An interview with Maria Zack, the behind-the-scenes inspiration for DOGE

One big advantage of attending CPAC is the interesting people you meet that you would unlikely meet otherwise. One such person is Maria Zack. She had helped me in my 2020 campaign but had since moved out of state. We bumped into each other on radio row, where most people hang out when not attending an event, and got to talking about what she had been doing.

When Maria volunteered for my campaign, I had no idea of the depth of her experience. Maria has an extensive resume dealing with government from all sides for over 30 years. In 2017, she founded Nations in Action, an organization dedicated, in her own words, to “influencing legislators to end public policies detrimental to families and communities while encouraging them to promote initiatives that celebrate freedom and liberty for every American.”

In 2023, she founded Good Governance Guarantee, which took that idea even further. For that project, Maria developed a formula: “audits, affidavits, and transparency.” The idea was that if a governmental organization failed an audit, it should simply be closed. The interview that follows describes how, in doing so, she directly helped inspire creating the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Elon Musk takes a chain saw to government spending

When Elon took the stage at CPAC Thursday afternoon with Newsmax host Rob Schmitt, Argentinian President Javier Milei came out with a huge chain saw, which he presented to Elon as a gift. Elon then walked around the stage showing it off to widespread cheering and clapping from the audience:

While the chainsaw was both delightful and symbolic, what mattered even more was what Elon had to say. One of his messages regarding DOGE discoveries was the extent to which the legacy media has been funded by our tax dollars. In that regard, Newsmax host Rob Schmitt pointed out that Musk had purchased X for $44 billion dollars, saying, “That’s a lot of money … more than it was probably worth. But there was a message.” Musk responded, “Freedom is priceless,” to widespread applause.

Elon talked about how the Left is always claiming we conservatives are a “threat to democracy.” His answer was pithy and perfect (and I think I got it down accurately): “If you just replaced ‘democracy’ with ‘bureaucracy,’ it makes a lot of sense.”

James Simpson is an economist, businessman, investigative journalist and author. His latest book is Manufactured Crisis: The War to End America. Follow Jim on X & Facebook.