Five former U.S. Secretaries of the Treasury are raising alarm about the unprecedented and unlawful changes made by the Trump administration and the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to the system of payments for the entire federal government of the United States.
Former Secretaries Robert E. Rubin, Lawrence H. Summers, Timothy F. Geithner, Jacob J. Lew, and Janet L. Yellen have published a collective opinion piece in The New York Times, stating: “We take the extraordinary step of writing this piece because we are alarmed about the risks of arbitrary and capricious political control of federal payments, which would be unlawful and corrosive to our democracy.”
They emphasize that “A key component of the rule of law is the executive branch’s commitment to respect Congress’s power of the purse: The legislative branch has the sole authority to pass laws that determine where and how federal dollars should be spent.”
The former Secretaries explain that “The role of the Treasury Department — and of the executive branch more broadly — is not to make determinations about which promises of federal funding made by Congress it will keep, and which it will not. As Justice Brett Kavanaugh of the Supreme Court previously wrote, ‘Even the president does not have unilateral authority to refuse to spend the funds.’ Chief Justice John Roberts agrees: He wrote that ‘no area seems more clearly the province of Congress than the power of the purse.'”
The payment system managed by the U.S. Department of the Treasury affect millions of American citizens directly. “Many people and entities depend on Treasury’s faithful disbursement of federal funds: Social Security checks arrive each month. Veterans receive their benefits. Medicare providers are reimbursed. Federal workers, members of the military and businesses that provide goods and services to the government are all paid on time and in full. Holders of outstanding federal debt receive interest payments.” All citizens should be concerned about the unprecedented changes in the payment systems of the U.S. federal government.
Unfortunately, this statement could have been stronger if some former Secretaries of the Treasury who had served in Republican administrations had joined the statement.
A federal judge has temporarily blocked DOGE from accessing the Treasury payment system. Nonetheless, the United States has clearly entered a constitutional crisis.
In addition, DOGE officials may have already committed an illegal breach of federal data on all American citizen’s private data held in government payment systems. “Bruce Schneier, a cybersecurity expert at Harvard and the author of a series of books on security vulnerabilities, including Click Here to Kill Everybody, called the entry of Mr. Musk’s force ‘the most consequential security breach’ in American history,” according to the New York Times.
We will see whether federal judges will be able to act effectively to preserve fundamental constitutional provisions and processes.
Constitutional lawyers, political scientists, legal historians, historians of the United States, and historians of state development are monitoring the situation.
Heather Cox Richardson, Professor of History (Boston College), has analyzed the illegal nature of the DOGE maneuvers, explaining that “Billionaire Elon Musk’s team yesterday took control of the Treasury’s payment system, thus essentially gaining access to the checkbook with which the United States handles about $6 trillion annually and to all the financial information of Americans and American businesses with it. Apparently, it did not stop there.”
Timothy Snyder, Professor of History (Yale University), argues that “the ongoing actions by Musk and his followers are a coup because the individuals seizing power have no right to it. Elon Musk was elected to no office and there is no office that would give him the authority to do what he is doing. It is all illegal. It is also a coup in its intended effects: to undo democratic practice and violate human rights.” Snyder emphasizes that “in gaining data about us all, Musk has trampled on any notion of privacy and dignity, as well as on the explicit and implicit agreements made with our government when we pay our taxes or our student loans. And the possession of that data enables blackmail and further crimes. In gaining the ability to stop payments by the Department of the Treasury, Musk would also make democracy meaningless. We vote for representatives in Congress, who pass laws that determine how our tax money is spent. If Musk has the power to halt this process at the level of payment, he can make laws meaningless. Which means, in turn, that Congress is meaningless, and our votes are meaningless, as is our citizenship.”
Seth Masket, Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center on American Politics (University of Denver) observes that “There are many disturbing aspects of this. But perhaps the most fundamental is that Elon Musk is not a federal employee, nor has he been appointed by the President nor approved by the Senate to have any leadership role in government. The ‘Department of Government Efficiency,’ announced by Trump in a January 20th executive order, is not truly any sort of government department or agency, and even the executive order uses quotes in the title. It’s perfectly fine to have a marketing gimmick like this, but DOGE does not have power over established government agencies, and Musk has no role in government. It does not matter that he is an ally of the President. Musk is a private citizen taking control of established government offices. That is not efficiency; that is a coup.”
I will update this post as additional historians and social scientists publish analyses.
The New York Times published the opinion piece by the former Secretaries of the Treasury. The Associated Press (AP) reports on the federal judge’s blocking of DOGE. The New York Times reports on privacy issues and the security breach.
Heather Cox Richardson’s analysis is posted on Letters from an American on Substack. Timothy Snyder’s analysis is at Thinking About… on Substack.
Brian Sandberg: Historical Perspectives 