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There's plenty of mixed sentiment about the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) as it heads into the third month of operation, and whether people agree or disagree, some people remain optimistic.
Cohn, a former top executive at Goldman Sachs, served as chief economic adviser during the first Trump administration, where he managed the economic agenda. His professional life has also taken him to plenty of locations where he was called upon to assist with tough decisions, including where to make cuts that impact the bottom line. So he said he understands what Musk is trying to do.
"There's not a business I've ever been involved in that when I walked in, I didn't try and figure out where the money was being wasted, where we couldn't streamline it, where we couldn't get rid of certain things," he said.
DOGE was a controversial proposal from the beginning.
With Tesla ( TSLA ) CEO Elon Musk at the helm, the department set an initial goal of cutting $1 trillion in wasteful government spending and put government entities under its harsh microscope almost immediately. These moves drew praise from some and criticism from others after layoffs and resignations rained down at agencies, only to be clawed back in some cases.
"You're not smart enough day one to take the scalpel out," Cohn said of some of these moves. "You have to take the machete out, [and] you add things back in."
Cohn had other suggestions for where DOGE can look and how to proceed. "I think we need to look holistically at the government and see how many redundant services we have," he said.
Looking at the financial services industry as an example, Cohn noted that the typical bank involved in the trading world can have up to 10 regulators overseeing it on a daily basis. Noting that European and Asian banks have two regulators, he added, "Maybe we need three or four in the United States, but we probably don't need eight."
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) regulates the futures market, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulates the equities market, while both protect consumers, he said. "Then you've got all these consumer protection regulators," he added. "Well, isn't that the SEC's job? Isn't that the CFTC's job? Why do we have multiple regulators doing the same thing?"
He also advised against simply eliminating agencies. Ideally, "let's take a clean sheet of paper and say, look, if we were starting again, what would we look like? How many financial services regulators would we have," he said. "We'd have a lot less than we have today."
Cohn was quick to share that he is not anti-regulation but "pro smart regulation."
"Once you create those regulators, they're going to have to find things that are wrong, and they're going to have to go find people to justify their existence," he said. "I think we'd be much more efficient to do it in one place."
Brian Sozzi fields insight-filled conversations and chats with the biggest names in business and markets on Opening Bid . You can find more episodes on our video hub or watch on your preferred streaming service .
Grace Williams is a writer for Yahoo Finance.