Posted on 11/23/2024 2:18:18 PM PST by DFG
President-elect Donald Trump’s big plan to have Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy shape federal cost cutting has a new partnership with the Senate.
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) will take charge of a new Senate DOGE Caucus, which will work with the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Musk and Ramaswamy.
The DOGE group will be eyeing massive cuts to federal spending and the government workforce. The commission has been tasked with coordinating with and advising the White House and Office of Management and Budget.
“The tables are finally turning, the knives are out, and waste is on the chopping block,” Ernst said in a statement. “The Senate DOGE Caucus is ready to carry out critical oversight in Congress and use our legislative force to fight against the entrenched bureaucracy, trim the fat, and get Washington back to work for Americans.”
“We look forward to partnering with the Senate to downsize government. Grateful to Sen. Joni Ernst for her excellent suggestions yesterday!” Ramaswamy posted Friday on social media.
The New York Post first reported Ernst’s leadership of the new caucus.
The pair met at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort Thursday night, according to a person familiar with the meeting.
Other founding members of the caucus are Sens. Ted Budd (R-N.C.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) and James Lankford (R-Okla.). None serve on the Senate Appropriations Committee, which writes federal spending bills.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
Make sure we remember she got elected by saying she knew how to cut nuts. That’s what’s gonna happen.
This is not from Trump. Tgey call themselves DOGE it’s like wicked ripping off the wizard of Oz
This senate hates Trump more than anyone on MSNBC. And I mean the GOP
Scott and Tuberville are blacklisted. What does that say?
UGH.
We need an abolish caucus.
IRS - abolish; DoE - abolish; etc etc
Doge (duke) was the head of state of the Venetian republic. I'm curious as to why they picked that acronym.
This is rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. There is already a Senate Budget Committee, which is supposed to set overall spending limits. There are the myriad authorizing committees; these should be passing the budget in regular order each and every year, but it’s been many years since Congress has done that. Joni Ernst is already the Chair of the Republican Policy Committee, which is a creation of the Republican caucus and has no Democrats to throw sand in the gears.
The congressional budget process has completely collapsed. That’s been true for years. Everything comes down to an annual Perils of Pauline kabuki dance on an Omnibus Appropriation or Continuing Resolution, which emerges from the backrooms in the nick of time to avert the always-looming shutdown.
The same Senators who serve on these committees, in some as yet to be announced combination, will serve on the DOGE Committee. So what will the DOGE Committee do that all the other committees aren’t already supposed to be doing?
Nothing.
But there will be another title to be handed out and another official staff, with another set of stationary.
The DOGE Committee is simply reshuffling the deck, with the same cards in the hand.
I cautiously hope the upcoming Congress will be at least marginally better than its recent predecessors. Republicans now have the majority and so get to control the process. And Republicans will now have 53 seats plus JD Vance to break ties, so we can lose three RINOs on any given vote and still get something to the floor.
But the core problem is the same as it has been all along. To put forward a Republican whatever, one has to round up a majority of the Republican caucus. That is for starters and it is doable ... but one then needs 51 votes on the floor, or 50 with JD Vance, and then 60 to break the automatic filibuster.
The democrats had talked themselves into ending the filibuster in the last session but were stopped by Manchin and Sinema. The democrats will now get a reminder that the filibuster serves a useful purpose. The big issue at this point is that whichever party eliminates the filibuster will gain an important first mover advantage, provided that it also controls the House and the White House. Republicans will be sorely tempted now. But control will flip again.
The DOGE caucus is just to present a facade of fiscal responsibility. They will most assuredly latch on to any cuts Musk and Ramaswamy identify and then nibble around the edges so they can pretend they are eliminating government largess, but preventing any real reform. Ernst has voted for just about every spending bill Biden wanted and voted against Hawley’s attempt to audit Ukraine funding.
Ernst come in talking tough. She’s really let Iowa down. She has quickly fallen in line with the swamp. Grassley must have converted her.
Congress is irrelevant to DOGE. It is designed to work without their approval or dissaproval. Read Elon and Viveks’ editorial in the WSJ Opinion Journal.
So Ramaswamy and Musk are mimicking the unelected bureaucrats they complain about ?????
Seriously though, if the administration starts bypassing Congress in making major revisions to the Federal government, it will lead to trouble and conflict down the road. The administration should be building consensus not throwing it aside.
Compared to Ernst, Grassley is Buford Pusser.
She served in the Iowa Army National Guard from 1993 to 2015, retiring as a ‘lieutenant colonel’.
....During the Iraq War, she served as the commanding officer of the 1168th Transportation Company in Kuwait and later commanded the 185th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion at Camp Dodge, the Iowa Army National Guard’s largest battalion.
Ernst had served 23 years in the Army Reserve and the Army National Guard.... Her awards included:.... the ‘Meritorious Service Medal’,.... ‘Army Commendation Medal’.... ‘Army Achievement Medal’,.... ‘Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal’,..... and ‘Global War on Terrorism Service Medal’.
Lady is a sound leader!
Ernst received widespread attention for a campaign advertisement she released in March 2014,..... in which she made a tongue-in-cheek comparison between her experience castrating pigs and her ability to “cut pork” in Congress.
Trump will have to put everything in the omnibus bill so the Democrats can’t use the filibuster.
Doge (duke) was the head of state of the Venetian republic. I’m curious as to why they picked that acronym.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
About a year ago I went through the Palace of the Doge at San Marco Square, then crossed over the Bridge of Sighs, so named for the lamentations of the prisoners who crossed it on the way to their execution.
“She’s really let Iowa down. She has quickly fallen in line with the swamp. Grassley must have converted her.”
Totally disagree
We are lucky to have both represent us.
Grassley does great work.
She had so much potential. A number of people I knew sold me on her in 2014; I was aware that she was a bit beholdin' to Mitt Romney, but I thought he had receded far enough back into the hedge that she'd stay on course. I wuz wrong.
Ernst showed up during the Tea Party Movement, military vet, riding a Harley, and grinning ‘Make ‘Em Squeal’. I tried to warn that she never made or sought any Tea Party endorsement.
Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad wanted his Lt.Gov. Kim Reynolds to run for Senate, but Reynolds successfully championed Ernst instead. They’re all more traditionally Republican conservative rather than Tea Party or MAGA.
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