DOGE’s Musk, Ramaswamy try to convince Congress to slash spending | Real Time Headlines

Washington – Entrepreneur Musk Ramaswamy and Vivek Ramaswamy have set out an ambitious agenda to cut federal spending with the help of the Department of Government Effectiveness (DOGE), an external advisory board.

But in their first joint visit to Congress on Thursday, the two may also see some constraints on the functioning of the legislative branch from outside influences.

Musk and Ramaswamy walked across Capitol Hill together during a marathon meeting with lawmakers, receiving a warm welcome from Republicans.

Their overall message is also popular: A smaller federal government, lighter regulations and a private-sector approach to the public sector have long been cornerstones of conservative governance.

But there’s also an elephant in the room they visit: an unspoken understanding that Musk’s stated goal of cutting $2 trillion in federal spending is already DOA.

The reason for this comes down to math.

exist FY2023For example, the federal government spent a total of $6.1 trillion, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

Of that $6.1 trillion, about $3.8 trillion was already beyond the scope of the cuts on Day 1 and is legally obligated to go to mandatory spending programs such as Social Security benefits for retired workers, Medicare and veterans’ benefits.

After that, roughly $650 billion Set aside to pay interest on the national debt.

That leaves $1.7 trillion for everything else, so-called discretionary funds. Of that amount, $805 billion is for defense, which is essentially untouchable money. at last, The remainder is divided These include federal departments that perform most of the visible day-to-day work of the government, including Federal Emergency Management Agency, NASA, Customs and Border Protection and other agencies.

Despite the ongoing meetings between Musk and Ramaswamy, Republicans familiar with the government funding process, such as Arkansas Rep. Steve Womack, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, said that while some cuts are likely to be made, But the $2 trillion Musk talked about may just be a budget.

“If you’re going to ignore social safety net programs and not touch them, that means you’re going to be trying to cut hundreds of billions of dollars in discretionary spending” if you want to make massive, Governor-style cuts,” he said Said in an interview with CNBC.

“It’s very difficult to do that without undermining national security,” Womack said.

For members of Congress who must run for re-election every few years, proposing even small cuts or changes to mandatory programs like Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid can be politically dangerous.

Still, some Republicans are willing to consider limited reforms to these programs. Louisiana House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, for example, has said he is open to exploring potential work requirements for Medicaid recipients and calling for stricter verification of Social Security benefits.

“These are things we’ll be looking at as well,” Scalise told reporters after meeting with Musk and Ramaswamy.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, kept expectations low, calling Thursday’s meeting with Musk and Ramaswamy a “brainstorming” session that would come up with some ideas. opportunity, and without the pressure of consensus.

Only if a Republican is elected president Donald Trump With Trump taking office in January and Senate Republicans taking control of their chamber, it’s unclear whether the plan can actually begin to move forward.

Cutting expenses isn’t easy. Johnson’s wide margin of votes means he can afford only a handful of defections from any one bill in the session and still be able to pass the bill on a party-line vote.

Some Republicans have begun to coalesce around a different approach to cutting government costs: requiring federal employees to return to their offices in person five days a week.

“One of the things I’m most excited about is asking people to go to work,” Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn told reporters. “If they don’t, then they can leave voluntarily and we can save a lot of money.”

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, the Senate’s top appropriator, also supports the idea of ​​bringing federal workers back to their offices. “It was great to walk through some of the federal buildings,” she said, “and there were so many empty offices everywhere.”

“If the federal government is serious about changing the way people work, then we have to address redundant buildings and space,” Collins said.

Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst, who leads the newly formed Senate Governor’s Caucus, also highlighted the problem of underutilization of federal office space as employees work remotely. In a new report She made the announcement Thursday during a meeting of the 1st Senate Governor’s Caucus.

“More than $81 million is wasted annually in underutilized government office space alone,” the report found.

However, such findings also highlight how limited the impact changes in federal office space will have on the massive spending cuts Musk is seeking.

Still, the idea is gaining traction among Republicans. Federal back-to-work policies were the most frequently mentioned example of potential cost cutting by Republicans in interviews with CNBC on Capitol Hill this week.

It’s unclear whether federal employees would resign en masse if they were forced to return to the office five days a week, freeing up their current salaries for other uses.

What is clear, however, is that unions representing hundreds of thousands of federal workers across the country are gearing up to fight any efforts to change working conditions for their members.

For the DOGE team, these battles could bring a whole new set of challenges.

Correction: This article has been updated to correct the name of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.