(Editor's Notes by Christina Myer - Photo Illustration - MetroCreativeConnection)

If you’ve thought lately that there hasn’t been much news out of the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency, that’s because “that doesn’t exist,” according to U.S. Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor, who spoke to Reuters about it.

Multiple published reports say DOGE has been quietly disbanded, eight months before it was supposed to be. Most of those media outlets have found it difficult to calculate the amount of money DOGE may or may not have saved the American people. DOGE’s own website says it saved $214 billion, without mentioning that some estimates suggest its efforts actually COST at least that much, and others suggest the damage done will continue to be costly.

WTOP News in Washington, D.C., spoke with Max Stier, president and CEO of the Partnership for Public Service, who called DOGE’s work a “fire, fire, fire” effort, instead of a “ready, aim, fire” effort.

“It was an absolute farce in terms of its fundamental purpose, which was to make our government work better, when in fact, it was an exercise in absolute destruction,” Stier told WTOP. “DOGE’s disbandment eight months early could not have come soon enough.”

His organization graded DOGE’s effort at an F.

Now, it’s easy to understand why an organization that works with civil servants would look unfavorably upon DOGE. But given the general silence surrounding its dissolution, perhaps Stier’s assessment isn’t far off.

Elon Musk went from revving up a “chainsaw for bureaucracy” to getting into a very public fight with President Donald Trump and leaving Washington. Vivek Ramaswamy changed his mind about co-leading DOGE and instead decided to run for governor of Ohio.

Almost everyone is in favor of eliminating fraud, waste and abuse. But that means a careful, thorough and honest assessment of the various agencies, offices, commissions and boards where bureaucracy can swell to cover any number of messes.

That work isn’t always flashy and quick. In fact, it almost never should be.

Looking at how much money is spent on unnecessary travel and cute, catchy little signs; or the number of elected officials who simply never stop campaigning takes time and transparency.

Addressing unnecessary redundancies, or entirely ineffective agencies — the kind that realize if they were ever to fulfill their mission, they would no longer be needed — doesn’t happen with a chainsaw … more like a scalpel wielded by a practiced hand.

“Fraud” is a strong word, but maybe also the easiest problem to identify. Waste and abuse are in the eye of the beholder. And those who would offer free flights to the girlfriends of senior officials or refuse to add their names to $1,945,275,000 spread over 54 ANONYMOUS earmarks in the Defense Health Program budget (according to the 2024 Congressional Pig Book, a Citizens Against Government Waste compilation of earmarks in appropriations bills), likely have a different idea of what is waste or abuse then the ordinary taxpayers who are footing the bill.

By the way, my favorite part of that report is the Oinker Awards. U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, won the Whole Hog Award, for 231 earmarks costing nearly $575.6 million — more than 23% higher than the lawmaker in second place. The House of Pork Award went to U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, R-Tenn., for 13 earmarks costing $270,330,940. There are several other “awards,” including one for Broadband Bandits — “14 members of Congress who received 10 earmarks costing $11,385,000 to fund broadband projects despite the availability of enough money to connect every unserved area of the country.”

And lest you be worried the awards were given to one party only, Citizens Against Government Waste gave the You Cannot Be Serious Award to U.S. Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., for $1.75 million to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City … which has net assets of $5 billion.

Politicians and bureaucrats (even newly minted ones) have a habit of promising they will weed out the things that are unnecessarily draining taxpayer dollars just before they turn around and find new ways to drain even more.

At least DOGE is a thing of the past, though the folks in Washington, D.C., must not fail to continue efforts to save money.

Those who flaunt their excess and inability to control themselves when they have access to all government has to offer must remember voters will have a chance to do something about it soon enough.

For that, we can all be thankful.

Christina Myer is executive editor of The Parkersburg News and Sentinel. She can be reached via e-mail at cmyer@newsandsentinel.com.