Don Wolfsenberget at The HIll:
There have been several presidents in recent times who have made dramatic attempts through specially appointed entities to bring government spending under control. A recent Washington Post headline summed these up: “The disappointing history of government efficiency commissions like DOGE.” These range from President Harry Truman’s Hoover Commission and Ronald Reagan’s Grace Commission, to Bill Clinton’s “Reinventing Government” initiative and Barack Obama’s Simpson-Bowles commission. In the latter case, only 11 of the 18 commissioners supported its final recommendations, which was insufficient to advance it to the Congress for a vote.
One thing is certain as the new administration plunges into the morass of government workers’ rights and agencies’ legal viability: the courts will be swamped with all manner of cases challenging the propriety of what may come to be known as “the hatchet acts.” And, with a growing number Trump-appointed judges at all levels of the federal judiciary, all the way up to the Supreme Court, the new president may fare better than he did eight years ago.