Governors have always made political hay out of slashing waste or taming bureaucracy, but DOGE has, in some ways, raised the stakes for them to show that they are zealously committed to cutting costs. Many drive home the point that they have always been focused on cutting government, even if they’re not conducting mass layoffs.
“I like to say we were doing DOGE before DOGE was a thing,” Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said in announcing her own task force in January.
The state initiatives have a markedly different character than Trump’s slash-and-burn approach, symbolized by Musk’s chainsaw-brandishing appearance at a Conservative Political Action Committee appearance in February.
Governors are tending to entrust their DOGE bureaus to loyalists, rather than independent auditors, and are often employing what could be yearslong processes to consolidate procurement, modernize information technology systems, introduce AI tools, repeal regulations or reduce car fleets, office leases or worker headcounts through attrition.
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