The American public, ac-cording to the president, was "sick and tired of wasteful spending." So he proposed to "slash federal hiring and reduce the federal workforce" as well as "restrain federal pay." For good measure, he threw in a plan to "remove needless regulations.
" Was this Ronald Reagan in 1981? George W. Bush two decades later? Donald Trump last week? None of the above: It was Jimmy Carter in 1978. Democrats were campaigning for government efficiency back when Elon Musk still had his baby teeth — and part of what they need to do now is get back in touch with their inner DOGE.
Carter's speech was in response to the particulars of the late-1970s inflation crisis. But it also reflected a core part of his political identity. Indeed, some historians say he was excessively focused on eliminating wasteful spending.
In 1977, he identified a "hit list" of wasteful pork-barrel items he wanted eliminated from an appropriations bill, prompting a rare battle between a newly elected president and a congressional majority of his own party. Carter lost and never quite recovered. The next Democratic president, Bill Clinton, was a more skilled politician and rehabilitated the cause as a Democratic issue.
He undertook a sweeping "reinventing government" initiative. Many veterans of the Clinton administration returned to government with Barack Obama and carried forward the reformist zeal. Just a few months after taking office, Obama dedicated one of his weekly radio addresses to the n.
