Opinion | Elon Musk Needs to Teach Our Government How to Lose More Money - The New York Times

Mr. Zoffer served as a special assistant to the president for economic policy in the Biden administration. A newcomer to the byzantine world of congressional appropriations and federal budgeting, Elon Musk has attracted no shortage of skepticism as to whether he can credibly pursue his mandate to improve government efficiency. But there is one kind of federal spending for which Mr. Musk, with his Silicon Valley roots, could offer exactly the perspective we need: the government’s overly conservative yet increasingly critical investment programs. To get a sense of the scope of the problem, let’s start with the fact that it is challenging, if not impossible, to pinpoint how much the U.S. invests — beyond the fact it includes a portion of the roughly $2 trillion our government spends annually on lending programs to support various constituencies. And this figure excludes other types of spending that often serve investment-like objectives, such as grants and research and development. (That’

Mr. Zoffer served as a special assistant to the president for economic policy in the Biden administration. A newcomer to the byzantine world of congressional appropriations and federal budgeting, Elon Musk has attracted no shortage of skepticism as to whether he can credibly pursue his mandate to improve government efficiency. But there is one kind of federal spending for which Mr. Musk, with his Silicon Valley roots, could offer exactly the perspective we need: the government’s overly conservative yet increasingly critical investment programs. To get a sense of the scope of the problem, let’s