Apparently, you may educate an outdated DOGE new methods.
Lefty Sen. Bernie Sanders turned heads Sunday together with his help for President-elect Donald Trump’s deliberate new Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE) — offering it takes purpose on the Pentagon’s comfortable price range.
“Elon Musk is correct. The Pentagon, with a price range of $886 billion, simply failed its seventh audit in a row. It’s misplaced observe of billions,” the 83-year-old Vermont senator posted on X.
“Final 12 months, solely 13 senators voted in opposition to the Navy Industrial Advanced and a protection price range stuffed with waste and fraud. That should change,” the Impartial Occasion pol added.
Trump had introduced shortly after successful final month’s election that tech mogul Elon Musk, 53, and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, 39, would function the co-heads of DOGE till it concludes its work by July 4, 2026.
Regardless of the deliberate new company’s cryptocurrency- and meme-inspired identify, DOGE isn’t really a authorities division however as a substitute an outdoor group that can coordinate with the White Home and Workplace of Administration and Funds to root out waste.
Sanders, together with many progressives, has lengthy been an outspoken critic of US protection spending, which he has panned as “bloated and wasteful” whereas calling for extra assets towards social spending.
Final month, the Division of Protection introduced it had failed its seventh impartial audit in a row, which has troubled each Republicans and Democrats. The division had been licensed to obtain $824.3 billion in authorities cash in the course of the 2024 fiscal 12 months.
Mike McCord, the Pentagon’s chief monetary officer, has informed reporters that no important fraud was uncovered and that the division is working towards a “clear” audit, which can doubtless be doable a number of years from now.
Final week, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) echoed Sanders in suggesting that Democrats are keen to collaborate on attacking doubtlessly wasteful spending — at the very least within the DOD.
“In relation to slicing waste, fraud, and abuse and opening the 5 primes to extra competitors, there are Democrats on [the House Armed Services Committee] who will work with @elonmusk and @DOGE,” Khanna posted on X.
Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) lately mused that DOGE ought to check out reevaluating the construction of the Division of Homeland Safety, too.
Trump, 78, has lengthy expressed curiosity in increasing the army’s capabilities, which may imply will increase in protection spending.
Musk, who has spent a lot of his post-election time at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property in Florida, replied to Sanders’ submit with a number of American flag emojis.
“Wise spending isn’t a partisan concern. Most people helps @DOGE holding authorities accountable to spend taxpayer cash extra correctly,” Musk’s America tremendous PAC wrote in response.
Sanders’ submit drew consideration from a few of his longstanding adversaries.
“Welcome dwelling, Bernie,” former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) chided.
The Finish Wokeness X account quipped, “Has hell frozen over?”
Collin Rugg, co-owner of Trending Politics, added on X, “Glad you realized Elon Musk isn’t the issue.
“The issue is the federal authorities which has wasted and misplaced trillions of {dollars} of taxpayer cash,”
Ramaswamy and Musk have teased their plans for DOGE in a Wall Road Journal op-ed, which entails pushing for govt actions to slash authorities after which relentlessly preventing foes in courtroom.
The 2 bombastic entrepreneurs have predicted that DOGE additionally will take a sledgehammer to authorities purple tape and assist spur extra strong financial progress.
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