Speaker Mike Johnson and Marjorie Taylor Greene were brimming with excitement on Thursday as Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, head of the incoming Trump White House “Department of Government Efficiency” initiative, were due to arrive on Capitol Hill.
But they may find that excitement isn’t exactly shared by other members of their party. Many Republicans are not exactly overcome with confidence in the MAGAworld wunderchild pairing’s ability to identify government waste.
Greene, who is set to chair a subcommittee linked to the initiative in the incoming Congress, was touting the beginning of a new campaign to “drain the swamp” ahead of an early afternoon press conference in the Capitol. Quoting conservative columnist Paul Bedard of the Washington Examiner, she tweeted: “President-elect Trump’s effort to drain the swamp will start to take shape on Thursday when the co-leaders of his Department of Government Efficiency meet with congressional leaders and the new chairwoman of the House Oversight Delivering on Government Efficiency subcommittee.”
“It’s DOGE day at the Capitol!” Greene added herself later in the day, quickly followed up by what seemed to be a warning: “This dream can be a reality when the House and Senate fall in line.”
If that was a warning shot, it was aimed across the bow of Johnson just as much as it was targeted at the Senate, where the strongest resistance to prospects such as cutting Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security is likely to come from. Greene’s chairmanship of the subcommittee is seen as a reward for her loyalty to the Speaker (even though she’s made it clear that loyalty has its limits.)
As of yet, lawmakers have little idea of what specific programs will be targeted for cost-cutting by the “DOGE” program. But Greene, in interviews, has claimed that no area of the federal government is safe from the executioner’s axe.
Jared Moskowitz was the first Democrat to join the “DOGE” caucus in the House, though he says he won’t serve on Greene’s subcommittee. He separately told the Washington Post that he will likely disagree with his Republican colleagues, fervently in some cases, but still wanted a “seat at the table”. Greene’s panel will exist under the umbrella of the House Oversight Committee, chaired by James Comer.
“I joined the caucus because that’s where the conversations are going to be had. Why not have a seat at the table?” Moskowitz told the newspaper. “I’m sure they are going to have ideas that I’m going to disagree with. That’s okay. But there are ideas that I have about reforming the government, as well. I don’t think there’s a single American in the country [who] thinks government is perfect, so Democrats shouldn’t fear the conversation.”
DC insider publication Punchbowl separately reports that many Republicans are skeptical of DOGE’s ability to meet an ambitious goal of cutting up to $1tn from the federal budget — especially as Johnson has outlined no path to passing such legislation through a Senate without a filibuster-proof majority.
“Disaster,” one senior GOP aide said of the undertaking, according to Punchbowl. “The only good thing is that at some point they’ll overpromise and get bounced by Trump.”
Others, like Thom Tillis, believe that a possibility exists of reaching a bipartisan compromise with Democrats on cost-cutting measures.
"This is the very beginning of a process that, if we do it right, will be ongoing,” the North Carolina senator said, according to Fox News. “Right now, we are just talking about the art of the possible."
