Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy — who will be heading up President-elect Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency — indicated that federal funding for Planned Parenthood is among the items that may be cut.
In a joint opinion piece for The Wall Street Journal published Nov. 20, the two wrote, “DOGE will help end federal overspending by taking aim at the $500 billion plus in annual federal expenditures that are unauthorized by Congress or being used in ways that Congress never intended, from $535 million a year to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and $1.5 billion for grants to international organizations to nearly $300 million to progressive groups like Planned Parenthood.”
Planned Parenthood is the nation’s largest abortion provider, with a yearly revenue of over $2 billion, according to the group’s 2022-2023 annual report.
A DOGE post on X that same day further explained, “In FY2024, U.S. Congress provided $516 billion to programs whose authorizations previously expired under federal law. Nearly $320 billion of that $516 billion expired more a decade ago.”
The post included a link to a July Congressional Budget Office report outlining the $516 billion in expired appropriations.
In FY2024, U.S. Congress provided $516 billion to programs whose authorizations previously expired under federal law. Nearly $320 billion of that $516 billion expired more a decade ago.
Source: https://t.co/gJrbK5egzS
— Department of Government Efficiency (@DOGE) November 21, 2024
In their Journal opinion piece, Musk and Ramaswamy laid out the broad approach they will be taking to slash government waste and inefficiency.
“President Trump has asked the two of us to lead a newly formed Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, to cut the federal government down to size,” the two explained.
Should Planned Parenthood be defunded?
“The entrenched and ever-growing bureaucracy represents an existential threat to our republic, and politicians have abetted it for too long. That’s why we’re doing things differently. We are entrepreneurs, not politicians. We will serve as outside volunteers, not federal officials or employees. Unlike government commissions or advisory committees, we won’t just write reports or cut ribbons. We’ll cut costs,” Musk and Ramaswamy pledged.
Their efforts will focus on three kinds of reforms: regulation rescissions, administrative reductions and cost savings.
A synergy will be created as the DOGE focuses on regulations to be rescinded, which will lead to less people in government needed to enforce the bureaucratic decrees and thereby a smaller government that costs less.
“A drastic reduction in federal regulations provides sound industrial logic for mass head-count reductions across the federal bureaucracy. DOGE intends to work with embedded appointees in agencies to identify the minimum number of employees required at an agency for it to perform its constitutionally permissible and statutorily mandated functions,” Musk and Ramaswamy wrote.
“The number of federal employees to cut should be at least proportionate to the number of federal regulations that are nullified: Not only are fewer employees required to enforce fewer regulations, but the agency would produce fewer regulations once its scope of authority is properly limited,” they added.
The businessmen said the DOGE will help these unnecessary federal workers transition to the private sector. “The president can use existing laws to give them incentives for early retirement and to make voluntary severance payments to facilitate a graceful exit,” they pointed out.
Another means Musk and Ramaswamy noted that could be used to shrink the federal workforce — which is over 2 million in all, excluding the military — is requiring federal employees to come to the office five days a week.
Such a directive “would result in a wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome: If federal employees don’t want to show up, American taxpayers shouldn’t pay them for the Covid-era privilege of staying home,” the two wrote.
Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst sent a letter to Musk and Ramaswamy on Monday laying out what she said would be a way to readily cut $1 trillion annually from the federal budget.
In fiscal year 2024, which ended Sept. 30, federal spending was $6.75 trillion, with a total revenue of $4.92 trillion, resulting in a $1.83 trillion deficit.
Spending is up significantly from FY 2019 when the federal government spent $4.4 trillion during Trump’s first administration before the pandemic. The deficit was $984 billion that year.
Musk said he believes $2 trillion can be trimmed from annual federal spending.
Government overspending is what creates inflation.
We need to make that link crystal clear to the American people! https://t.co/E97dzPFaw3
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 27, 2024
Musk explained while campaigning for Trump this fall that the massive deficits year after year are a primary cause of inflation because the Treasury Department borrows and the Federal Reserve prints more money to help fund the government.
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