Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong sees the newly proposed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to increase economic freedom in the United States and reduce the size of government back to healthy levels. In a recent post on X, Armstrong highlighted the potential benefits of DOGE, noting how it would reverse the negative effects of incentives that have driven democratic governments to increase in size over time.
Armstrong proposed a constitutional amendment to limit government spending in the referenced post. The Coinbase CEO believes that doing so would provide a temporary cap while maintaining the appropriate incentives to control government spending.
Quoting Milton Friedman, the famous American economist and statistician, Armstrong notes that government could limit its functions to courts, police, and the military. In that way, the government's responsibilities would be to enforce contracts and resolve disputes, maintain domestic peace, and defend the nation.
President-elect Donald Trump recently announced the creation of DOGE as an advisory committee headed by billionaire entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. The new president has made it clear that the committee is being created to cut government spending, leaving analysts and most Americans wondering about the scope of authority Musk and Ramaswamy have to carry out this task.
Hinting at his mission, Ramaswamy said at a recent event that Musk and he are in a position to begin “massively expelling millions of unelected federal employees from the DC bureaucracy.” The appointee’s statement suggests they will streamline the government by eliminating any offices they deem unnecessary in running the new administration.
The creation of DOGE marks one of the early fulfillments of campaign promises by Donald Trump. The president-elect told his supporters that he would cut government spending as part of his economic reform plan.
