Conservatives worry Congress won't have 'spine' for spending overhaul after DOGE meetings
Republicans have big plans for spending cuts next year, but some GOP lawmakers are doubting Congress can muster the momentum for significant changes.
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, whom President-elect Trump tapped to lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an advisory panel on cutting spending and the national debt, were on Capitol Hill Thursday for a series of meetings with lawmakers on how Congress and the White House can work together to achieve that goal.
And while that advisory panel is chiefly aimed at what executive actions Trump could take, lawmakers are conceding that significant, lasting change must be achieved through legislation. And some Republicans are skeptical they can get there.
"The problem’s in that room," said Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., referring to other GOP lawmakers who met with Musk and Ramaswamy.
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"These guys, you know, they talk real tough," but they did not vote in ways he believed showed they were serious about cutting spending.
"You don’t see a lot of that. Now, when is that going to start? Is it going to start just because Elon and Vivek [address us]?" Burchett asked. "I just worry about us losing steam. … We’ve got to get some guts, and people have got to hold us accountable."
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Retiring Rep. Dan Bishop, R-N.C., told Fox News "a lot of members" stood up to suggest ways to "save money" during Thursday afternoon’s brainstorming session with Republicans and the DOGE duo.
"One would think more of them would have been willing to vote, cast votes on the floor of the House in order to do those things early," Bishop added.
The DOGE discussions have opened up longstanding wounds within the House GOP, whose members spent a significant amount of the 118th Congress battling among themselves over how to navigate government funding and other fiscal issues.
The national debt recently surpassed $36 trillion.
A senior House GOP aide expressed optimism about the new goal but added that Musk and Ramaswamy were "swinging for the fences."
"The hard part is once they find the stuff to cut, I think it’s Congress who has to do the actual cutting, right?" the aide said.
Another senior GOP aide said, "The mission of DOGE is worthy and absolutely necessary, but nothing is going to change. We aren’t going to cut spending like we [have to] to get our fiscal house in order, and we aren’t going to slash waste at any significant level."
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Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, also skeptical, told Republicans at Thursday's meeting they needed to "grow a spine" to actually move meaningful spending cuts.
"I've said to my colleagues, ‘If you can't print money, if, literally, it was banned today, what would you do?’ You would do what you do for your home budget. You would say, 'Well, we can't take a vacation here. I can't get a fancy new car because I need to get braces for my child,'" Roy told WMAL radio host Larry O’Connor.
"We don't ever do that, and, until we do, all of the DOGE waste-cutting in the world won't help. We’ve got to do both. We need the waste-cutting, but we need Congress to grow a spine."
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Some Republicans are skeptical of having Musk and Ramaswamy lead the charge.
"They had no game plan — a wish list that they’re giving to Santa and the American people that will never be even remotely accomplished," one GOP lawmaker, granted anonymity to speak freely, told Fox News Digital of Thursday's meeting.
The GOP lawmaker called DOGE a "magical department that has been erected out of thin air," and pointed out its logo was heavily inspired by a cryptocurrency known as "dogecoin" that Musk has backed.
"They’re going to run into a brick wall called ‘members of Congress who know how to do our job,’" the lawmaker said.