WASHINGTON — During the inaugural meeting of the U.S. House DOGE subcommittee, a panel led by Georgia U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republicans and Democrats repeatedly talked past each other on the issue of how to reduce government waste, fraud and abuse.
Republicans accused Democrats of refusing to engage in a good-faith discussion on the issues, saying they were too focused instead on villainizing President Donald Trump and tech mogul Elon Musk, whom the president empowered to serve as the point person for these cost-cutting efforts.
Rep. Brian Jack, R-Peachtree City, said voters elected Trump in part because of his campaign pledge to make government more efficient and cut spending. He said Democrats were too committed to the status quo of a bloated federal bureaucracy.
“I just took a rudimentary count of the Dems’ comments today, and I’ve got 27 mentions of Elon Musk and three mentions of waste,” Jack said. “I think it illuminates and illustrates one of the problems that we’re facing, which is a lack of bipartisan effort to address these critical things.”
In her opening statement, Greene referred to the federal government as a “behemoth” and repeatedly compared the national debt to slavery.
“These interest payments pay our masters who own our debt, and the American people are in debt slavery to everyone who owns our debt,” the Rome Republican said. “Our massively growing debt and interest are the chains and shackles harnessed to every American and their children and every generation to come.”
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Greene credited public anger over the size of the debt with the creation of Musk’s DOGE, or Department of Government Efficiency, effort.
“In this subcommittee, we will fight the war on waste, shoulder to shoulder with President Trump, Elon Musk and the DOGE team,” she said.
Democrats focused mostly on how the Trump administration had operated in its first three weeks back in the White House, saying the access granted to Musk and others were harmful ways to tackle the real issues.
New Mexico Rep. Melanie Stansbury, the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee, said her party is ready to work on curbing waste in the federal government, but she criticized the White House for efforts she described as reckless and illegal.
“Why is the administration so eager to allow Elon Musk and his staff access to proprietary and private information in the treasury payment system? Why are our colleagues across the aisle shielding them as they are clearly breaking the law, and why is the vice president trying to rewrite the U.S. Constitution by tweet and undermine the judiciary?” she said.
Rep. Gerald Connolly, D-Va., said there are ways the federal government could cut waste, such as by cutting down on improper federal payments and more strict enforcement of the tax code. But he cited Trump’s firing of the inspectors general in more than a dozen federal departments and offices as counterproductive.
“So if we want to be serious about it, let’s be serious about it, but the way not to do it is to fire the people charged with the repent of waste project reviews, namely inspectors general,” he said.
Greene said the subcommittee will publish a report “in the coming days” with solutions for curbing spending.
“We aren’t going to wait all the way until the end of this Congress; we’re going to get to work immediately,” she said.
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