Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) criticized President-elect Trump's choice to chair the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) committee, saying, “He's a millionaire among people,” he said.
“Let's be honest about DOGE and this. It's a joke,” he said on MSNBC Thursday evening, noting that DOGE “is not an actual department of this government.”
President Trump nominated tech billionaire Elon Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy to head the advisory board, a decision that sparked much controversy.
DOGE was created to “cut wasteful spending” and help rebuild the government. Trump also said he would “provide advice and guidance” from outside the government. Several members of Congress from both sides have already joined relevant caucuses, with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) already slated to chair a subcommittee related to DOGE and its efforts. be.
“I'm all for making government more efficient, but we need to consider the proposition here,” said Frost, who was re-elected to a second term in the House last month. “Their proposal is that in order to make government more efficient, we have to lay off a lot of people and take away a lot of money.
“And that lack of nuance and actually providing real oversight on how to make government work in a better way shows that they're not approaching this issue on the right foot and in the right place.” It shows me directly that I am not working on it.”
Mr. Musk and Mr. Ramaswamy joined Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill Thursday on DOGE and heard proposals on how to cut spending and government waste. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) said Thursday's meeting would not immediately lead to concrete plans.
