Tech billionaire Elon Musk and conservative activist Vivek Ramaswamy on Thursday began in-person discussions with congressional Republicans about ways they could slash federal spending and regulations once President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
Trump has tasked Musk and Ramaswamy with issuing recommendations to overhaul the federal budget and bureaucracy — a goal that many Republicans say they agree with, but also one that presidents and Congresses under both parties, as well as divided governments, have repeatedly failed to deliver on.
Musk and Ramaswamy traveled to Capitol Hill for a series of meetings with House and Senate members. It was their first such trip since their appointment by Trump as outside advisers, heading up a commission called the Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE is also the name of an internet meme and a cryptocurrency.
“This is a brainstorming session,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters between meetings. He said the talks are “laying the groundwork” for what lawmakers will do next year.
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They have their work cut out for them.
Trump oversaw an increase in deficits during his first term, even before the Covid-19 pandemic. In his 2024 campaign, he promised to preserve two of the most expensive parts of the budget — Social Security and Medicare — beyond “cutting waste and fraud.” He also called for trillions of dollars in additional tax breaks on tips and overtime, in addition to extending his 2017 tax cuts, which would all add to the debt. And most congressional Republicans are determined to continue increasing military spending, another large slice of the pie.
Politics
Musk, one of the world’s wealthiest people, has potential leverage over congressional Republicans because of his willingness to spend some of his vast fortune on politics, and his recent proximity to Trump. As recently as Sunday, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO has repeatedly warned Republicans to get in line behind Trump’s priorities or else face a primary challenge in 2026.
Great @DOGE meeting with @elonmusk, @VivekGRamaswamy, @SpeakerJohnson, and X-Æ-12 pic.twitter.com/WRXQoz7MGY
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) December 5, 2024
Officially, though, the roles for Musk and Ramaswamy are only advisory. They won’t be in the government and instead will be sending recommendations to the Trump White House, with a deadline of July 4, 2026.Musk’s newfound political influence follows his campaigning for Trump over the summer and fall. His super PAC, America PAC, spent more than $152 million to boost Trump and other Republicans, with much of the money coming from Musk and his friends, according to disclosure reports filed with the Federal Election Commission. Musk also held events for Trump in swing state Pennsylvania and turned X, which he owns, into a megaphone for pro-Trump views.
Ramaswamy, a former biotech executive, ran in the Republican primary for president and lost to Trump before later endorsing him.
Musk has repeatedly faced questions about potential conflicts of interest in advising on the federal budget. SpaceX is a major federal contractor, including with the Defense Department and NASA. And, according to Ramaswamy, one of their potential targets is a $6.6 billion loan to electric vehicle maker Rivian Automotive, a competitor to Tesla. Musk has not said how or if he plans to resolve those conflicts.
One lawmaker, Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said Thursday it was too early to anticipate the priorities for cuts but that loosening regulation by administrative action and through Congress would be a good place to start.
“There are tens of billions of dollars in regulatory relief that are on the table now,” Tillis said.
The U.S. budget was $6.1 trillion in fiscal year 2023, according to the Peterson Foundation.
Still, Tillis called the Thursday conversation an “organizational meeting” — akin to “an engagement meeting I’d have with a client.”
Speaking to reporters in between meetings, Musk reiterated his support for ending tax credits to encourage electric vehicle sales, aligning with Republicans who are eying cuts to clean energy funding.
“I think we should get rid of all credits,” he said in response to a reporter’s question about tax credits for electric vehicles. (Musk has previously said that EV credits help Tesla’s competitors.)
Musk said little else as he walked through the Capitol’s corridors with one of his children. The billionaire was followed so closely by Capitol Hill reporters, he said, “It’s like there’s ambient press.”
Once DOGE is established, Musk and Ramaswamy will have a small office of 10 to 12 staffers under the executive office of the president who will work closely with the Office of Management and Budget, a source involved in the effort told NBC News.
They will also have individuals within each federal department and agency who operate as DOGE liaisons, the source said. Musk and Ramaswamy are seeking individuals with business backgrounds with an interest in “gutting bureaucracy” to fill those roles. “A lot of these folks will be lawyers or have previous experience at that agency,” the source said.
Musk has shown a willingness to consider cuts to some of the federal government’s most popular programs including Social Security. On Monday, he shared a post on X from Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, advocating an overhaul of Social Security into something like individual retirement accounts. “Interesting thread,” Musk wrote.
Thursday morning, Musk met with incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., while Ramaswamy met separately behind closed doors with a group of 15 Senate Republicans for a little over an hour. In the afternoon, they met with a larger group of House and Senate members.
Leaving the meeting with Ramaswamy, senators told NBC News that it was a positive conversation and consisted of an “exchanging of ideas,” as Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., and Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., put it. But they would not divulge specific policies discussed inside.
A source familiar with the private meeting in the afternoon told NBC News that the gathering turned into an “open mic session” featuring “an airing of grievances from House members who want Elon and Vivek to solve all their problems.”
Some Democrats have expressed interest in working with Musk and Ramaswamy to reduce spending and regulations. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., posted on X on Thursday that Congress should model its efforts on a World War II-era committee led by then-Sen. Harry Truman.
“Let’s look to the Truman Committee and ensure Americans get their money’s worth with DOD spending,” he wrote.
While GOP efforts to reduce the size of the federal government and end wasteful spending are not new, senators did not offer much in terms of how this effort would be different or possibly more successful.
“You’re way too ahead,” Tillis said when asked about budget deficits.
Leaving the meeting, Ramaswamy also declined to answer reporters’ questions.
In the 2024 election, Republicans won a 53-vote Senate majority and a paper-thin House majority of 220-215. Those slim margins could give Democrats some influence over the outcome, and some of them mock the new Musk-led effort as a punchline.
“DOGE is not real. Just because someone says there is now a department of so and so does not mean the actual department now exists,” said Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., the ranking member of the Budget Committee.
“Republicans are total hypocrites when it comes to deficit and debt. … Trump added more to the national debt than any president in American history,” Boyle continued. “So I have seen this movie before. I have absolutely no doubt that if Trump is able to ram through a second round of his tax cuts, then it will explode the national debt.”
Veterans of past failed debt-reform efforts, including the Obama-era bipartisan “super committee” of 2011, doubt the DOGE will be more successful unless it’s willing to take on sacred cows.
“If past is prologue, the DOGE faces an uphill climb. It’s not yet clear what authority or reach the DOGE has, but managing the federal budget cannot be done through talking points,” said Zach Mallove, a lobbyist who worked as a policy aide to Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., when she co-chaired the super committee.
Mallove said lawmakers will have to accept some “political pain” for it to be meaningful. “In the end, the math just doesn’t add up: with a $1.7 trillion annual discretionary budget, you cannot cut $2 trillion without tapping into the country’s social safety net.”
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