President Trump has begun the process of considering how taxpayer dollars are spent in Washington.
This has been spoken and spoken by conservatives, but President Trump and his team are actually doing it. With his administration being postponed for a long time, we couldn't be more satisfied that his administration prioritized this. Like other reform efforts, there are missteps that need to be revised. At a recent meeting with Senate Republicans and Elon Musk, we talked about working together better so we can see that we reach our targets. As President Trump I said it correctly on Thursdayusing “mesulpel rather than hatch” makes it a success for Americans.
But it's past time that we assess how Americans' taxes are being spent and what they are spending. We have massive national debt and operate at least $1 trillion in deficit each year.
The Doge's Work products are amazing and I admire their efforts. They find outrageous examples of useless spending that should anger Democrats, Republicans, independents, libertarians and vegetarians.
For example, Doge discovered that between 2020 and 2021, US Small Business Management issued more than 3,000 loans. total Over $300 million is available to borrowers over the age of 115. This is still marked “living” in the Social Security database.
Agriculture Secretary Brook Rollins in partnership with Doge; It was excavated and cancelled $324,671 in funding to “enhance diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility within integrated pest management.” The goal of grant funding was to “foster cultural change and foster a more inclusive community within an integrated pest management discipline.”
Through Doge's effortsmore than $10 million in NIH funds have been cancelled.
– $1.7 million for “Chinese Health and Resignation Longitudinal Study” at Peking University in Beijing, China
– $135,000 for research grant to China Medical University, China Yang
– $142,000 to “use telehealth to improve access to gender-affirming care”
– $1.3 million to “change the health of young adult gender divers”
– $120,000 for “Personalized 3D Avatar Tool Development” focusing on “Gender Identity”
– $400,000 to investigate “minority stress and sources of alcohol consumption” among “adults reporting uncertainty about sexual orientation”
– $160,000 to investigate “racialized sexual discrimination” among “young sexual minority men of color”
– $241,000 for “Interventions to Promote Healthy Relationships between Transgender and Spread Young People of Gender”
The money taxpayers send to Washington is hardworking and should be respected, not wasted. Certainly government has a role in our lives, but your hard-earned taxes should be treated with respect, not with a sense of qualification.
The question is how do you cut the crazy things they find on the federal budget?
The answer is through a process called retraction. This allows the White House to bundle its spending reduction packages and send it to Congress for approval. The withdrawal package must come from the White House and there are some budgetary restrictions on how and what can be reduced.
But I think much of what Doge discovers fits into these parameters. President Trump tried to use this process in 2018 to reduce federal spending. Unfortunately, we were two votes short in the Senate. But the Americans are speaking again, arguing for President Trump's attitude and the attitude and assertion that the situation in Washington is most certainly rewarding.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) will speak at a press conference with other members of the Senate Republican Party at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC on February 11, 2025.
By using the withdrawal process, we can reduce waste from the government and restore the public's confidence that things are changing for the better in Washington. I will work with the House and Senate to urge the White House to put together a withdrawal package using Doge's working products as soon as possible.
We need to demonstrate to American taxpayers that we are not only talking to Congressional Trump administration and Republican majority about reducing waste from the federal budget, but we are actually doing that.
The Senate Budget Committee is crucial to this process as it is permitted to be withdrawn under the Congressional Budget and Water Storage Management Act of 1974. As chairman of the Budget Committee, I welcome the withdrawal package from the White House, built around Doge's working products. The sooner the process is, the better the taxpayer will be.
Additionally, this spending reduction package can be passed by a simple majority vote. In other words, if all Republicans in the House and Senate voted for the withdrawal package, it would pass without a single democratic vote. But I hope Democrats vote for Republicans to eliminate the outrageous, sometimes comical spending discovered by Doge.
Again, hated to Doge for their amazing work. The more they find, the more we can do. It is possible to do multiple withdrawal packages and you should start that effort now.
Lindsey Graham is a US Senator representing South Carolina and the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. Follow him with X @lindseygrahamsc
