gaza to do any of this and that talk only dilutes our alliances and relationships we need to remain the great nation we have always been. 

We can do this surgically and pragmatically, not erratically and with a sledgehammer, with compassion and courage, certainly not with the dubious intentions and ulterior motives of various self-serving NGOs, duplicitous mega-billionaire neo-fascists, biased media, and the worst of the swamp who now seem emboldened to leap from the shadows into the spotlight at the expense of what we have accomplished in the last 238 years as a Constitutional Republic. 

This is a nation of the people, by the people, and for the people which has a bright future if we, as a nation, work towards a common good; the future is unwritten and it’s ours to seize!

Ned Sader has more than two decades of public affairs experience working for corporations and nonprofits, with a specialty in the development of public/private partnerships. He has served on numerous regional boards and is a lifelong resident of Wayne County, PA.  You can find more of his writing here.