Dear Editor: 

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 are racing from agency to agency to gain access to 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.

They reportedly don’t have expertise in auditing government records. 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 understand what the employees do.

For example, about 300 officials at the agency overseeing America’s nuclear weapons were fired, said lawmakers and CNN. Pres. 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 because it’s so dangerous.

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 the government (a growing amount) 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 Congress the authority to spend, not the White House (or mega-billionaires). Where are the checks and balances?

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 was suggesting cuts to Congress, that would not raise these controversial Constitutional, privacy, national security and oversight questions.

May God protect the United States of America.

-Jean Adams