Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy were on Capitol Hill yesterday, meeting with Republicans in both chambers of Congress.
Musk and Ramaswamy, after being nominated by President-elect Donald Trump to lead the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), will focus on cutting both spending and regulations.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk (R), co-chair of the newly announced Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), carries his son on his shoulders at the U.S. Capitol following a meeting with businessman Vivek Ramaswamy (L), co-chair of the newly announced Department of Government Efficiency, Rep. Kat Cammack (C), and other members of the U.S. Congress in Washington on Dec. 5, 2024. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
DOGE is technically only an advisory board, meaning that it will have limited authority on its own. Given Congress’s control of the federal purse strings, a good relationship with lawmakers will likely be essential to Musk and Ramaswamy carrying out their mandate to substantially reform government finance.
During the visit, Musk attended meetings with the two most powerful Republicans in Congress: House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.).
At about 2 p.m. EDT, Musk and Ramaswamy met with Johnson and several other GOP lawmakers from both chambers of Congress.
“This is an important day; it’s the beginning of a journey,” Johnson told reporters ahead of the meeting. “We have long lamented the size and scope of the government, that it has grown too large.
“Government ... does too many things, and it does almost nothing well.”
Johnson noted his support for the idea of the DOGE, which he said would help the government become “more responsive ... more efficient, and ... leaner.”
Following the closed-door session, Johnson said it had been a “very productive meeting with Republicans from the Senate and House today.”
He said he didn’t expect Musk or Ramaswamy to talk publicly today.
“We’re still early in this process,” Johnson said.
Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.), head of the Main Street Caucus, told The Epoch Times when leaving the meeting that Musk and Ramaswamy are “so excited to make their country stronger.”
He said that the meeting had “a fun, collaborative atmosphere,” with Musk and Ramaswamy acknowledging that many Republicans in the room had been working on cost-cutting for decades. Republicans offered an array of possible cost-cutting measures that the two should look into.
Following the meeting, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) told The Epoch Times that there were two hot-button issues that Musk and Ramaswamy “didn’t touch,” including the primary federal benefit programs—Medicare and Social Security—and the federal workforce.
The federal workforce has been a target for Musk and Ramaswamy, with the latter often saying that cutting the size of the federal bureaucracy would be the quickest and easiest way to cut government spending.
Earlier the same morning, Musk, accompanied by his toddler-age son, also met with Thune but largely avoided fielding questions from the press.
He eventually responded briefly to a question on whether he would support cuts to defense spending.
“I think we just need to make sure we spend the public’s money well,” Musk said.
He has expressed openness to defense cuts, telling progressive political commentator Cenk Uygur he could offer suggestions to reduce the size of the Pentagon’s budget. Defense cuts would represent a divergence from traditional Republican orthodoxy, which has historically supported significant defense spending while cutting other areas of the budget.
Musk and Ramaswamy have made clear what they hope for from the novel advisory committee, which is likely to shape federal finances over the coming years without wielding formal power.
In a Nov. 20 op-ed for The Wall Street Journal, Musk and Ramaswamy wrote that the DOGE will emphasize “regulatory rescissions, administrative reductions and cost savings” and “focus particularly on driving change through executive action based on existing legislation rather than by passing new laws.”
The DOGE will need the assistance of allied bodies being created in the House and Senate to identify and implement reforms and cost-cutting measures.
In the House, a subcommittee on the DOGE will be led by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).
“We will identify and investigate the waste, corruption, and absolutely useless parts of our federal government,” Greene told Fox News.
In the upper chamber, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) will lead the DOGE caucus. Ernst has made suggestions that could cut up to $1 trillion from the budget.
BOOKMARKS
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—Stacy Robinson
