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Trump Administration, Government
Trump Proposes a New Federal Agency
Has he cleared this with President Musk?
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are hard at work identifying ways to reduce government spending by $2 trillion (now $1 trillion, says Mr. Musk). The effort is a top priority of Donald Trump, who has created the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a non-governmental entity.
With Musk and Ramaswamy in mind, I was surprised to see a post by Donald Trump announcing his intention to create a new federal agency, the “External Revenue Service.”
What would the new agency cost? Is it necessary? And most importantly, will Donald Trump’s tariff proposal work?
Donald Trump has suggested that his tariff proposal could raise sufficient revenues to allow for the repeal of personal income taxes. That is unlikely to happen, says Erica York, senior economist and research director at the right-leaning Tax Foundation.
York told CNN:
Imports are a much smaller tax base than taxable income, and there’s no way to…