Controversial proposal for Elon Musk’s DOGE that would save billions for Americans picks up steam

One of the most controversial proposals from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is gaining support as he and lawmakers try to reduce costs.

President-elect Donald Trump has asked Tesla CEO and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy to cut trillions of dollars in federal spending as the U.S. national debt continues to soar to dizzying new highs, inflated by runaway spending over the past decades.

As it stands now, that debt totals $36.2 trillion, but Musk estimates that DOGE could save “at least $2 trillion” in the short term from the White House’s current $6.5 trillion budget .

The next natural question is where these cuts should come from. Musk and Ramaswamy are reportedly considering eliminating all taxpayer-funded foreign aid, which would send shockwaves internationally.

The United States spent an estimated $70 billion in foreign assistance in fiscal year 2022 to support economic development, humanitarian goals and other interests.

And America has allocated a total of $175 billion in foreign aid to Ukraine alone since the war with Russia broke out in 2022.

But the taps that spray American taxpayer dollars abroad may soon be turned off.

South Carolina Republican Rep. Ralph Norman told DailyMail.com that DOGE should “absolutely” focus on foreign aid, though he conceded that cutting Israel’s funding is not on the agenda.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., similarly told DailyMail.com that “foreign aid to every country except Israel” should be cut.

“Here’s an easy one for @DOGE!” three-time presidential candidate and former lawmaker Ron Paul recently posted on X. “Eliminate foreign aid!”

‘It takes money from the poor and middle class in the US and gives it to the rich in poor countries – with a cut to the enablers in between! Americans don’t want their government to borrow more money to spend on foreign aid,” the post continued.

“Furthermore, it is an immoral transfer of wealth and unconstitutional.”

Musk posted about the libertarian: “Would be great to have Ron Paul as part of the Department of Government Efficiency!”

However, Democrats are wary of DOGE’s sweeping mandate and the idea of ​​unraveling spending approved by Congress.

“Well, I think $2 trillion is an unrealistic figure,” Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., told DailyMail.com of DOGE’s target.

Hoyer, 85, is one of the longest-serving members of Congress who first joined the House of Representatives in 1981. That year, the national debt was $988 billion, a modest number compared to today’s astonishing $36 trillion.

The veteran Maryland Democrat was not optimistic that the Musk-led initiative would lead to meaningful cuts, and he appeared opposed to shrinking the reach of government.

Hoyer said he would urge DOGE to make cuts only on items “that can be affected without negatively impacting the services that people need and that Congress voted for.”

But most lawmakers were also interested in other ways to reduce waste.

“So the key for me is picking the low-hanging fruit, the DEI stuff that comes to mind, transgender surgeries, all that stuff,” Norman said as quick DOGE targets.

“The Farm Bill’s SNAP, look at the waste that goes there,” he added about the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly called food stamps.

The food subsidy program cost the U.S. about $115 billion in 2023, according to federal data.

“Every government agency has created new grant programs,” Comer said. “We have all this money and energy spending on solar, wind and energy initiatives in the Green New Deal that people don’t think are working.”

“We’ve spent all this money on broadband, but no one is addicted to broadband,” he added. “The list goes on and on and on and on, of money that has just been absolutely wasted, all this money has been spent on charging stations, and yet no charging stations have been built.”

He said the funding could come from agencies whose usefulness has also diminished over time, such as the United States Postal Service.

Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga., a physician, suggested that DOGE investigate reducing Medicare and Medicaid fraud, which he says would save hundreds of billions of dollars in government spending over the next decade.

$413 billion worth of Medicaid fraud over the next decade,” he said, arguing that reforms in this sector would lead to far more meaningful cuts than suspending foreign aid payments.

“At least with foreign investment you don’t become isolationist,” he told DailyMail.com. “Every isolationist country in history has gone the way of the dodo,” he said, referring to the extinct bird.

The Republican claimed that adding income verification for federal health programs would immediately reduce costs.

“If you want to talk about waste, fraud and abuse in the way we file claims… we’ve spent 25 percent of every dollar on health care, and now it’s even more than that on administrative costs.”

“We can adjust this without much pain,” he said with a smile.