Rep. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/mike-johnson" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mike Johnson</a> (R-LA) revealed three commitments on Friday ahead of the first ballot for House speaker, a role he is trying to win for another session of Congress.
The announcement came as Johnson, who is endorsed by <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a>, hoped to rally enough support within the Republican caucus to win the gavel. He mentioned Trump&#8217;s new <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/department-of-government-efficiency-doge" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)</a>, which will be led by tech entrepreneurs <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/elon-musk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Elon Musk</a> and Vivek Ramaswamy.
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The American people have demanded an end to the status quo, and a return to fiscal sanity. That’s why the citizens of our great country gave President Trump the White House and Republican control of both chambers of Congress. If we don’t follow through on our campaign promise for…
&mdash; Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) <a href="https://twitter.com/SpeakerJohnson/status/1875230086611272150?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 3, 2025</a></blockquote>
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In a post to X, Johnson vowed to:
<blockquote>&#8220;1. Create a working group comprised of independent experts – not corrupted by lobbyists and special interests – to work with DOGE and our committees on implementing recommended government and spending reforms to protect the American taxpayer.
2. Task that working group with reviewing existing audits of federal agencies and entities created by Congress – and issuing a report to my office for public release.
3. Request House committees undertake aggressive authorizations and appropriations reviews, including providing additional resources where needed, to expose irresponsible or illegal practices and hold agencies/individuals accountable that have weaponized government against the American people.&#8221;</blockquote>
Johnson alluded to the 2024 election, during which the Republicans narrowly maintained control of the House and won back the Senate as well as the White House.
He said:
<blockquote>&#8220;The American people have demanded an end to the status quo, and a return to fiscal sanity. That’s why the citizens of our great country gave President Trump the White House and Republican control of both chambers of Congress. If we don’t follow through on our campaign promise for fiscal responsibility, we don’t deserve to hold power. The national debt is a grave threat to America’s economic and national security – and no issue exemplifies the Congress’ failures more.
Republicans have a real opportunity in the next two years to make meaningful spending reforms to eliminate trillions in waste, fraud, and abuse, and end the weaponization of government. Along with advancing President Trump’s America First agenda, I will lead the House Republicans to reduce the size and scope of the federal government, hold the bureaucracy accountable, and move the United States to a more sustainable fiscal trajectory.&#8221;</blockquote>
He concluded with:
<blockquote>&#8220;If we want to restore fiscal responsibility, we must start by being transparent about the dollars that are spent, address the issues we find, and then hold those accountable who have misspent funds. Republicans have a mandate to implement the America First Agenda, and as Speaker, this will be my priority.&#8221;</blockquote>

Speaker Mike Johnson

Mike Johnson Reveals 3 Commitments Ahead Of Speaker Vote

Congress

Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)

Elon Musk

House Speaker

Mike Johnson

U.S.

U.S. House of Representatives

As we prepare to enter the new year, we&#8217;re taking you back to some of The Daily Wire&#8217;s best reporting from 2024. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/transgender-monkeys-barbie-fraud-heres-some-of-the-government-waste-doge-could-target" target="_blank" rel="noopener">This article</a> was originally published on November 16.
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have their work cut out for them.
The pair is heading up the meme-worthy Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), part of President-elect Donald Trump’s effort to slash the federal bureaucracy and runaway spending.
Both entrepreneurs have said they’ll take an aggressive approach with the project, and there is no shortage of places they could start.
The government spends $6.75 trillion a year. Already this year, federal spending has <a href="https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/americas-finance-guide/federal-spending/#:~:text=The%20federal%20government%20spends%20money,)%2C%20resulting%20in%20a%20deficit." target="_blank" rel="noopener">increased</a> by $114 billion. Within that massive amount is a seemingly never-ending list of eyebrow-raising expenditures.
Around $900 billion in wasted taxpayer dollars were <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/barbie-fraud-meth-monkeys-rand-pauls-annual-festivus-report-shows-900-billion-in-government-waste" target="_blank" rel="noopener">counted</a> last year in Senator Rand Paul’s (R-KY) “Festivus Report,” his annual tally of government waste that highlights glaring and often humorous examples.
Among the bigger expenses, in fiscal year 2023, the Treasury spent $659 billion on just the interest on the national debt, much of that borrowed from China, the report noted.
The Small Business Administration (SBA) spent $200 million on pandemic support to “small business” artists that ended up including big names like Usher, Nickelback, Post Malone, Chris Brown, Smashing Pumpkins, and Lil Wayne, the report said.
Also, fraudsters used the faces of Barbie dolls as profile pictures to apply for the SBA’s pandemic Paycheck Protection Program, and the program “carelessly approved” the fraudsters and sent them money, the report said.
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Another money pit was multiple frivolous National Institutes of Health (NIH) studies involving monkeys.
The NIH paid a local company $33.2 million to care for about 3,000 monkeys on a South Carolina island before they are sent to research labs around the country, the report said.
The NIH also approved funding for researchers to study the sleep habits of monkeys who were given meth in the morning, according to the report.
Another monkey example involved a study focusing on trans-identifying men and HIV. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) spent more than $477,000 on the <a href="https://reporter.nih.gov/search/_yAOVXcZU0aslyTAXPTPVQ/project-details/10307630" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study</a>, which gave male monkeys female hormones to examine how cross-sex hormones might affect the immune systems of trans-identifying men when it comes to HIV.
In another outlandish example, the NIH approved a grant to study Russian cats walking on a treadmill, the report said.
The NIH also funded a $3.8 million study on “COVID-19 misinformation exposure on social media among Black and Rural communities,” the report said.
The U.S. also spent taxpayer dollars boosting tourism in Egypt. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) approved $6 million for this purpose, according to the report.
The Biden administration spent a whopping $236 billion on “improper payments” — payments made to the wrong person, in the wrong amount or for the wrong reason, the report said.
The Department of Agriculture spent taxpayer dollars on “cutting- edge” research that measured the rectal temperatures of 16 dogs and found that their fur color did not affect their body temperatures after a hot summer walk, the report said.
On the military side, the Department of Defense destroyed more than $169 million of military equipment simply by leaving it outside, the report said. The Air Force also massively overpaid for soap dispensers, spending $149,072 more than it had to, according to a Defense Department inspector general report.
Many floors of office space sit empty in federal government buildings, a March report <a href="https://perry.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=402694#:~:text=Federal%20government%20agencies%20are%20using,mountain%20of%20unused%20office%20space." target="_blank" rel="noopener">found</a>. Agencies use just 12% of the office space at their headquarters on average.
At one point, Agriculture Department employees <a href="https://www.starnewsonline.com/story/news/2003/07/12/audit-shows-misuse-of-agriculture-credit-cards/30518533007/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">used</a> their government credit cards to pay for things like cars, concert tickets, lingerie, tattoos, and bartender school.
These are just a few examples of the government throwing taxpayer dollars at things that would make many American jaws drop.

Transgender Monkeys And Barbie Fraud: Here’s Some Of The Government Waste DOGE Could Target

Trump Administration

Vivek Ramaswamy

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has aims worthy of its mastermind, but plans for the government-slashing commission outlined so far have raised doubts about the project’s efficacy.
Elon Musk, the wealthiest man in the world, originally suggested <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/heres-how-elon-musks-department-of-government-efficiency-will-work" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DOGE</a> during a wide-ranging conversation with President-elect Donald Trump on an X space. With Trump to take office next month, he has tasked Musk alongside entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy with heading DOGE and crafting a report for ways to reduce government size and spending by July 4, 2026.
The DOGE will be set up as an outside adviser group working closely with the White House to identify inefficiency in the federal government and recommend fixes, primarily through cuts, repeals, and reorganization. Musk has set an ambitious goal: cutting federal spending by $2 trillion, roughly a quarter of the federal budget, in addition to major reductions in regulations.
The project has generated excitement among conservatives who have long called for drastic action on the expanding size of government. Some supporters of Musk and Ramaswamy’s goals for the project are nonetheless skeptical that their strategy will create meaningful and lasting savings or efficiency.
“I’ve spent two decades thinking and writing about the administrative state and how I think it presents an enormous constitutional problem,” Hillsdale College politics professor Joseph Postell told The Daily Wire. “The fact that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are talking about the things that I&#8217;ve been talking to my students about for 10 or 20 years, I&#8217;m thrilled about this.”
“I&#8217;m coming from a perspective of somebody who&#8217;s highly sympathetic to what they want to do, but who doesn&#8217;t want to see them waste their opportunity,” he added.
Musk and Ramaswamy in an op-ed in <a href="https://federalnewsnetwork.com/commentary/2023/05/opening-up-federal-contracting-jobs-for-more-americans/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Wall Street Journal</a> in November outlined DOGE’s approach.
“The two of us will advise DOGE at every step to pursue three major kinds of reform: regulatory rescissions, administrative reductions and cost savings. We will focus particularly on driving change through executive action based on existing legislation rather than by passing new laws,” they wrote.
But for their recommendations to turn into lasting realities, Congress must be involved, according to Postell. And working with Congress, DOGE has the opportunity to rewrite the most expansive laws passed by Congress that have effectively given bureaucrats wide-ranging authority to regulate Americans&#8217; lives.
“I think you need laws passed by Congress that restructure the administrative state and sort of revise the authorities granted to it,” Postell said. “First and foremost, it would be great to have an enormous reform of the Administrative Procedure Act where we very clearly state what agencies can do, what they can&#8217;t do, and how they have to go about doing what it is that they do.”
Postell cited reforming laws such as the Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act, as well. Reforming major legislation would limit its scope while, in effect, repealing massive swaths of regulations crafted under the prior laws.
As the project stands, however, Musk and Ramaswamy seem to prefer executive action rather than working with allies in Congress to battle against an expansive bureaucratic regime. Here’s a breakdown of the DOGE plan to reform the federal government:
<h3>Spending</h3>
Musk has said he can cut the annual federal budget by $2 trillion. Asked about the odds of DOGE being able to accomplish that, Postell placed the likelihood at “less than a percent.”
Part of the problem lies in what DOGE can realistically recommend cuts to. Major entitlements such as Medicaid and Social Security, which Trump has campaigned against cutting, make up 46% of the <a href="https://www.cato.org/blog/where-did-tax-dollars-go-federal-budget-breakdown">budget</a>. National defense, unlikely to be cut under Trump, is another 12%. Interest on the national debt is another 8%.
As the options for cuts begin to narrow down, Musk’s $2 trillion target looks increasingly over-optimistic. Musk and Ramaswamy could recommend <a href="https://www.usaspending.gov/explorer/agency#:~:text=You%20are%20viewing%20FY%202024,below%20to%20start%20your%20exploration.&amp;text=Department%20of%20Health%20and%20Human,0...&amp;text=Unreported%20Data*:%20Unreported%20amounts,how%20you%20use%20the%20data!" target="_blank" rel="noopener">gutting</a> the departments of Agriculture, Education, and Transportation and not account for half of the goal.
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Outside of entitlements and the military, Trump’s administration could still make significant cuts, if not enough to meet Musk’s goal, according to Postell. But of the coalition that put Trump in the White House, only a small portion of that is dedicated to slashing spending, presenting DOGE with a problem of lack of political support for its mission.
“It actually kind of reflects a little bit more of the older Republican party, more of the Reagan side of the Republican party, which was really focused on shrinking government,” Postell said. “Part of what’s made Trump so successful is that he’s moved away from that concept – that kind of conservative, slashing government approach.”
<h3>Regulation</h3>
In its aim to cut regulation and free the American economy from onerous or duplicitous rules, Musk and Ramaswamy cited two Supreme Court rulings they say will provide the basis for their crusade against red tape: West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency decided in 2022 and Loper Bright v. Raimondo decided in 2024.
In the EPA case, the court decided the major questions doctrine, ruling that government bureaucrats cannot make regulations over “major” policy areas without explicit approval from Congress. In Raimondo, the court overturned the Chevron doctrine, meaning that courts no longer must defer to bureaucratic interpretations of Congressionally-approved laws and rules.
“Together, these cases suggest that a plethora of current federal regulations exceed the authority Congress has granted under the law,” Musk and Ramaswamy wrote in WSJ.
It’s doubtful whether those cases will work for DOGE the way Musk and Ramaswamy predict. As far as West Virginia may be concerned, it’s unclear how many regulations could be affected. 
“A lot of the existing rules really have already survived that kind of scrutiny,” Postell said. “So, I&#8217;m not sure how this authorizes a retroactive look back.”
Raimondo may actually cause more headaches for DOGE than Chevron would have. Under Chevron, the Trump administration could use the ruling to assert its own narrow interpretation of a law and roll back regulations. Under Raimondo, courts have authority to interpret laws anew.
“Now, there&#8217;s actually not going to be deference given to the Trump administration when, you know, Greenpeace or the NRDC inevitably sues the EPA over that,” Postell said. “In a strange way, the death of Chevron is going to be a problem for the Trump administration&#8217;s regulatory reform effort. It’s not a tool in their toolbox, it’s actually a tool that’s going to be used against them.”
<h3>Bureaucracy</h3>
Within the sprawling federal bureaucracy, there is undoubtedly much fat that can be cut while maintaining the government’s current level of function. Toward that end, Ramaswamy has suggested some policies that will likely provide substantial results, such as requiring all federal employees to work in office five days a week where appropriate. A recent survey <a href="https://federalnewsnetwork.com/commentary/2023/05/opening-up-federal-contracting-jobs-for-more-americans/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">found</a> that just 6% of bureaucrats currently hold that schedule.
That said, reductions in the federal workforce is arguably one of the least impactful of DOGE’s aims. Without the cuts to regulations and federal spending, reductions in the federal workforce would result in very little worthwhile change.
“A lot of people don&#8217;t really want governmental efficiency,” Postell said. “You know, tyranny is not easier to swallow simply because it’s efficient.”
While the extent of DOGE’s recommendations for cuts to the federal bureaucracy have yet to be seen, deep cuts could result in a different set of problems if government work is shifted from bureaucrats to private contractors.
Private contractors already make up the majority of the federal government’s workforce. According to one <a href="https://federalnewsnetwork.com/commentary/2023/05/opening-up-federal-contracting-jobs-for-more-americans/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">estimate</a>, the number of federal contractors nearly doubles the number of federal employees: 3.7 million contractors to 2 million employees. While a smaller federal footprint would generally be positive, if that reduction resulted in more duties turned over to private contractors, the benefits are more questionable, according to Postell.
“If it starts to move towards a more privatized government, you could have serious concerns that you&#8217;ve actually made a problem worse because that&#8217;s a less accountable government, maybe, even than one where you know which department and which employees are behind whatever is happening,” Postell said.

TOPSHOT-US-GOVERNMENT-POLITICS-MUSK

Breaking Down DOGE: What To Expect From Musk’s Grand Government Overhaul Project

Donald Trump

Federal Government

Hillsdale College

Medicaid

Medicare

National Debt

On Monday, Sen. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/rand-paul" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rand Paul</a> (R-KY) released the latest edition of his annual <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/barbie-fraud-meth-monkeys-rand-pauls-annual-festivus-report-shows-900-billion-in-government-waste" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&#8220;Festivus Report,&#8221;</a> pitching it this year as being not just a precursor for the incoming <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/department-of-government-efficiency-doge" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)</a>, but also a useful guide for anyone looking to cut down on federal spending.
The <a href="https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/FESTIVUS-REPORT-2024.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2024 report</a> highlights more than $1 trillion of &#8220;government waste,&#8221; including a Florida man stealing $8 million in COVID-19 relief funds and using the money to buy an island and more, &#8220;ice-skating drag queens,&#8221; a $12 million Las Vegas pickleball complex, $4,840,082 on Ukrainian influencers, $32,596.12 for breakdancing, and the U.S. Navy being &#8220;set to waste almost $90 billion on ineffective Navy vessels.&#8221;
The report lists $288,563 spent to &#8220;ensure&#8221; bird-watching groups have safe spaces aka &#8220;Affinity Groups.&#8221; The State Department also allocated $330,000 to fund censorship of non-liberal and conservative media, and $419,470 spent to &#8220;determine if lonely rats seek cocaine more than happy rats.&#8221; The Department of Energy is deploying $15.5 billion to &#8220;push Americans toward electric vehicles they don&#8217;t want,&#8221; and much more.
&#8220;Last Festivus, we bemoaned the national debt nearing $34 trillion,&#8221; Paul wrote. &#8220;In just a year, Washington’s career politicians and bureaucrats have managed to push it beyond $36 trillion — unsurprisingly, with hardly a second thought.&#8221;
Paul blamed &#8220;everybody&#8221; for the nation&#8217;s &#8220;crushing national debt,&#8221; but acknowledged that help in battling government waste is on the way in the form of DOGE, which is set to be led by Tech executive <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/elon-musk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Elon </a>Musk and biotech entrepreneur <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/vivek-ramaswamy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Vivek Ramaswamy</a> under President-elect <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a>&#8216;s second administration.
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&#8220;No matter how much money the government has wasted, politicians keep demanding even more,&#8221; Paul wrote. &#8220;As always, taking the path to fiscal responsibility is often a lonely journey, but I’ve been fighting government waste like DOGE before DOGE was cool. And I will continue my fight against government waste this holiday season.&#8221;
In a thread posted to X, Paul <a href="https://x.com/RandPaul/status/1871214884458742219" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shared</a> some of his &#8220;favorites&#8221; from the report, tagging Musk, Ramaswamy, and Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), who is <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/what-doge-could-cut-1200-coffee-cups-covid-clawbacks-and-3-cent-pennies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">chair of the Senate DOGE Caucus</a>.
After making a quip about Ernst&#8217;s voting record on spending bills, Paul <a href="https://x.com/RandPaul/status/1871222534852743173" target="_blank" rel="noopener">added</a>, &#8220;One thing that people should know, I tell jokes here, in case you weren’t here for other years. I welcome [Ernst] to [DOGE], along with anyone else old or new to the massive problems our spending and debt are causing.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Here are some of my favorites from this report, soon to become yours, <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ElonMusk</a>&#8216;s, <a href="https://twitter.com/VivekGRamaswamy?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@VivekGRamaswamy</a>&#8216;s, AND <a href="https://twitter.com/joniernst?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JONIERNST</a>&#8216;s. Ok, maybe not hers. I don&#8217;t know who she thinks she&#8217;s kidding. She&#8217;s voted for every spending bill since she got here…
Read more here:… <a href="https://t.co/zvzXEFdTwM">pic.twitter.com/zvzXEFdTwM</a>
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) <a href="https://twitter.com/RandPaul/status/1871214884458742219?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 23, 2024</a></blockquote>
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Senator Rand Paul

‘DOGE Before DOGE Was Cool’: Rand Paul Unveils Annual ‘Festivus Report’ Showing $1T In Govt Waste

Rand Paul

Bucking the intent of the incoming Trump administration to cut down on unnecessary expenditures, California Democrats in Congress sent a letter to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg urging him to hurry and approve additional funding for California’s floundering high-speed rail project.
On November 30, the incoming Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, noted on X:
<blockquote>
Summary of California High Speed Rail Project: Originally projected (in 2008) to cost $33 billion; now projected to cost between $88.5 and $127.9 billion. Estimated completion date was 2020; as of 2024, zero passengers have been transported and the majority has not even been fully designed. Received $6.8 billion in federal funds. Requesting $8 billion in additional federal funds.
</blockquote>
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Summary of California High Speed Rail Project: -Originally projected (in 2008) to cost $33 billion; now projected to cost between $88.5 and $127.9 billion -Estimated completion date was 2020; as of 2024, zero passengers have been transported and the majority has not even been…
&mdash; Department of Government Efficiency (@DOGE) <a href="https://twitter.com/DOGE/status/1862883821798002786?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 30, 2024</a></blockquote>
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&nbsp;
Those estimates were similar to what the <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/republicans-high-speed-rail-19983744.php">San Francisco Chronicle</a> reported. The media outlet said that the cost of building California’s largely unfinished high-speed rail line — of which California Democrat governor Gavin Newsom <a href="https://www.gov.ca.gov/2024/08/10/governor-newsom-and-new-high-speed-rail-ceo-celebrate-caltrains-electrification-as-key-part-of-high-speed-rail-plan/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bragged</a>, “We’re making rail real in California” — was initially estimated at $33 billion, has now ballooned to over $100 billion.
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“On Friday, Democratic lawmakers Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff, and Reps. Pete Aguilar, Jim Costa, and Zoe Lofgren sent a letter to Buttigieg calling on him to approve funding for the first phase of the project,” the Sacramento Bee <a href="https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article297401585.html#campaignName=sacramento_morning_newsletter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> on Monday. The <a href="https://www.padilla.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/padilla-schiff-california-house-colleagues-push-for-critical-high-speed-rail-funding/">letter</a> asked for $536 million in federal funds, acknowledging, “The FSP-National grant application is part of an ongoing federal-state partnership that has provided approximately $28.8 billion in funding for California High-Speed Rail, including $22 billion from state funds and $6.8 billion from federal funds. &#8230; By preparing for future final design and construction of complex tunnels in this corridor, the Project will advance both state and federal goals to improve safety, expand economic strength and global competitiveness, address equity issues, and implement sustainability practices to confront climate change.”
“The project has struggled in recent years with obtaining federal funding, and it has been beset with both delays and cost overruns. It’s [sic] initial scope — of a high-speed rail line from Los Angeles to San Francisco — has been reduced to the first step of a planned route from Merced to Bakersfield,” the Bee <a href="https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article296622469.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">noted</a>.
Last week, Newsom <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/newsom-mocks-doge-brags-about-california-here-are-some-facts" target="_blank" rel="noopener">mocked</a> DOGE, saying of it, “I dunno, this is like a promo project.”

California High Speed Rail construction.

BUCKING DOGE: CA Dems Beg Buttigieg To Give $536M To High-Speed Rail Before He’s Gone

Adam Schiff

California

High Speed rail

President-elect Donald Trump is &#8220;totally against&#8221; the proposed <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/congress-reveals-another-stopgap-bill-to-avert-government-shutdown" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Continuing Resolution</a>, a stopgap bill that would kick the legislative football into 2025 and avert a government shutdown before members of Congress leave the Capitol for the holidays.
Fox News host Lawrence B. Jones reported the president-elect&#8217;s feelings on the matter via X, saying, &#8220;I just spoke with the President-Elect @realDonaldTrump, and he is &#8216;totally against&#8217; the proposed CR.&#8221;
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I just spoke with the President-Elect <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrump</a> , and he is “totally against” the proposed CR.
&mdash; Lawrence Jones III (@LawrenceBJones3) <a href="https://twitter.com/LawrenceBJones3/status/1869484867932848169?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 18, 2024</a></blockquote>
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A number in Trump&#8217;s orbit — including the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/speaker-reveals-conversation-with-musk-about-stopgap-bill-packed-with-add-ons" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Elon Musk</a> and Vivek Ramaswamy, who will together head up Trump&#8217;s new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — have panned the CR.
Ramaswamy made his thoughts known in a lengthy post, stating that he&#8217;d waited to weigh in on the issue until he&#8217;d read the 1500+ pages and could make an informed decision.
The short answer, according to Ramaswamy, was that the CR was unnecessarily bulky: &#8220;If Congress wants to get serious about government efficiency, they should VOTE NO.&#8221;
&#8220;Keeping the government open until March 14 will cost ~$380BN by itself, but the true cost of this omnibus CR is far greater due to new spending,&#8221; Ramaswamy continued, explaining some of the expenditures the CR would authorize. &#8220;Renewing the Farm Bill for an extra year: ~$130BN. Disaster relief: $100BN. Stimulus for farmers: $10BN. The Francis Scott Key Bridge replacement: $8BN.&#8221;
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&#8220;The proposal adds at least 65 cents of new spending for every dollar of continued discretionary spending. The legislation will end up hurting many of the people it purports to help,&#8221; he added. &#8220;Debt-fueled spending sprees may &#8216;feel good&#8217; today, but it&#8217;s like showering cocaine on an addict: it&#8217;s not compassion, it&#8217;s cruelty. Farmers will see more land sold to foreign buyers when taxes inevitably rise to meet our obligations. Our children will be saddled with crippling debt. Interest payments will be the largest item in our national budget.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
I wanted to read the full 1,500+ page bill &amp; speak with key leaders before forming an opinion. Having done that, here&#39;s my view: it&#39;s full of excessive spending, special interest giveaways &amp; pork barrel politics. If Congress wants to get serious about government efficiency, they…
&mdash; Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) <a href="https://twitter.com/VivekGRamaswamy/status/1869407887983821089?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 18, 2024</a></blockquote>
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Ramaswamy went on to argue that a true &#8220;stopgap&#8221; measure could have been accomplished in 20 pages, and that the additional material amounted to spending that was either not necessary at all, or at the very least, not immediately so.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has defended the CR, arguing that it would take care of a few necessary items while pushing a vote on larger and more long-term expenditures until March, when Trump will be in the White House and Republicans will control both the House and the Senate.
&#8220;Republicans CANNOT allow millions of Americans devastated by the historic hurricane season, or our struggling farmers, go without the help they desperately need. We will decide FY25 spending in March, when Trump is back in the WH and Republicans control the Senate and House,&#8221; he posted via X.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Republicans CANNOT allow millions of Americans devastated by the historic hurricane season, or our struggling farmers, go without the help they desperately need.   
We will decide FY25 spending in March, when Trump is back in the WH and Republicans control the Senate and House. <a href="https://t.co/f8OpQleOoJ">pic.twitter.com/f8OpQleOoJ</a>
&mdash; Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) <a href="https://twitter.com/SpeakerJohnson/status/1869397280652226746?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 18, 2024</a></blockquote>
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Meet the Press – Season 78

Trump ‘Totally Against’ Proposed CR To Avert Government Shutdown

Trump 'Totally Against' Proposed CR To Avert Government Shutdown

Government Shutdown

Politics

Tech executive <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/elon-musk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Elon </a>Musk declared that <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/congress" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Congress</a> should not pass any more bills until January 20, when President-elect <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a> takes office and Republicans control the House and Senate.
The demand came as Musk urged lawmakers to oppose a new <a href="https://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20241216/CR.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">continuing resolution</a> (CR) that seeks to avert a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/government-shutdown" target="_blank" rel="noopener">government shutdown</a> by the end of the week, along with a slew of additions.
&#8220;No bills should be passed Congress until Jan 20, when [Trump] takes office,&#8221; Musk <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1869461048828522999" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> on Wednesday. &#8220;None. Zero.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
No bills should be passed Congress until Jan 20, when <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrump</a> takes office.
None.
Zero.
&mdash; Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1869461048828522999?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 18, 2024</a></blockquote>
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The stopgap measure, negotiated by the GOP-led house and Democrat-led Senate, would <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/congress-reveals-another-stopgap-bill-to-avert-government-shutdown" target="_blank" rel="noopener">provide</a> funds for the federal government through March 14, 2025, and give <a href="https://x.com/cami_mondeaux/status/1869167167071236572" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$100 billion in disaster aid</a>.
It also has provisions geared toward boosting farmers, health care reform, <a href="https://x.com/bresreports/status/1869180846101447119" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rebuilding</a> Maryland&#8217;s devastated Francis Scott Key Bridge, a <a href="https://x.com/jamiedupree/status/1869363001092091966" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pay raise</a> for Congress, and more.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/speaker-reveals-conversation-with-musk-about-stopgap-bill-packed-with-add-ons" target="_blank" rel="noopener">RELATED: Speaker Reveals Conversation With Musk About Stopgap Bill Packed With Add-Ons</a>
&#8220;Any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years!&#8221; Musk said in <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1869446782574645386" target="_blank" rel="noopener">another</a> post.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years!
&mdash; Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1869446782574645386?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 18, 2024</a></blockquote>
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In others, Musk has characterized the legislation as a <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1869455352078688696" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&#8220;crime&#8221;</a> against the American people and <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1869476312278286359" target="_blank" rel="noopener">noted</a> that &#8220;shutting down&#8221; the government &#8220;doesn’t actually shut down critical functions.&#8221;
Musk has been appointed to help lead the new <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/department-of-government-efficiency-doge" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)</a> under the second Trump administration along with biotech entrepreneur <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/vivek-ramaswamy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Vivek Ramaswamy</a>.
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Ramaswamy issued a lengthy post to X on Wednesday saying he read the 1,547-page CR and making the case for why lawmakers should reject the legislation.
&#8220;[I]t&#8217;s full of excessive spending, special interest giveaways &amp; pork barrel politics. If Congress wants to get serious about government efficiency, they should VOTE NO,&#8221; he <a href="https://x.com/VivekGRamaswamy/status/1869407887983821089" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
I wanted to read the full 1,500+ page bill &amp; speak with key leaders before forming an opinion. Having done that, here&#39;s my view: it&#39;s full of excessive spending, special interest giveaways &amp; pork barrel politics. If Congress wants to get serious about government efficiency, they…
&mdash; Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) <a href="https://twitter.com/VivekGRamaswamy/status/1869407887983821089?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 18, 2024</a></blockquote>
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Musk <a href="https://x.com/VivekGRamaswamy/status/1869407887983821089/quotes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">replied</a>: &#8220;The more I learn, the more obvious it becomes that this spending bill is a crime. It even includes funding for the worst illegal censorship operation in the entire government (GEC)!!&#8221;
Lawmakers who oppose the CR rallied around the comments by Musk and Ramaswamy, pressing their colleagues to oppose the measure. It appears the CR would need bipartisan support to pass.
A divided Congress has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/johnson-led-house-passes-bill-to-avert-government-shutdown-with-dem-support" target="_blank" rel="noopener">leaned</a> on multiple CRs in recent years, including <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/house-vote-continuing-resolution-government-shutdown/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">last September</a>, when lawmakers failed to agree on spending bills under the normal appropriations process.
Journalist Chad Pergram <a href="https://x.com/ChadPergram/status/1869469269248950597" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that Fox News was told by a member of House GOP leadership &#8220;that Musk &#8216;is not helping. He has bigger fish to fry than picking a fight with House Republicans.'&#8221;
Fox News host Lawrence Jones <a href="https://x.com/LawrenceBJones3/status/1869484867932848169" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posted</a> to X on Wednesday afternoon that he &#8220;just spoke&#8221; with Trump and the president-elect &#8220;is &#8216;totally against&#8217; the proposed CR.&#8221;

Elon Musk Urges Congress To Not Pass Any More Bills Until Trump Takes Office

Spending Bill

On Wednesday, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/u-s-house-of-representatives" target="_blank" rel="noopener">House</a> Speaker <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/mike-johnson" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mike Johnson</a> (R-LA) said that he spoke to tech executive <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/elon-musk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Elon Musk</a> about the new <a href="https://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20241216/CR.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">continuing resolution</a> (CR) to avert a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/government-shutdown" target="_blank" rel="noopener">government shutdown</a> by the end of the week, which includes many additions.
The stopgap measure <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/congress-reveals-another-stopgap-bill-to-avert-government-shutdown" target="_blank" rel="noopener">seeks to provide</a> funds through March 14, 2025, and more than <a href="https://x.com/cami_mondeaux/status/1869167167071236572" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$100 billion in disaster aid</a>. It also has provisions geared toward boosting farmers, healthcare reform, <a href="https://x.com/bresreports/status/1869180846101447119" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rebuilding</a> Maryland&#8217;s devastated Francis Scott Key Bridge, a <a href="https://x.com/jamiedupree/status/1869363001092091966" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pay raise</a> for Congress, and more.
Musk, who is slated to help lead the new <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/department-of-government-efficiency-doge" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)</a> under the second Trump administration to devise a plan to reduce wasteful spending, <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1869310453253546066" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> on X that the bill &#8220;should not pass.&#8221; In response to a photo showing a stack of the 1,547-page measure, he posted, &#8220;Ever seen a bigger piece of pork?&#8221; Some lawmakers, including conservative members, have also expressed dismay with the bill.
During an interview on FOX &amp; Friends, Johnson revealed that he spoke on Tuesday night with Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who has also been tasked with heading DOGE.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Speaker Johnson Joins FOX &amp; Friends" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ez8D4aLVE-k?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
&#8220;I was communicating with Elon last night,&#8221; Johnson said. &#8220;Elon and Vivek and I are on a text chain together, and I was explaining to them the background of this, and Vivek and I talked last night at about almost midnight, and he said, ‘Look, I get it.&#8217; He said, &#8216;We understand you&#8217;re in an impossible position. Everybody knows that.'&#8221;
A divided Congress has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/johnson-led-house-passes-bill-to-avert-government-shutdown-with-dem-support" target="_blank" rel="noopener">leaned</a> on multiple CRs in recent years, including <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/house-vote-continuing-resolution-government-shutdown/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">last September</a>, when lawmakers failed to agree on spending bills under the normal appropriations process. However, Johnson suggested during the interview that the trend could soon end, with Republicans taking control of the House, Senate, and White House next month.
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&#8220;Remember guys, we still have just a razor thin margin of Republicans. So, any bill has to have Democrat votes. They understand the situation,&#8221; the speaker said. &#8220;They said, it&#8217;s not directed to you, Mr. Speaker, but we don&#8217;t like the spending. I said, guess what, fellas, I don&#8217;t either. We&#8217;ve got to get this done because here&#8217;s the key: by doing this, we are clearing the decks, and we are setting up for Trump to come in roaring back with the America First agenda. That&#8217;s what we&#8217;re going to run with gusto, beginning January 3, when we start the new Congress when Republicans again are in control.&#8221;
Johnson insisted that fiscal conservatives such as himself will &#8220;finally do the things that we&#8217;ve been wanting to do for the last couple of years&#8221; in the new term once Democrats no longer have command of the Senate. He added, &#8220;So, we have to get this thing done so we don&#8217;t have the shutdown, so we get the short-term funding measure, and we get to March where we can put our fingerprints on the spending. That&#8217;s when the big changes start. And we can&#8217;t wait to get there.&#8221;
In a <a href="https://x.com/freedomcaucus/status/1869190715651043622" target="_blank" rel="noopener">post</a> to X, the conservative House Freedom Caucus shared demands for moving forward with what it called the &#8220;Cramnibus,&#8221; including &#8220;a full 72 hours to read&#8221; the read the CR, a vote on the <a href="https://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20241216/Disaster%20Offset%20and%20Government%20Efficiency%20Act.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DOGE Act</a> &#8220;to cut non-defense spending 13% to pre-COVID 2019 levels,&#8221; and stopping President Joe Biden&#8217;s &#8220;fire sale of border wall construction materials&#8221; that was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-biden-races-to-sell-off-border-wall-parts-before-trump-takes-office" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> by The Daily Wire.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) <a href="https://x.com/SenSchumer/status/1869211269322227870" target="_blank" rel="noopener">touted</a> the CR in a statement, saying he was “pleased” with the measure being &#8220;free of cuts and poison pills, while also securing Democratic priorities.&#8221; In a press conference on Tuesday, Johnson <a href="https://x.com/cspan/status/1869045536793284710" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> the CR was intended to be &#8220;simple,&#8221; but it was &#8220;important&#8221; to address hurricane disasters and help struggling farmers.

US House Speaker Mike Johnson

Speaker Reveals Conversation With Musk About Stopgap Bill Packed With Add-Ons

In his latest burst of missing the forest for the trees, California Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom boasted of his government’s efficiency while ripping the incoming Trump administration, pontificating, “We’ve been working, I dunno, before DOGE was DOGE.”
Newsom seemingly ignored that the purpose of DOGE is to reduce the cost of government to save taxpayers&#8217; money.
“I dunno, this is like a promo project,” he said mockingly of DOGE, then bragged, “We’ve been doing civil service reform in this state; we’ve been consolidating job classifications; we’ve been updating job descriptions in this state, and we waived those requirements. And in fact, I think it was in August, earlier, in August, we came up with your shop. We’re gonna double that next year. In fact, by 32,000; it’ll be 62,000 positions we will have eliminated those barriers and that requirement. I’ve always been a leader in that space.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
California Governor Gavin Newsom refers to Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy’s initiative DOGE as a “promo project.” 
‘We’ve been working [on this] before DOGE was DOGE.” <a href="https://t.co/8ACvGJNTsW">pic.twitter.com/8ACvGJNTsW</a>
&mdash; Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) <a href="https://twitter.com/yashar/status/1868780459838390313?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 16, 2024</a></blockquote>
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The California Legislature’s Nonpartisan Fiscal and Policy Advisor <a href="https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4939#:~:text=The%20state%20has%20faced%20significant,much%20of%20the%20state's%20reserves." target="_blank" rel="noopener">stated</a>, “The state has faced significant budget problems over the last two years—by our estimate, a $27 billion deficit in 2023‑23 and a $55 billion deficit in 2024‑25 (excluding early action taken this year). &#8230; Faster Than Normal Spending Growth Contributing to Deficits. One reason the state faces operating deficits is growth in spending. Our estimate of annual total spending growth across the forecast period—from 2025‑26 to 2028‑29—is 5.8 percent (6.3 percent excluding K‑14 education). By historical standards, this is high. &#8230; Spending Growth Driven by Past Program Expansions and Underlying Growth.”
Last June, the AP <a href="https://apnews.com/article/california-legislature-budget-deficit-229cca6cef2165c15ab1841db9f75fe0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that California had “an estimated $46.8 billion budget deficit,” adding that the surpluses Newsom bragged about in 2022 were the result of “hundreds of billions of dollars of federal COVID-19 aid and a progressive tax code that produced a windfall of revenue from the state’s wealthiest residents.” The AP added that the deficit in 2023 had been <a href="https://apnews.com/article/california-state-budget-2023-2db8442a1d7c0ecc5b6827207c1dad03" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA">about $32 billion</a>.
The Tax Foundation’s 2025 State Tax Competitiveness Index <a href="https://taxfoundation.org/statetaxindex/states/california/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">states</a>, “<a href="https://taxfoundation.org/location/california/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">California</a>‘s tax system ranks 48th overall on the <a href="https://taxfoundation.org/research/all/state/2025-state-tax-competitiveness-index" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2025 State Tax Competitiveness Index</a>. California combines high tax rates with an uncompetitive tax structure, yielding one of the worst rankings on the Index.”
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Newsom has also presided over the skyrocketing costs of homelessness. Last April, The Los Angeles Times <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-04-09/state-audit-california-fails-to-track-homeless-spending-billions-dollars" target="_blank" rel="noopener">noted</a>:
<blockquote>
California has failed to adequately monitor the outcomes of its vast spending on homelessness programs, according to a state audit released Tuesday, raising questions about whether billions of dollars meant to thwart the crisis has been worth it as the number of people living unsheltered has soared. A <a href="https://archive.is/o/GKey0/https:/www.auditor.ca.gov/reports/2023-102.1/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">new report</a> from the California State Auditor’s Office found that a state council created to oversee the implementation of homelessness programs has not consistently tracked spending or the outcomes of those programs.
</blockquote>
In July, the Hoover Institution <a href="https://www.hoover.org/research/despite-california-spending-24-billion-it-2019-homelessness-increased-what-happened" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pointed out</a>, “Since 2019, California has spent about $24 billion on homelessness.”
According to the <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/republicans-high-speed-rail-19983744.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener">San Francisco Chronicle</a>, the cost of building California’s largely unfinished high-speed rail line — of which Newsom <a href="https://www.gov.ca.gov/2024/08/10/governor-newsom-and-new-high-speed-rail-ceo-celebrate-caltrains-electrification-as-key-part-of-high-speed-rail-plan/">bragged</a>, “We’re making rail real in California” — was initially estimated at $33 billion and now has ballooned to over $100 billion.

Governor Gavin Newsom signs legislation related to oversight of oil and gas wells, and community protections

Newsom Mocks DOGE, Brags About California. Here Are Some Facts.

Gavin Newsom

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo has ordered staff to work overtime so they can spend cash as quickly as possible before Donald Trump assumes the presidency, which a Republican senator called &#8220;extremely concerning.&#8221;
“I’d like to have really almost all of the money obligated by the time we leave,” Raimondo told <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2024/11/20/raimondo-commerce-trump-legacy-00190538" target="_blank" rel="noopener">POLITICO</a>, in reference to the $53 billion microchip program, which Congress passed as a part of the CHIPS Act. Raimondo set a &#8220;clear deadline&#8221; and asked her staff to work weekends to accomplish it, she said.
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), chair of the Senate DOGE Caucus, criticized Raimondo in a Wednesday letter.
&#8220;Shoveling out heaps of taxpayer dollars as fast as possible, with little to no oversight, is part of the reason the United States government is nearly $36 trillion in debt today,&#8221; she wrote, saying $280 billion in COVID money may have gone to fraudsters under similar spend-it-as-fast-as-you-can circumstances.
Ernst said the department had spent as much CHIPS money in the last month as it had since the beginning of the program, and asked Raimondo to &#8220;immediately suspend the shopping spree and discontinue awarding new grants until a new secretary is confirmed.&#8221;
She asked if the department is cutting corners by doing away with typical contracting rules to get money out the door, and inquired about how it is communicating with the Trump transition team about the work.
Raimondo&#8217;s goal would require doing multi-billion dollar deals with Intel, Micron, Samsung, and SK Hynix, according to POLITICO. So far, only two deals have been done, and there have been delays and culture clashes.
The deals have been bogged down in part due to Democrats pushing diversity and union policies.
An April column in <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/4517470-dei-killed-the-chips-act/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the Hill</a> said it is not normally hard to convince companies to take &#8220;multi-billion dollar subsidies,&#8221; but blame lies in large part with  &#8220;frustration with DEI requirements embedded in the CHIPS Act&#8230; The law contains 19 sections aimed at helping minority groups, including one creating a Chief Diversity Officer at the National Science Foundation.&#8221;
It contains &#8220;requirements that chipmakers submit detailed plans to educate, employ, and train lots of women and people of color, as well as &#8216;justice-involved individuals,&#8217; more commonly known as ex-cons.&#8221;
Republicans have fought to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/gop-bill-aims-to-remove-woke-regulations-from-chips-act" target="_blank" rel="noopener">remove</a> provisions that aren&#8217;t focused on helping the U.S. build chips as efficiently as possible so the country is not dependent on imports for a key resource.
Raimondo isn&#8217;t the only Biden administration official attempting to tie Trump&#8217;s hands. On his way out the door, recently departed Social Security Commissioner Martin O&#8217;Malley signed a deal with his agency&#8217;s union giving employees telework <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/social-security-head-drank-with-union-members-before-giving-them-telework-through-2029" target="_blank" rel="noopener">through 2029,</a> The Daily Wire reported.
Raimondo has fashioned herself the &#8220;Sec of Tech&#8221; and said that Commerce&#8217;s work will be key on issues like artificial intelligence. But she has also raised eyebrows as a Cabinet secretary more willing than most to play politics — sometimes, seemingly, at the expense of a focus on her job.
After Trump narrowly avoided assassination, she said, &#8220;Let&#8217;s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/commerce-secretary-gina-raimondo-calls-to-extinguish-trump-for-good-after-assassination-attempts" target="_blank" rel="noopener">extinguish</a> him for good.&#8221;
When the Department of Labor revised its job creation estimates and acknowledged that the numbers were 800,000 jobs worse than they had previously stated, Raimondo said &#8220;I don’t believe it because I have never heard Donald Trump saying anything truthful.” When her interviewer pointed out that they were official statistics from the Biden administration, the Commerce Secretary said &#8220;I don&#8217;t, I don&#8217;t, I’m <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/commerce-secretary-gina-raimondo-suggests-trump-made-up-numbers-that-bidens-labor-dept-released" target="_blank" rel="noopener">not familiar</a> with that.&#8221;
Raimondo was a surrogate for Vice President Kamala Harris during the latter&#8217;s presidential campaign. As the International Longshoreman&#8217;s Union threatened to shut down the U.S. economy if their demands for a massive pay raise were not met — a massive commercial crisis — Raimondo said she had &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-commerce-secretary-gina-raimondo-says-shes-not-very-focused-on-dock-worker-strike" target="_blank" rel="noopener">not been very focused</a> on that,&#8221; and instead launched into a critique of Trump.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo Testifies Before Senate Commerce Committee

Commerce Secretary Orders Staff To Spend Cash Before Trump Takes Over

Department of Commerce

Joe Biden

Joni Ernst

Technology

President-elect <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a> announced on Monday that he intends to have Mark Paoletta serve another stint as the top lawyer at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
In the role, Paoletta will help out the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/department-of-government-efficiency-doge" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)</a>, a new project headed by <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/elon-musk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Elon Musk</a> and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/vivek-ramaswamy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Vivek Ramaswamy</a> that aims to cut down on waste, Trump declared.
&#8220;I am pleased to announce that Mark Paoletta will be returning as General Counsel of the Office of Management and Budget,&#8221; Trump said in a <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/113625471739178108" target="_blank" rel="noopener">post</a> to Truth Social. &#8220;Mark will work closely with our DOGE team to cut the size of our bloated Government bureaucracy, and root out wasteful and anti-American spending.&#8221;
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-left-is-triggered-by-justice-thomas-mark-paoletta-on-the-crusade-against-the-supreme-court" target="_blank" rel="noopener">RELATED — ‘The Left Is Triggered By Justice Thomas’: Mark Paoletta On The Crusade Against The Supreme Court</a>
Paoletta is a &#8220;brilliant and tenacious lawyer, who worked tirelessly to advance my Agenda in the First Term&#8221; and as OMB general counsel &#8220;led the charge to identify funding to build the Southern Border Wall, and worked with then-OMB Director Russ Vought to rein in woke and weaponized Government spending,&#8221; Trump added.
Trump revealed in November that he was nominating Vought to once again serve as his OMB director. In the intervening years, Vought founded The Center for Renewing America, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/flagrant-disregard-for-taxpayer-funds-pentagon-fails-sixth-consecutive-audit" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a conservative policy organization</a> where Paoletta has worked as a senior adviser.
The announcement on Monday noted that Paoletta is also a partner at the Schaerr Jaffe law firm, served as a chief counsel for Oversight and Investigations in Congress for a decade, and was a &#8220;key lawyer&#8221; in the White House Counsel’s Office to confirm Justice Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1991.
&#8220;Mark is a conservative warrior who knows the &#8216;ins and outs&#8217; of Government — He will help us, Make America Great Again!&#8221; Trump exclaimed.
In responding to Trump&#8217;s decision to have him return to OMB, which has a <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stated mission</a> &#8220;to assist the President in meeting policy, budget, management, and regulatory objectives and to fulfill the agency’s statutory responsibilities, Paoletta mentioned DOGE, too.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Thank you <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrump</a> for the privilege to work for you again. I am thrilled to be rejoining my friend <a href="https://twitter.com/russvought?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@russvought</a> at OMB where we will once again be the tip of the spear to implement President Trump’s agenda, including working w/ <a href="https://twitter.com/DOGE?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DOGE</a> to cut wasteful government spending! <a href="https://t.co/loS4wr6GT3">pic.twitter.com/loS4wr6GT3</a>
&mdash; Mark Paoletta (@MarkPaoletta) <a href="https://twitter.com/MarkPaoletta/status/1866300910755774734?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 10, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;Thank you [Trump] for the privilege to work for you again,&#8221; he <a href="https://x.com/MarkPaoletta/status/1866300910755774734" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>. &#8220;I am thrilled to be rejoining my friend [Vought] at OMB where we will once again be the tip of the spear to implement President Trump’s agenda, including working w/ [DOGE] to cut wasteful government spending!&#8221;
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Paoletta <a href="https://grabien.com/story?id=500474" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recently </a>told Fox News host Brian Kilmeade that career Department of Justice employees who refuse to get on board with Trump&#8217;s second administration should leave the federal government.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
🚨 <a href="https://twitter.com/MarkPaoletta?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MarkPaoletta</a>: DOJ career employees who plan to subvert President Trump’s agenda shouldn’t work at the Justice Department <a href="https://t.co/16RctrNGW0">pic.twitter.com/16RctrNGW0</a>
&mdash; Center for Renewing America (@amrenewctr) <a href="https://twitter.com/amrenewctr/status/1856350442369736899?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 12, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;Only in the federal government, only with a deep swamp do people &#8230; the career employees  think that they get to run the joint as it were,&#8221; Paolota said, adding that Trump &#8220;was reelected with an overwhelming majority of an agenda by the American people popularly supported.&#8221;

President-Elect Donald Trump

Trump Reveals ‘Conservative Warrior’ Attorney Who Will ‘Work Closely’ With DOGE

Office of Management and Budget (OMB)

In previous articles, we looked closely at two of the three main pillars to President-elect Trump’s supply-side economic growth agenda: Increasing <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/supply-side-trumponomics-part-one-drill-baby-drill" target="_blank" rel="noopener">energy production</a> and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/supply-side-trumponomics-part-two-tax-cuts" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cutting taxes</a>. Now for the third and final pillar, regulatory reform. 
As anyone who’s ever taken a decent Principles of Economics course knows, prices are determined by the &#8220;market forces&#8221; of supply and demand. Demand represents consumers’ preferences over various goods, while supply represents the &#8220;costs of production&#8221; businesses face in producing those goods.
Economic growth happens over time when forces begin to shift the supply curve to the right. I hammer this point home with my students and make them repeat the slogan, &#8220;The recipe for economic growth is to push the supply curve to the right.&#8221;
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-838525 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/Supply-1.png" alt="" width="512" height="209" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/Supply-1.png 512w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/Supply-1-300x122.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px" /></div>
Government regulations imposed on businesses and their products, however, act just like taxes in that they raise the cost of production, pushing the supply curve for any given product &#8220;up and to the left,&#8221; which raises price and reduces quantity.
Likewise, government actions that ease or remove those regulations have the opposite effect, pushing supply curves &#8220;down and to the right,&#8221; reducing price, raising quantity, and increasing economic growth.
Supply-side economists like Art Laffer tout the benefits of Trump’s big 2017 tax cut package, and certainly those tax cuts paid off handsomely in Trump’s first term economy (pre-Covid). Renewed tax cuts will have a similar effect in Trump’s second term. But according to Trump himself, <a href="https://nam.org/manufacturers-appreciate-president-trumps-focus-on-curbing-the-regulatory-onslaught-32795/?stream=policy-legal" target="_blank" rel="noopener">business leaders</a> told him repeatedly that his regulatory reforms were an even more powerful tool for boosting productivity and growth.
<h3>Deregulation</h3>
Regulations are like taxes in that they impose costs on businesses, but burdensome regulations are worse than taxes because in most cases the people get little to nothing in return. At least with taxes the government gets revenue that it can ostensibly use for infrastructure, defense, and other public goods.
According to the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s <a href="https://cei.org/studies/ten-thousand-commandments-2024/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">annual report</a> on the federal regulatory burden, &#8220;Ten Thousand Commandments,&#8221; as of 2024, federal regulations impose costs north of $2.1 trillion on the U.S. economy. Government paperwork takes up 10.34 billion hours of work time, and the government’s regulation log — the federal register — checks in at well over 89,000 pages, very close to its all-time high at the end of the Obama years.
Regulations are like barnacles on a ship: each one is small, seemingly insignificant, and invisible to the casual observer. Over time, however, regulations accumulate and greatly impair the ship’s hydrodynamic efficiency. It’s well past time to give the hull of this economy a massive scrubbing.
Trump’s first term featured a big push to reduce the regulatory burden on U.S. businesses. He famously targeted a 2:1 regulatory reform ratio — for every new rule enacted, two existing regs would be eliminated. This valiant effort bore some fruit. Trump had a few notable deregulation successes early in his first term. Many of these were simply Congressional vetoes of impending Obama-era regulation, but Trump also made strides in streamlining the permitting process for infrastructure projects.
Trump’s efforts pushed the federal register to a modern low of 61,308 pages, and Trump’s first term saw far <a href="https://www.cato.org/regulation/summer-2020/deregulation-under-trump#findings" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fewer new regulatory measures</a> as compared with recent administrations. Ultimately, Trump’s first-term deregulatory program was a mixed bag, as many deregulation efforts were stymied by &#8220;deep state&#8221; resistance or held up in the courts.
Trump knows the power of deregulation and <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/finance-and-economy/3144599/trump-assault-administrative-state/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">has pledged</a> to boost the regulatory reform ratio to 10:1 in the second term — axing ten rules for each new one adopted. This is ambitious to be sure, but much can be done by simply peeling off regulations that were piled on by the Biden administration.
The incoming Trump administration has already taken concrete steps to sharpen their focus on government regulation reform and addressing waste with the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) run by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. Congress will also play a big role in this process, as will Trump’s solid deregulation-minded cabinet picks like Lee Zeldin (EPA), Chris Wright (Energy), and Doug Burgum (Interior). These men know their economics and are fully aware that burdensome regulations stifle economic growth like nothing else.
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Deregulatory efforts in the second Trump Administration will also be hugely abetted by the Supreme Court’s recent ruling repealing so-called &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/this-was-a-fisheries-killer-the-fisherman-who-fought-chevron-deference-all-the-way-to-the-supreme-court">Chevron deference&#8221;</a> which will significantly pare back government agencies’ rule-making powers and really grease the skids for deregulation.
Tax cuts, regulatory easing, and booming energy production — each of these policy levers has, by itself, the potential to restore strong growth in output, jobs, and personal incomes. If president Trump’s next administration can hit the supply-side trifecta, he will almost certainly be able to deliver on J.D. Vance’s promise of the &#8220;greatest economic comeback in American history.&#8221; 
Donald Trump may well go down in history as the leader who made &#8220;supply side economics&#8221; a household word and showed us all the wonderful possibilities when policymakers who understand basic economics have the guts to ignore the tut-tutting experts and wreck the uniparty consensus that tolerates economic stagnation. Full speed ahead with the supply-side reform package. We should do everything we can to help Donald Trump push supply curves to the right and Make America (economically) Great Again.
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<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/supply-side-trumponomics-part-one-drill-baby-drill">RELATED: Supply-Side Trumponomics, Part One: ‘Drill, Baby, Drill’</a>
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/supply-side-trumponomics-part-two-tax-cuts">RELATED: Supply-Side Trumponomics, Part Two: Tax Cuts</a>
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Tyler Watts is a professor of economics at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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