Elon Musk’s mission to cut U.S. federal spending for Donald Trump is winning support from a surprising group of people in Washington: Democrats looking for opportunities to reduce defense spending and cut red tape.
Senior politicians, including Senators Bernie Sanders and John Fetterman, and a growing number of Democratic House members have expressed support for parts of Musk’s administration’s efficiency reforms. That includes a pledge to cut $2 trillion in annual spending.
“Defense contractors have deceived the American people for too long,” Ro Khanna, a California Democrat whose district includes parts of Silicon Valley, told the Financial Times. Khanna said he was “willing to work with [Musk] Controlling Wasteful Spending at the Pentagon”.
The influential congressman’s comments came after Sanders said Musk was “right” to set defense spending targets, sparking debate among Democrats.
“The Pentagon, with an $886 billion budget, just failed its seventh consecutive audit. It lost track of billions of dollars,” said the Vermont senator, who has long campaigned against what he calls corruption in the “military-industrial complex.” wrote recently. He added that only 13 senators voted against a “defense budget filled with waste and fraud” and “that must change.”
Musk, who was tapped to co-lead the newly created Department of Government Effectiveness with Trump, drew the ire of critics on the left by proposing plans to shut down the entire agency and lay off hundreds of thousands of civil servants.
The X, Tesla and SpaceX boss’ rise to the core of Trump’s inner circle, coupled with his support for right-wing causes around the world, has some on the left increasingly worried about his power and skeptical of his political agenda. Skepticism.
But Sanders, an icon of the progressive movement, also appeared to support the billionaire’s complaints about the cost of U.S. health care, albeit from a different perspective. “We waste hundreds of billions of dollars every year on health care administrative expenses, making insurance company CEOs and wealthy shareholders incredibly wealthy,” the senator said.
Fetterman, a Democratic senator from Pennsylvania, recently expressed his admiration for Musk, saying the Tesla boss “changes our economy and our country for the better.” Musk said it was “hard not to like” the senator.
Florida Rep. Jared Moskowitz, who this month became the first Democrat to join the House Governor’s Caucus, said the Department of Homeland Security has “become too big.” Ohio Democratic Representative Greg Landsman, who also joined the group, said you “want to be in the room” to discuss government spending.
Moskowitz attended the first meeting of the Governor’s Caucus on Capitol Hill in mid-December, along with Democrats Steven Horsford and Val Hoyle.
Hoyle, who represents a district in Oregon, defended her decision to join the group, saying “anyone who thinks there’s no opportunity to make government more efficient and effective is not living in the real world.” She said the governorship “is not a partisan issue.”
Horsford, who represents a district in Nevada, said he attended the caucus “to have a seat at the table on streamlining government programs and reducing waste.”
Democrats have also sought to spell out how they differ from Musk’s vision.
Khanna told the Financial Times that he would “strongly oppose any cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or programs such as Medicare, Social Security and veterans’ benefits”. Horsford said he appreciates “Republicans have made it clear [at the caucus meeting] They will not propose cuts in these areas”.
Hoyle said that while she supports “allowing Medicare to negotiate drug pricing or cracking down on defense contractors,” she strongly opposes cuts to programs Americans rely on, including Social Security, the Postal Service and the FAA.
University of Michigan public policy professor Don Moynihan said of Musk’s $2 trillion goal that unless he cuts Social Security, Medicare and Veterans Affairs, “the math doesn’t really add up.” ”. Together they account for about two-thirds of the US $6.5 trillion government budget.
To achieve his goals, Moynihan said, the governor must “pursue not only a significant portion of military spending but also safety net spending.” “There’s no way you’re going to get to $2 trillion without some serious cuts, including to very popular services like veterans’ administration.”
Democratic strategist Julie Roginski questioned the political wisdom of backing Dodge, who would join Musk, another wealthy entrepreneur and “anti-woke” advocate, former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy campaign.
“Two inexperienced billionaires are essentially trying to swing a sledgehammer at the government to fund very popular projects,” she said. “I don’t think Democrats should get anywhere near that.”
