INTO THE AUTOCRATIC ABYSS:

Deleting Inspectors General Helps Delete Our Democracy

An earlier version of this essay was published February 12 in the Sun Sentinel as part of its “Another Viewpoint” series.

On Inauguration Day crowds cheered as the new President of the United States, seated in an open arena, signed a flurry of Presidential orders. They were oblivious to the destructive chaos that would quickly follow.

Photo by 愚木混株 cdd20 on Unsplash

As a former Assistant Inspector General (AIG) at the Department of State, and a retired U.S. Foreign Service Officer, my mind focused on one singular action: the firing of over 18 seasoned Inspectors General, taxpayer watchdogs, throughout the U.S. Government. This action raised questions as to the real intent behind the (unofficial) creation of a Department of Government Efficiency (or DOGE), led by billionaire Elon Musk, and it's purported purpose to streamline our government and promote efficiency. With their audits, inspections and criminal investigations, the Inspectors General provide immeasurable expertise and experience as to the inner workings of the agencies under their oversight and areas for potential cost-savings.

But in a stroke of the President’s pen, this army of independent experts was wiped away.

The firing of the Inspectors General previewed a plan far beyond a mere power grab. Project 2025 provided ample warning. As a MAGA-controlled U.S. Congress appears willing to cede its Constitutional authority, the looming question is: Where will our fragile democracy land? Somewhere between the darker edges of Project 2025, and the sinister plan of techno-authoritarian blogger Curtis Yarvin (quoted by Vice President Vance in campaign podcasts) to “delete,” government and “RAGE,” Retire All Government Employees?

We now need to confront the unthinkable: Is the uncontrolled Musk factor transforming the MAGA movement into a Make America Go Away pogrom for the key elements of our democracy?

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The firing of our Federal Inspectors General was an early signal of the Administration’s intent and the extent to which the U.S. Congress is willing to cede its Constitutional authority. The post-Watergate Inspectors General Act of 1978 created a unique Constitutional hybrid of Presidential appointees. Serving in the executive branch, the IGs were legally required to report directly to Congress. The law was designed to guarantee their professional independence from the Executive, and to protect them from removal at Presidential whim. Unlike other political appointees, IGs were intended to serve across Administrations as watchdogs for the taxpayer, not as Presidential lapdogs. The required 30 day notice to Congressional oversight committees was designed to provide a period for review and due deliberation of the cause giving rise to any proposed removal.

With expertise and experience in their respective agencies, these Inspectors were well positioned to identify inefficiencies and cost cutting measures in the service of an Administration or DOGE that was truly interested in reducing government spending and protecting taxpayer resources from fraud, waste and abuse.

Under the pretext of efficiency, U.S. taxpayers have lost their most effective and transparent tool against the unchecked costs of corruption. Absent the transparency that IGs would bring to the process, an un-elected billionaire appears to have unchecked access to the most highly confidential information of the U.S. Government, as well as that of his business competitors and Administration opponents. Having made his billions with U.S. Government contracts, Musk is now free of any IG oversight of his own contract expenditures from the multiple U.S. agencies he is busy shutting down. IG audits, inspections and criminal investigations could serve as a powerful and legal base to promote good governance, strengthen contract oversight, and buttress our national interests with streamlined Congressional budgets. Instead, we have a team of unknown and unvetted young techies, cloaked in secrecy, shutting down the U.S. Government by mass email.

We watched on Inauguration Day as tech billionaires cozied up to and replaced elected leaders next to the President. Kitchen cabinets of powerful and wealthy advisors may not be new. What is new is that these billionaires, including several who now (or soon will) head government agencies, will form a Cabinet that has been liberated from these agile teams of capable IG’s for Congressional oversight that has been in place since 1978. Legal constraints on conflicts of interest are now gone.

Rule of Law Bought Out By Plutocrats

Before our eyes, the rule of law has been bought out by the rule of billionaires. With experienced IG oversight deleted, this oligarchy is now free to serve their own interests and maximize earnings with government contracts and generous, self-dealing policies. (Who will know?) At the same time, they work with a pliable Congress that is already drafting legislation to eliminate essential government spending that has sustained millions of hardworking middle-class taxpayers, further eroding the foundations of shared economic prosperity and political stability.

The Rule of Law, the bedrock of our democracy, has long protected people from the excesses of both public and private power, and (by the way) served billionaires well in their accumulation of wealth. This framework has ensured the predictability in the application and enforcement of rules that has enabled technological innovation and the accumulation of wealth unequaled anywhere else on the planet. With the mass dismissal of experienced prosecutors and essential government workers, those who have grown fabulously rich in our country are undermining the Rule of Law, the very foundation of their own success, and of our democracy.

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For over two hundred years, our incomplete and imperfect democracy has nevertheless served as an inspiration for other nations. As an Assistant Inspector General, I worked with countries around the globe to establish ethics standards, transparent contracting practices and anti-corruption programs that would hold public officials accountable. The U.S. Department of State, as the hub for all agencies in our U.S. Missions overseas, has worked for decades to protect U.S. citizens abroad and promote our national interests by standing as a reliable — if imperfect — partner for democracies around the globe. Yet within weeks, the U.S. now reflects precisely what we used to fight against: a nation where rulers serve their own interests and take revenge on the opposition.

In an ironic twist to a week that marked the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Holocaust survivors by heroes from our greatest generation, our country now appears to have dramatically reversed course. The President has antagonized our closest allies with claims to land, infrastructure and minerals in sovereign nations, and threatened tariffs that produce the opposite of the promised cost reductions. His blanket pardon of violent January 6 perpetrators is perhaps the most clear and present threat to our security. With his pardon, the President has formed his own violent militia — a palace guard loyal only to him — that is now freed of any legal constraints, armed and ready for revenge. Despite previous convictions for plans to attack FBI field offices and assassinations, these U.S. Capitol attackers are posting on X to ask fellow defendants to name their prosecutors, judges and jail guards.

Our parents and grandparents risked their lives for something far better. With a MAGA-controlled U.S. Congress ceding its Constitutional authority, the fate for our fragile democracy depends squarely on us. How will we, the People, each of us the inheritors of a democracy from the greatest generation, respond?