Sen. Joni Ernst pitched a proposal to Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to cut $1 trillion in government spending.
The new chair of the Senate Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Caucus has identified about $1 trillion in potential federal spending cuts.
In a
letter sent on Monday to DOGE advisors Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) outlined her “instruction manual” of ways to eliminate government waste.
“With $3 billion of interest being added to our national debt every day, the longer we delay tackling the problem, the further away the finish line gets,” Ernst wrote in the letter. “To give you a head start, here are a trillion dollars’ worth of ideas for trimming the fat and reducing red ink.”
Ernst pointed out that the cost of maintaining and leasing government buildings costs $8 billion
every year.
She noted that the federal workforce still works remotely and “not a single headquarters of a major government agency or department in the nation’s capital is even half full.”
Ernst targeted the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in her blueprint of cost-cutting targets. She cited her
audit of the tax collection agency which revealed that 5,800 employees and contractors owe nearly $50 million themselves.
The lawmaker also called for the DOGE to act as the “Grinch” on the government’s end-of-year “use it or lose it” spending spree which she called “Christmas in September.” The senator said that Sept. 20 every year marks the
deadline for the federal government to spend money left over at the end of a fiscal year.
“In the rush to use it before they lose it, $53 billion was recently spent in a single week! The September spending sprees of the past included impulse purchases on $4.6 million of lobster tail and crab and $2.1 million for games and toys, including nearly $12,000 for a foosball table,” the letter read.
Additionally, Ernst cited billions of dollars of unspent COVID funds for potential savings.
The lawmaker included in her lengthy cost-cutting list United Nations payments and what she described as bogus bonuses and “welfare checks” for politicians with presidential ambitions.
Meanwhile, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) on Monday
pointed out that Musk and Ramaswamy will serve as outside government advisors who will provide recommendations to the cost-cutting panel, but Congress ultimately appropriates federal money.
Khanna further suggested that there could be bipartisan collaboration on the defense budget.
“There has been tremendous reporting on the waste, fraud and abuse in that budget. The Pentagon hasn’t passed an audit, has failed the last six or seven audits,” Khanna
told CNN.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) was chosen to lead a DOGE subcommittee within the House Oversight Committee.
Greene said she “can’t wait” to start working,
adding that the “DOGE subcommittee will expose the waste and bring truth and transparency to the American people.”
Meanwhile, Ernst
wrote on X that she has spent 10 years in the Senate in “a lonely fight” to address excess federal spending, and is now looking forward to working with Musk and Ramaswamy to “eliminate trillions in waste.”
