When President Trump announced he would create a Department of Government Efficiency and ask Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead it, he created a potentially enormous opportunity to rethink and modernize government.

 As Trump said, “Together, these two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies.”

Calling the new department the “Manhattan Project of our time,” the president-elect  pledged to make a smaller, more effective government by July 4, 2026. He called it, “the perfect gift to America on the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.”

Implementing changes comparable to the development of the atomic bomb will be a big challenge. Most presidential commissions gather interesting ideas, issue reports, appear at one or two congressional hearings, and fade away. A commission led by Mssrs. Musk and Ramaswamy may have a different and potentially far bigger impact than the failed commissions of the last four decades.

Because men are successful entrepreneurs, they bring much more change-oriented attitudes toward this assignment. Both have made fortunes getting things done. This project could become the most important rethinking of the federal government in our lifetime.

If Mssrs. Musk and Ramaswamy ignore all the professional bureaucrats and nay-sayers, they could produce a startling report on the government that is possible — rather than a meek report on the bloated, outdated executive branch we have.

Mr. Musk’s development of SpaceX is the perfect model for how they should approach the challenge of rethinking the current federal bureaucracy.

First, Mr. Musk started out with a huge, nearly unbelievable goal: To develop a space transportation system which could enable humanity to create a second planetary home on Mars. He correctly understood that being a one-planet species runs a huge long term risk.

Natural disaster, nuclear war, global pandemics, and other threats could render Earth uninhabitable. Consider that Mr. Musk explained this to potential employees before SpaceX successfully launched a single vehicle.

Second, Mr. Musk did not simply develop a less expensive version of Boeing or Lockheed Martin systems. He recruited a much younger, smaller work force to develop reusable rockets — and then packaged the reusable rockets together into the most powerful rocket ever built (Starship).

Third, Mr. Musk’s passion for frugality reduced the cost of launching satellites by 90 percent. This was the single most deflationary development of the last two decades. In one case, SpaceX launched a mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa for one-tenth of Boeing’s proposed price. Mr. Musk showed a similar passion for cutting waste at his social media company X. The company now runs successfully with at least 6,000 fewer employees.

Fourth, Mr. Musk isn’t afraid to fail and change his approach. SpaceX routinely sets huge goals with short deadlines. On occasion, it fails — sometimes spectacularly with big explosions. His team there then works to quickly troubleshoot and solve problems.

The goal of the Musk-Ramaswamy project should be to develop the modern, effective government and social support systems which artificial intelligence and other breakthroughs make possible. We do not need a commission to incrementally improve our obsolete systems and marginally cut costs.

The Pentagon and public health care systems would be perfect targets. Both grew out of carbon paper, manual typewriters, and filing cabinets. We now have smart phones, tablets, and artificial intelligence.

This project should have a website or app through which every American could contribute ideas and develop a real dialogue. The power of this project must come from engaging the American people. It could develop a dramatically better, more effective, and less expensive system of governance than the one we have inherited.

Unearthing what is wrong and discovering what could be right is the ultimate contribution of this project. Technology could render obsolete huge parts of the current bureaucracies (maybe as much as 40 percent or 60 percent). Congress could then move toward the kind of change we will need to be prosperous, safe, and free over the next half century.

This may seem too daring or bold. As Speaker of the House from 1995 to 1999, I worked with a group of people who believed the impossible was possible. Even though we had to negotiate with a Democratic president, we became the only group in more than 100 years to balance the federal budget for four consecutive years.

Mssrs. Musk and Ramaswamy have a huge opportunity to profoundly reform our government and put America on a path to extraordinary success.