Journalist’s notebook: A DOGE in the fight

Each member of Congress will have a DOGE in the fight.

As DOGE, the fledgling but not yet official “Department of Government Efficiency”. Congress has not voted to create such a department. There has been no presidential executive order. But almost-President-elect Trump advisors Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy lead the company.

“It’s not clear to me exactly what the goal is related to this so-called DOGE initiative,” said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, DN.Y.

Incoming President Trump, Musk and Ramaswamy say the goal is to reduce spending. Maybe as much as $2 trillion in the next two and a half years. A number of congressional Republicans met with Musk and Ramaswamy on Capitol Hill late last week. The message? Tis the season to be frugal.

“Elon and Vivek talked about having a naughty list and a good list for members of Congress and senators and how we vote and how we spend the American people’s money,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R- Ga.

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Republican expectations for DOGE are stratospheric.

“We need to start cutting our budget and cut it soon,” said Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla.

“Every Republican wants to be in the business of reducing fraud, waste and abuse,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.

“We can’t continue to do everything for everyone,” said Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla.

But Republican political aspirations for DOGE and spending cuts could soon collide with legislative reality.

“Not only will it require legal authority to do it, which means it will have to go to jurisdictional committees. But then it has to go to where everything is funded,” said Sen. John Hoeven, RN. “And how can we get enough votes to put it into effect.”

Cuts don’t just magically happen congress. There is no magic wand. The implementation of everything requires votes in the plenary. And Republicans barely control the House.

“It’s clear that the incoming House Republican majority won’t be able to do much without us,” Jeffries said.

House Republicans begin the new Congress in January with a 219-215 lead over Democrats. But that falls to a one-vote margin in late January after Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Florida, leaves to become national security adviser. Rep. Elise Stefanik, RNY, is leaving after the Senate confirms her as UN ambassador. So the Republicans don’t have the votes to go it alone.

Also, many Democrats are not enamored of Elon Musk.

“Elon Musk has largely proven himself to be an efficient liar and a self-serving plutocrat. And so I don’t have high hopes that he will come up with anything other than some pretty awful ideas,” said Rep. Greg Casar, D-Tex. new chairman of the House Progressive Caucus.

moss and Ramaswamy are political icons. But this is not the first ambitious effort to cut substantial federal spending. Some “blue ribbon” commissions lacked the star power of the dynamic duo of Musk and Ramaswamy.

One of the most successful – and successful – efforts to shrink the federal government came in 1993. President Clinton and Vice President Gore promised they were “reinventing government” and planned to turn things around in Washington. His initiative focused not so much on reducing the debt, but on reducing the size and scope of federal influence.

“At the end of six months, we’ll have real results and real proposals to deliver,” Gore said in March 1993. “Write it down. Check back with us. We’ll check back with you. We don’t. We need another report to put on the shelf to collect dust. We need a real action plan.”

In the end, the Clinton-Gore approach cut more than 400,000 federal jobs and reduced the size of 13 of 14 federal departments. But over time, those jobs returned to where they are today. The federal government currently employs about three million workers.

In 2010, the late Senator and Appropriations Committee Chairman Pete Domenici, RN.M., and the late Clinton budget director Alice Rivlin put together a budget plan known as “Domenici-Rivlin” in Washington vernacular. The package was designed to help the US recover from the 2008 recession and curb debt. They tried to address the explosion of health care costs. Lawmakers adopted some components of its recommendations over the years, but the impact was minimal.

In 2011, the US faced a debt ceiling crisis. Congress created a “supercommittee” made up of bipartisan, bicameral lawmakers to come up with a plan to reduce spending, or force a set of mandatory and draconian cuts known as “sequestration.” It would cut about a trillion dollars in federal spending each year. Well, the committee couldn’t reach an agreement. Thus the court became “the committee, formerly known as super.” Automatic sequestration expense cuts are then installed.

President Obama signed an executive order to establish the Bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Accountability and Reform. Former Senate Majority Leader Alan Simpson, R-Wyo., and former Clinton White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles co-chaired the commission. His proposals were known simply as “Simpson-Bowles”. The group recommended a series of cuts, including a reduction in military spending and tax increases, in addition to a gasoline tax. Congress later adopted some individual Simpson-Bowles recommendations. The House even soundly defeated a Simpson-Bowles-inspired budget in 2012.

But what about the reduction in real spending? Expect some lawmakers to try to sidestep DOGE. Debt relief could mean cutting popular programs. On Meet the Press, NBC’s Kristen Welker asked President-elect Trump about his plans for the most expensive government programs: Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

“We are not touching Social but we are making it more efficient. But the people will get what they are getting”, said the next president.

“So right is off the table?” Welker asked.

“And we’re not raising ages or anything like that,” replied Mr. trump

“Off the table?” Welker followed.

“I won’t,” the president-elect said.

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Duties consume more than 60% of all federal spending. And despite what Trump says, multiple Republicans in Congress they have asked to change the retirement age to access the programs. It is believed that this approach would stabilize rights, making them more solvent.

“There is quite a bit of waste, abuse and fraud in Medicare,” said Rep. Mark Alford, R-Mo. “And on the front end of Social Security, I think there’s a way that as people live longer, they retire later, on the cutting edge, we can push the retirement age back a little bit.” Alford said.

Half of all the money Congress appropriates annually goes to the Pentagon. Republicans in Congress want to even increase military funding next year.

Democrats say there isn’t enough money available to cut from other areas to make up the difference.

“You’re not going to be able to extract the kind of savings you need to balance the budget from government efficiency alone,” Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., told Fox.

Still, the GOP says it needs to get serious about spending cuts and not just talk about them.

“You can’t campaign on freedom and limited government and low taxes and low spending and deficit reduction and then not do it,” said Rep. Chip Roy, R-Tex.

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That’s why congressional budget cutters face tough challenges. Voters will watch what lawmakers keep. And what they eliminate. And there could be political consequences for cutting too much. Or not keeping promises.