Entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will lead a new Department of Government Efficiency to “dismantle the Government Bureaucracy, reduce excessive regulation, reduce wasteful spending and restructure Federal Agencies,” President Donald Trump announced Tuesday.
On the campaign trail, Trump said government efficiency efforts would develop a plan to eliminate “fraud and improper payments” by conducting a “full financial and performance audit” of the federal government. On Tuesday, Trump said the panel would cooperate with the White House Office of Management and Budget and said their work would be completed by July 4, 2026, the nation’s 250th anniversary.
Musk announced that Trump could cut at least $2 trillion from the US federal budget during a speech at Madison Square Garden last month, although that would exceed the amount Congress spends annually on the operations of government agencies, including defense. It would likely require significant cuts to popular entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and veterans benefits.
Last fiscal year, the government spent more than $6.75 trillion, of which more than $5.3 trillion came from Social Security, health care, defense, and veterans benefits — all of which are politically charged and convincing Congress to cut them is extremely difficult. . as interest on the debt.
“This is going to send shockwaves through the system, and anyone involved in the government’s waste, which is a lot of people,” Musk said in a statement released by Trump’s transition effort on Tuesday.
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