WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Mike Pence’s group on Thursday pushed Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the co-heads of the Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE), to slash authorities spending by eliminating handouts for unlawful migrants and banning DEI funding, amongst different proposals, in line with a memo solely obtained by The Publish.
Advancing American Freedom urged the DOGE bosses to trim the fats off the federal forms and minimize a bunch of pricey spending applications, a number of of which had been imposed by President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ administration — together with provisions from their $740 billion Inflation Discount Act (IRA).
“The American people want less government in their lives and want the government to spend less of their money on wasteful and woke programs,” stated AAF president Tim Chapman.
“Advancing American Freedom wants to help advance the vision of DOGE to improve the lives of everyday Americans,” added Chapman, urging DOGE “to cut through the overwhelming maze of bureaucracy and reassure the American people that their government is accountable to them for how their taxes are being spent.”
The memo requires ending federal profit applications tasked with serving to unlawful immigrants, prohibiting federal funding for applications that push variety, fairness and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and clawing again unspent COVID-19 cash.
It additionally prods Republicans to repeal Democrats’ “Green New Deal” provisions tucked into Democrats’ IRA, halt a whole lot of billions of {dollars} in pupil debt from being canceled by way of applications began by Biden’s Training Division, and get non-defense spending again to pre-COVID ranges.
One other long-held GOP precedence that made the checklist was mandating that every one able-bodied staff be kicked off welfare.
Musk and Ramaswamy went to Washington on Thursday to debate their unprecedented budget-cutting plans with GOP lawmakers, a lot of whom welcomed their concepts.
DOGE, named after the cryptocurrency with a Shiba Inu as its mascot, shall be dedicated to shutting down redundant businesses and firing ineffective authorities workers, Musk and Ramaswamy have each stated.
“We need to make sure we’re spending public money well,” Musk advised reporters on his manner out of a gathering with soon-to-be Senate Majority Chief John Thune (R-SD).
A good portion of congressional Republicans help a smaller federal authorities, however DOGE — which isn’t a authorities division — might probably run into hurdles decreasing budgets if just some dissenting GOPers push again in Congress.
“Two people who know nothing about how the government works pretending they can cut a trillion dollars, both with decent pulpits to preach from, and the ear of an unpredictable president? Disaster,” one senior Republican aide griped to Punchbowl Information.
“The only good thing is that at some point they’ll overpromise and get bounced by [President-elect Donald] Trump. But until then … disaster.”
To date, nonetheless, their concepts are being met publicly with optimistic suggestions from Republican lawmakers — with Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) introducing laws to bolster DOGE’s efforts.
Fox Information’ Martha MacCallum requested Home Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Wednesday if it will be doable to enact Musk’s plan to chop the 428 authorities businesses all the way down to 99.
“We certainly hope so, we want to be willing partners in that,” Johnson replied, pointing to the Supreme Courtroom overturning the 1984 Chevron doctrine earlier this yr as a sign that management is being taken again from ham-handed federal regulators.
“It’s a new thing and this is a new day in Washington, a new day in America. We have long lamented the size and scope of the government — that it has grown too large,” Johnson advised reporters within the hallway Thursday.
“There’s an enormous amount of waste, fraud and abuse.”
Musk has been Trump’s prime confidant at Mar-a-Lago within the weeks following the forty fifth president’s re-election, advising him on transition strikes and weighing in on calls with overseas dignitaries.
The DOGE initiative comes as a pure development of the 2 enterprise titans’ opprobrium for the “swamp” and rooting out authorities extra — simply as Musk did with Twitter, now X, when he eradicated the vast majority of the workers.
“Look, it’s a refreshing idea that we’re going to actually make government work better and make your taxpayers go further,” Home Majority Chief Steve Scalise (R-La.) stated on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” earlier than his Musk-Ramaswamy sitdown.
“There are probably 75% of federal employees here in Washington that still are not showing up to work under the excuse of COVID.”
“The swamp is elitist and bipartisan,” Rep. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.) stated on X forward of his personal assembly with the pair.
“I look forward to hearing from [Elon Musk] and [Vivek Ramaswamy] today on Capitol Hill.”
Disdain for unelected, meddling authorities workers was a centerpiece of Ramaswamy’s personal presidential marketing campaign — and he hopes to proceed in that vein within the second Trump administration.
“I have a passion for tearing down bureaucracy,” Ramaswamy advised The Publish in late October.
“And that’s something I’ve been vocal about over the last two years.”
