Many Americans want to cut federal spending. A growing number are asking if the way DOGE is attempting to do that raises risks for individual citizens and our country.

Four concerns that experts raise are competence, cybersecurity, conflicts of interest and, most importantly, the Constitution.

Let’s all pray for our nation.

DOGE members – many of them relatively young, reportedly without expertise in auditing government records – appear to be racing from agency to agency to view our sensitive data in an unprecedented way. 

That includes your personal bank account numbers, Social Security numbers, some classified documents, our student loan data, national security personnel info, and more, according to news reports and lawsuits. 

What exactly are they doing? Elon Musk has not testified before Congress to explain.

Competence. Federal worker firings seem to be carried out by people who don’t fully understand what the employees do. For example, hundreds of officials at the agency overseeing America’s nuclear weapons were fired, said lawmakers and CNN. Then Trump’s team scrambled to rehire them.

Cybersecurity. It’s not normal for anyone to gain access to so much of our sensitive data across the government. Federal rules were intended to limit that. The new workers include a teen fired from an internship for giving his employer’s secret data to a competitor, Bloomberg News found. How were these people vetted? People may not realize how unprecedented cybersecurity experts say this is – and how Musk’s power is growing in highly unusual ways. 

Conflicts. Musk’s companies get billions from our government and work with nations around the globe, including our adversaries.

Constitution. Musk says people voted for reform. A lot has been written, though, about how the Constitution’s separation of powers gives the authority to spend to Congress, not the White House (or mega-billionaires).

Instead of accessing our government secrets, why isn’t DOGE helping Republicans who control Congress review our public spending laws and write the spending bill due by March 14?

If DOGE suggested cuts to Congress, that would not raise these controversial Constitutional, privacy, national security and oversight questions.

Jean Adams

Valdosta