Indiscriminate DOGE Cuts Harm States, Humanities, History, and Culture
April 9, 2025
DOGE is not what it purports to be. The indiscriminate, arbitrary cuts across dozens of federal agencies reflect neither its advertisement of efficiency nor its promise to root out waste and fraud. The use of a chainsaw to reduce government spending – for the sake of cutting government spending – does not produce meritorious results of the sort that the employment of reason, discernment, and measurement of programs based on their value and service to the nation would achieve, if officials were true to their stated goal of reducing unwise and wasteful spending.
The result of the intemperate approach, rather, has been the infliction of the sort of carnage wrought by a wanton Florida hurricane that leaves a wide swath of pain, suffering, and destruction that requires years of rebuilding and restoration. The exact toll of the DOGE chainsaw on the life of America and the lives of Americans may be incalculable – unlike, say, a business plan for spending reduction which implements a cost-benefit analysis that includes in its calculus the origins, purpose, utility, and impact of a program and what its retention or elimination might mean for the organization.
After three months of blind cuts to governmental programs, without evidence of waste and fraud, we find ourselves observing a funeral parade that includes libraries, museums, the arts and humanities, scientific research and medical assistance, and a diminished capacity for fighting disease and wildfires. That’s not all. The elimination of USAID has hurt American farmers and the most vulnerable abroad. The elimination of inspectors general in numerous departments has removed those who hold governmental officials accountable. DOGE has cut VA benefits and staff and impaired our national security and national defense. The Trump-Musk cuts at the Centers for Disease Control included the elimination of the team in charge of researching IVF treatments, despite President Trump’s promise to expand access to those fertility treatments which, he has stated, would brand him as the “fertilization president.”
The DOGE decision to gut the National Endowment for the Humanities entails tragic consequences for the South Dakota Humanities Council, a state treasure for its leadership in civic and cultural education. The South Dakota organization, like other state councils across the nation, relies heavily on NEH funding. The NEH grant to SDHC for the 2025 fiscal year was axed immediately.
The action threatens the outstanding programs SDHC offers throughout the state. The annual Festival of Books, a flagship event for the Council, draws some 5-7,000 people each year, not merely South Dakotans, but others throughout the region. Staff members point to the economic benefits for the state, since tourists spend about $3 for every $1 that is invested. The Festival will be affected, as well as the Council’s hugely popular Young Readers Program, through which the organization provides to some 15,000 third graders copies of a special edition book. National studies demonstrate that reading proficiency in the third grade has predictive value for the success of students in their educational pursuits. DOGE cuts threaten this program as well.
The beauty of the Council’s programs is that they are available throughout the state, including the deeply rural communities that may not otherwise have access to the civic, literary, and cultural programs provided by the dedicated staff headquartered in Brookings.
DOGE is not a governmental department, and it violates various provisions of the Constitution. Under the Constitution, Congress alone possesses the authority to create an office. Manifestly, Congress did not pass a law creating DOGE, yet it proceeds with the authorization and approval of President Trump, despite the president’s aggrandizement of congressional power. The role and authority attributed to Musk would, by any measure, elevate him to the status of a “principal” officer which, under the Appointments Clause in Article II of the Constitution, requires Senate approval, a function of its Advice and Consent authority. Musk has not been nominated to an office, and thus his sweeping power represents yet another instance of executive aggrandizement. Finally, the actions of DOGE violate the appropriations power, vested exclusively in Congress. DOGE’s decision to rescind funds authorized by Congress, including those funds directed to the NEH and then sent on to the South Dakota Humanities Council, represents a rank usurpation of congressional spending power.
For readers concerned about the future of SDHC and the preservation of the Constitution, these three flagrant violations may ignite your passions.
-David Adler