The real question is why does the Vice President need a dedicated staff of national security and other advisors? Per the Constitution she has no policy making role. Her only two duties are to preside over the Senate, casting a vote only in the event of a tie, and assuming the role of POTUS in the event the office becomes vacant between elections.
The Executive branch of the government, to which Kamala belongs, has thousands of employees. If she has a need for advice or information, she should simply consult one of the president’s advisors or cabinet officers. There is no need for a dedicated staff. As for her legislative role as president of the Senate, Congress has a huge staff she can consult. Again, no need for the taxpayer to provide her with a huge staff when the resources are available.
Our government is wasting trillions of dollars. If the GOP wins control of Congress, and thereby assumes responsibility for the budget, slashing the bloated staff of the Vice President is a good symbolic place to start the process of getting rid of the fat. A 10% across the board headcount reduction in every department would be good second step as well as firing the outside consultants and ending the bonus payments to federal executive service employees. Then get on to the real work of eliminating, or turning over to the states, most functions of the departments of Education, Labor, Commerce, HUD, Energy, Homeland Security, Transportation, HHS as well as ending subsidies of the Postal Service, Amtrak, PBS, National Endowment for the Arts, and a myriad of other organizations. All the GOP House of Representatives has to do is make these changes to the appropriations bill, and with GOP Senate approval it goes to the president.
If the President and Democrats scream it isn’t enough, suggest they develop and submit in a separate bill and for a separate vote all of the additional items they feel should be included. Likely they will refuse and the president will veto the appropriations bill. If they do submit a separate bill with more spending items, hold a vote and reject it. If the president vetos the spending bill passed by Congress, Congress should hold another vote on the original bill and send it back to the president with no changes. The Dems will scream about a government shutdown. Let the government shut down and tell the people the money to run the government was appropriated but the president refused to honor the “democratic process”. The fault is his. Hang tough, resubmit the appropriations bill everyday and tell the press he all he has to do is sign and the government will be funded. Eventually the president will have to cave, though it may take several weeks and the negative press will be more than we’ve ever seen.
If a GOP majority Congress won’t go to the mat with a Democrat president over the federal budget, and force major spending reductions, all of the talk about electing a Republican majority this year is just wasted breath. The nation will just go down the tubes and the Republicans can take credit for not using the levers of power to stop it.
I remember back when Biden was VP, he had his own “personal economist”. That guy’s job was to go on the daytime biz channels and talk up Baraq’s economic plan.
Think bigger. Harding cut the federal staffing 30% in his first and only 1 1/2 years. And that was before the bloat had gotten very far.