The DOGE, the creation of President-elect Donald Trump, is aimed at reducing wasteful government spending and shrinking the national debt which has risen past $36 trillion under President Joe Biden and the Democrats.
DOGE would be chaired by tech and industry billionaire Elon Musk and one-time Trump GOP rival Vivek Ramaswamy, both of whom became Trump allies during the campaign.
Ramaswamy and his team have already met with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) and House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, Fox News reported last week.
“This is, I think, the Manhattan project of our time. Hopefully we are going to take aim at the overgrown fourth branch of government," Ramaswamy said in a video he posted to social media.
Reducing waste is important, but there will be other important functions of DOGE – namely, clearing a path for Congress, men and women duly chosen by American citizens, to lead the country.
“We are going to take aim at the overgrown fourth branch of government and, finally, restore self-governance in America, where the people we elect to run the government once again become the ones who actually run the government," Ramaswamy said. "In the process, we’ll take care of massive cost overruns, massive federal spending, in a way that's really never happened in our generation.”
Raising eyebrows at the reduction talk
It all sounds great to Americans who see at the gas pumps and grocery stores the effects of inflation caused by rampant government spending. But will it work? Can a division led by well-intentioned, non-government types like Musk and Ramaswamy – even with the news president’s backing – co-exist with Congress and get things done?
Congressman Biggs, a guest on Washington Watch Friday, says it can.
“I’m actually very excited about it because the focus is going to be on the fourth branch of government, which is the bureaucracy. As any American knows now, the federal government is so upside-down big that it needs to be made the right size again,” Biggs told show host Jody Hice.
Rep. Comer has created a House Oversight subcommittee that will work with Musk, Ramaswamy and DOGE. Rep. Greene, a hard-right conservative, will serve as chair.
Comer told Fox News Digital that President Trump’s "landslide victory reflects a clear mandate to address inflationary spending that’s driving up the cost of living for hardworking Americans.
"Wasteful government spending must end, and taxpayers deserve to see their money used effectively and efficiently," Comer added.
Greene said the subcommittee will provide "transparency and truth to the American people through hearings."
Biggs explained that DOGE will identify redundancy among government departments, agencies and programs. Then the ball is tossed to Greene’s committee which will conduct hearings and introduce legislation that will “decouple those wasteful programs and agencies from the federal government.”
Greene won’t have a weak stomach when it comes to eliminating government jobs, Biggs said. “She has said that she expects to close agencies and fire people for these kinds of wasteful approaches,” he said.
Meaningful deficit reduction appears to be a realistic goal. Biggs said simply reversing rules and regulations put in place by the Biden administration in the last 12 months would immediately save $1.7 trillion.
What might be on the chopping block?
Trump has spoken often about his desire to eliminate the Department of Education. The Biden administration proposed a $90 billion DOE budget for 2024 and has proposed a 3.9% increase for 2025.
Biggs said the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and certain aspects of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) are among other agencies that could be targeted for elimination.
“There’s also discussion about breaking down the Department of Homeland Security,” Biggs said.
Currently, among the wide-ranging responsibilities of DHS are counter-terrorism, border security, immigration laws, cyber security, emergency preparedness, intelligence and infrastructure security. It oversees the Secret Service, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
“Some Democrats have come up to me privately and told me that they agree with this," the GOP lawmaker revealed. "It is so topsy and misguided or misled. It's so big that you have to pare it down. You have to basically realign and pare some of this stuff down jurisdictionally and with resources and get some of this back to the states where it was always intended to be under the Constitution,” Biggs said.
There are also big reduction gains to be had if DOGE takes on Planned Parenthood, the number-one provider of abortions in the U.S. From 2019-2021, Planned Parenthood received approximately $1.78 billion in federal funding, an average of $592 million per year.
The funding came from Medicaid, Medicare, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) as well as grants, cooperative agreements, and loan forgiveness in the COVID-related Paycheck Protection Program.
What the House could do
The House should be able to take on Planned Parenthood with or without DOGE, according to Biggs.
“Yeah, it’s called the budget – the appropriations bills. This is how the bureaucratic strata has grown every time you do a continuing resolution which keeps funding the same programs and the same levels. Periodically there will be an omnibus that raises all that spending.
“The way you stop it is you actually do your appropriations bills and say, ‘We’re not going to fund Planned Parenthood. We’re not going to fund DEI programs or WOKE programs in the military or anything else,’” Biggs said.
