“In the long run, politicians, unfortunately, often try to score political points with grandstanding stunts and chicanery at the expense of others in government. By focusing on the task at hand of improving government, the governor and legislature are slowly making positive changes through the ACES concept. … We will continue to build on the early successes of our Alabama ‘DOGE’ of saving taxpayer money and improving our government efficiencies to better serve the needs of all our Alabama citizens.”
One should never underestimate the speed at which a truly great idea with a good brand will be copied again and again into an oblivion of imitations – nor should one be surprised by the pace at which such counterfeits will be presented as bona fide.
Indeed, the speed at which the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has inspired imitators has been truly breakneck. Of course, ludicrous speed is nothing new for Elon Musk.
As recently recounted by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Musk and his xAI team were able to build the fastest supercomputer on earth in just 19 days, an engineering feat that by conventional commercial standards should have taken four years.
“From the moment of concept to building a massive factory, liquid-cooled, energized, permitted, in the short time that was done. That is superhuman. And as far as I know, there’s only one person in the world who could do that,” Huang told the Bg2Pod.
What they achieved is singular. It’s never been done before. Just to put it in perspective: 100,000 GPUs is easily the fastest supercomputer on the planet as one cluster. It’s a supercomputer that would take normally three years to plan, then they deliver the equipment, then it takes one year to get it all working.
Such is but one example of the exuberant efficiency and revolutionary vision Musk will attempt to bring to the federal government through DOGE.
Whether the Trump White House will actually be willing to move at the speed-of-Musk remains to be seen, but Musk and his co-consul at DOGE, Vivek Ramaswamy, have not shied away from dreaming big about their plans to swiftly make the federal government much smaller.
“I think we’ll try for $2 trillion, I think that’s like the best case outcome,” Musk recently told Stagwell CEO Mark Penn, “But I do think that you kind of have to have some overage. I think if we try for two trillion we have a good shot at getting one.”
The spirit of DOGE is simple – dream big, move fast, and be willing to cut into muscle to cut out the fat – and it is this spirit that has inspired many liberty-loving Alabamians to call for an Alabama DOGE.
For example, see Gerrick Wilkins’ December 2024 opinion piece in 1819 News, “Alabama needs its own Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE),” or check out the Alabama Policy Institute’s own ALDOGE project.
Though I do not expect these well-meaning DOGE imitators in Alabama to move at the speed-of-Musk, they do seem to have at least captured the bona fide spirit of the original idea.
But the same cannot be said of another DOGE imitator in Alabama, the Alabama Commission on the Evaluation of Services (ACES).
First formed in 2019, ACES is the old hipster version of DOGE – like you probably haven’t even heard of them.
“In 2019, we created the Alabama Commission on the Evaluation of Services (ACES), an office dedicated to improving both the effectiveness and efficiency of state government,” writes State Sen. Arthur Orr, who chairs ACES. “Gov. Kay Ivey was a key early supporter and desired to make the effort a joint partnership between the executive and legislative branches. While maintaining a small staff, you will be pleased to know there have been some early successes.”
Orr goes on to describe those supposedly DOGE-like successes from streamlining inefficiencies in the delivery of correctional education to the throttling back of one state-funded K-12 program that apparently had “shortcomings.”
“As with football, blocking and tackling, unfortunately, go ignored,” Orr writes, “but by getting deeply into programs, their costs and delivery, our ACES team is moving the needle of improved outcomes behind the scenes.”
Orr is correct that “blocking and tackling” often go ignored while game-winning touchdowns and championship victories steal the headlines.
Yet, what’s noticeably lacking when it comes to ACES is any clear scoreboard or win/loss record. Where is their highlight reel?
One would think such a successful, data-driven team would be happy to advertise their headline-stealing numbers if they had any.
Since 2019, how much money has ACES saved Alabama taxpayers? $1 million? $10 million? $100 million? $200 million? Bueller?
One would think that number would be front and center on the ACES website or at least mentioned in Sen. Orr’s recent op-ed.
Yet, it’s not.
Instead, we only get a few examples of small administrative changes being slowly studied and sometimes implemented over six years, all wrapped up in a football metaphor.
If I may extend the metaphor, I guess ACES is akin to Vanderbilt’s football program – we may have never won an SEC championship or even had a 10-win season, but did you see how good our blocking and tackling improved last year?
If only Alabamians treated their state government with the same high expectations as their college football!
Upon further review, the ACES concept seems the very opposite of the DOGE spirit – dream small, move slowly, and be careful not to cut too much fat for fear of cutting muscle.
Whereas, DOGE is a revolutionary project meant to move at the speed-of-Musk, ACES moves at the speed of yet another Alabama state commission – and would probably be too conservative for Edmund Burke or even the standards of Chesterton’s fence.
To claim otherwise, to attempt the stunt of rebranding ACES as a bona fide Alabama DOGE, almost verges on chicanery.
Almost.
Luckily, at least to this political malcontent, it landed as comedy instead.
Good one, Sen. Orr.
Joey Clark is a native Alabamian and is currently the host of the radio program News and Views on News Talk 93.1 FM WACV out of Montgomery, AL M-F 12 p.m. - 3 p.m. His column appears every Tuesday in 1819 News. To contact Joey for media or speaking appearances as well as any feedback, please email joeyclarklive@gmail.com. Follow him on X @TheJoeyClark or watch the radio show livestream.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News. To comment, please send an email with your name and contact information to Commentary@1819news.com.
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