WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) – Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are meeting with Republicans on Capitol Hill for what they call a brainstorming session Thursday.
They are discussing how to carry out their plan to slash government spending under the Department of Government Efficiency also known as DOGE.
Republican lawmakers welcomed their visit.
“This is an important day. It’s the beginning of a journey,” Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson (R-La.) said.
As the heads of President-elect Donald Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency, Musk and Ramaswamy have promised to dismantle the federal government.
They say they want to cut $2 trillion in government spending with methods like firing federal workers, slashing regulations and cutting programs.
“Government is too big. It does too many things and it does almost nothing well,” Johnson said.
Many Republicans are excited about some of the ideas.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) is introducing a bill to start by freezing federal hiring and reforming federal salaries.
“You’ve got to freeze that spending so you can begin to make those reductions to right-size the federal government,” Blackburn said.
Democrats are more hesitant.
“If there’s ways to be more efficient, get bigger bang for the taxpayer’s dollar, we want to do that,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said.
Kaine says he’s open to reasonable cuts but is concerned DOGE will try to slash spending on Medicaid or national defense.
“I’m going to resist efforts that will achieve savings by hurting people,” Kaine said.
Musk and Ramaswamy won’t have the authority to actually make budget cuts themselves.
Instead, DOGE will make recommendations to the Trump administration and lawmakers.
“Of course, it’ll be our job to implement those and achieve the efficiencies that the American people deserve,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said.
