Vivek Ramaswamy has officially stepped down from his role as co-leader of the (not an actual department) Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), leaving Elon Musk as the sole figurehead of the controversial group.

Ramaswamy’s departure marks the first major split within the organization, which had been tasked by former President Donald Trump to identify and eliminate wasteful government spending.

The Verge and Associated Press reported that Ramaswamy, a biotech business owner and 2024 Republican presidential candidate, might run for Ohio governor.

“Vivek Ramaswamy played a critical role in helping us create DOGE,” spokesperson Anna Kelly said. “He intends to run for elected office soon, which requires him to remain outside of DOGE, based on the structure that we announced today.”

DOGE, a private advisory group rather than a formal government department, emerged as part of Trump’s second term agenda to reshape public finance by advising on sweeping cuts to federal spending.

Initially co-led by Musk and Ramaswamy, the group faced early turbulence. CBS News reported internal conflicts, with sources alleging Ramaswamy had been “subtly encouraged to exit” due to friction with DOGE staff and his limited participation.

DOGE’s mandate to streamline public spending raises questions about the long-term impacts of its recommendations. Georgists have compared its goals to earlier populist movements in American public finance, particularly the “single tax movement” inspired by the 19th-century economist and reformer Henry George.

Henry George’s ideas, outlined in his work Progress and Poverty (1879), focused on addressing economic inequality through what became known as the “single tax.”

This approach sought to replace all other taxes with a single levy on the unimproved value of land, capturing economic rent, the unearned wealth generated by land and resource ownership.

George argued that this tax would be both equitable and efficient, as it targeted wealth derived from community development and public investment, rather than labor or productive capital. Unlike DOGE’s emphasis on cutting spending, George’s single tax aimed to fund public goods and services sustainably and without raising costs on workers and their employers.

Under Georgist principles, government revenue would grow proportionally with economic development because public investments in infrastructure, education, and public services naturally increase land values, expanding the tax base in a virtuous cycle.

As DOGE grapples with its leadership crisis and begins its efforts to reshape federal spending, the contrast with the single-tax movement offers a historical lesson in public finance.

Georgists envisioned a government funded by a simplified and fair tax system that inherently limited waste.

While Musk and DOGE aim to streamline government through spending cuts, critics note that such measures risk undermining public services and shifting burdens onto taxpayers lower down the income ladder.

By contrast, the single tax i.e. Georgist framework focused on collecting rent from land and resources, wealth generated by societal progress, to fund a government that serves the public good without discouraging enterprise.

Ramaswamy’s departure signals turbulence for DOGE’s future, but it also highlights enduring questions about the role of government in managing public finance.

The key is not merely to cut costs but to ensure that public revenue systems reflect efficiency as well as fairness. Land value taxation is progressive in targeting the largest owners of land, but it creates no deadweight loss because the value of land already comes from the entire community and public infrastructure, not the work of private individual landlords.

Whether DOGE will adopt any elements of these time-tested principles remains to be seen.