Elon Musk, leader of the new Department of Government Efficiency, might in fact be one of the few top-tier appointees who brings a degree of qualification to the task.

In 2020, he apparently had an epiphany that motivated him to sell six of his Los Angeles mansions, worth upward of $100 million. Two years later, he bragged in an interview that he spent many of his nights couch-surfing among friends or employees.

If that isn’t tightening the belt, I don’t know what is. Presumably, his 11 children and their assorted mothers were comfortably ensconced in more stable quarters, not following him from couch to couch. We might also assume fatherly nurture and family values were on hiatus during this period. Reports indicate he has now relocated to Texas to be closer to Space X, his rocket company. And his children.

So Elon appears capable of recognizing and reigning in wanton extravagance. Washington is certainly a fertile field for putting that skill to service. If he is looking for an easy starter project, I might suggest closing Guantanamo Naval Base. If owning six mansions in LA worth $100 million is profligate, Guantanamo is even worse.

In 1898, Cuba was part of the Spanish empire scattered through the Caribbean and Pacific. When a U.S. warship docked in Havana harbor blew up, we blamed Spain, fought the brief Spanish-American war, and won decisively.

Cuba won its independence from Spain, and we assumed territorial control of Guam, the Philippines and Puerto Rico, all parts of Spain’s collapsing empire. Navy warships back then were powered by coal-burning steam engines. Harbors that provided stockpiled coal for refueling were strategically important. It was a bonus if they also served as safe harbors during hurricanes. So the U.S. negotiated with a friendly, and presumably grateful, Cuba a lease in perpetuity for Guantanamo harbor and surrounding lands about the size of metropolitan Holland. We pay Cuba $4,500 a year, and the lease will terminate either by mutual agreement or by the U.S. abandoning the base.

By 1920, oil had replaced coal as the boiler fuel for steam and 25 years later, diesel engines were replacing steam engines. Guantanamo’s strategic importance was waning. The rent was cheap enough, but the cost of maintaining a marginally useless naval base kept climbing. For many years, its greatest value seemed to be poking a finger in the eye of the Castro regime. But Castro is dead and so is our paranoid fear of Communism. Despite ideological differences, China and Vietnam are not only major trading partners but favorite Asian tourist destinations.

Most recently, Guantanamo has been known principally as an off-shore prison for captives in our disastrous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. American courts are ill-equipped to try and punish war captives from the other side of the world, so we just keep them in a high-priced prison with cheap rent on the edge of Cuba. Whatever sense that might have once made has faded fast. Today we spend about $450 million a year to keep Guantanamo operating. It now houses 15 prisoners. Congress has long lacked the hormonal fortitude to call this foolish. You, I, and anyone else who pays taxes know better.

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Our nation spends $1 trillion a year simply paying interest on our skyrocketing national debt. $450 million might seem like chump change to Congress. But as a beloved Illinois senator was credited with saying 60 years ago, “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking big bucks.”

$450,000,000 might be a drop in the bucket, but it’s a start. Find somewhere else to park those 15 “detainees” and turn out the lights in Guantanamo, Elon. The purpose it served 125 years ago has long ended. We’re eager to see whether your Department of Government Efficiency really contributes to Great Again, or is simply more dead-weight bureaucracy bestowing a worthless title in appreciation for political contributions.

Show us what you can do for us, Elon. America waits in hope.

— Community Columnist Dale Wyngarden is a resident of the city of Holland. He can be reached at wyngarden@ameritech.net.