U.S. Cynthia Lummis has made cutting government spending a top priority since first running for Congress in 2008.
Tech entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are now catching wide attention for their ambitious agenda to cut federal spending with the help of their outside advisory council, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), in President-elect Donald Trump’s upcoming administration.
A similarly-acronymed Delivering Outstanding Government Efficiency Caucus has been announced in Congress, and Lummis is a founding member.
Lummis told Cowboy State Daily on Friday it will be helpful for Musk and Ramaswamy’s cause to have some back-up support in Congress.
“It’s a Herculean effort,” she said.
DOGE Convention
Lummis said the general purpose of the caucus is to support Musk and Ramaswamy’s efforts in Congress.
On Thursday night, Lummis attended a meeting on Capitol Hill attended by Musk and Ramaswamy that she described as “a positive step.” She expects there to be around a dozen U.S. senators and 50-60 House members in the caucus.
“Members of Congress were very anxious to share their ideas with them and to warn them that not only will they face obstacles from the executive branch, they will face obstacles in Congress,” Lummis said. “But we’re with them and want to help them achieve their very impressive and significant goals.”
Lummis said she speaks with Ramaswamy frequently and had been in touch with him about government efficiency efforts during Trump’s campaign, a particular focus for Ramaswamy that he’s written books about as well as the effects of critical race theory and diversity, equity and inclusion mandates on public life.
“I encouraged him to pursue this,” Lummis said of Ramaswamy. “I was very pleased that he joined forces with Elon.”
Ramaswamy ran a short-lived campaign against Trump early on leading up to the Republican primary.
Some say they have grave concerns that Musk and Ramaswamy will gut federal government funding with their DOGE group, which could lead to a mass layoff of federal government employees.
Lummis expects federal agencies to resist their efforts, but also said Congress itself could present some hurdles.
“Congress has proven itself not very good at making significant changes that address our terrible fiscal situation,” she said.
Potential Targets
Musk and Ramaswamy have generally advocated for a smaller federal government, looser regulations and a private sector approach to managing the public sector.
They’ve also stated more ambitious goals such as slashing federal spending by $2 trillion, which would represent a nearly one-third cut in overall spending.
“If you’re going to leave the social safety net programs alone and not touch them, that means you’re going to try to cut hundreds of billions of dollars out of discretionary spending” if you want to achieve massive, DOGE-style reductions, U.S. Rep. Steve Womack, R-Arkansas, told CNBC. “It would be very difficult to do that without cutting national security.”
But Lummis said the Department of Defense would be one her first targets. In November, the Pentagon released the findings of its fiscal 2024 annual audit, and for the seventh consecutive year it failed. Studying these audits, Lummis said, would be a first priority.
“If we’re looking for low hanging fruit, all we have to do is pick up the Department of Defense audits and go through them and see what the auditors identified as complete failures,” Lummis said.
Lummis mentioned President Joe Biden’s handling of the troop withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 as another source of frustration. In this hasty pull out, 13 U.S. service members were killed and hundreds more of Americans left behind under the Taliban’s brutal rule.
In addition, about $7 billion worth of military equipment that the U.S. transferred to the Afghan government over the course of 16 years it was in the country was left behind after the U.S. pulled out.
“Just walking away and leaving that for the Taliban,” Lummis said. “I think that’s an example of tremendous waste and an ill-advised effort.”
Lummis doesn’t understand why Americans were told to evacuate from the country’s capital of Kabul rather than the more discreet Bagram Airfield located 60 kilometers to the north, an approach Lummis describes as “government stupidity.”
“That was asinine,” Lummis said.
AI Improvements
Lummis doesn’t expect either DOGE group to make any significant changes on cryptocurrency, one of her particular focus points.
What she does expect is the use of artificial intelligence to make the government more efficient.
“There really are things that can be handled administratively through intelligence that could limit the number of humans needed to return to work,” Lummis said.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, many federal workers have not returned to their offices, allowed to work from home instead. Lummis believes there will be a strong consideration for replacing these employees with AI technology.
Musk is a particular expert on AI applications in business, using it to streamline his own operations at X (formerly Twitter) and Tesla.
“I’m sure Elon is going to be looking at ways to use the large language models to create artificial intelligence applications to reduce the demand for federal employees,” Lummis said.
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
