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Tech billionaire Elon Musk and former Republican presidential primary candidate Vivek Ramaswamy head to Capitol Hill on Thursday to present their ideas for President-elect Donald Trump’s “Department of Government Efficiency,” or DOGE.
The new group is expected to recommend drastic cuts to the federal workforce and to slash regulation. To achieve those goals, though, the group will have to work through Congress.
House Speaker Mike Johnson posted on X, Musk’s social media platform, that the pair will discuss “major reform ideas” to “revive the principle of limited government” at their meeting with congressional Republicans.
In social media posts, podcasts, op-eds, books and speeches, Musk and Ramaswamy have sketched out what they have in mind: a 75% reduction in the federal workforce, a $2 trillion cut to federal spending and the elimination of entire agencies such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Despite those major proposals, there are significant hurdles to making a sizable dent in overall spending.
Only 16% of the government’s $6.1 trillion spending in 2023 went to fund non-defense “discretionary” programs like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. And cuts to defense spending, which is popular among lawmakers of all stripes and a boon to Musk’s companies, aren’t likely to find much buy-in.
Almost three-quarters of all federal spending in 2023 was so-called “mandatory spending,” paying for programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
As for the federal workforce, it has remained roughly the same size since the late 1960s.
Growing support from the Hill
While the full details of these policy proposals remain hazy, a growing number of lawmakers have signaled early support for the effort.
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, recently created a Senate DOGE caucus to partner with Musk and Ramaswamy. Rep. Aaron Bean, R-Fla., and Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, lead a similar group in the House of Representatives with around three dozen House members, including a handful of House appropriators.
On Tuesday, Rep. Jared Moskowitz of Florida became the group’s first Democratic member.
“If there are people with legitimate suggestions on how we can improve government efficiency, maybe bring technology to government, figure out where there’s waste and fraud and save the American taxpayer dollars, we should do that,” Moskowitz said on Morning Edition Thursday. “And it shouldn’t be a partisan issue.”