Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., seems to support the newly-formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), after criticizing the Pentagon’s budget and failed audits on social media and acknowledging, “Elon Musk is right.”
President-elect Trump selected Musk and former GOP presidential contender Vivek Ramaswamy to lead DOGE in an effort to curb the government’s wasteful expenditure.
On Sunday, Sanders addressed the issue of wasteful spending in a post on X.
“Elon Musk is right,” he wrote. “The Pentagon, with a budget of $886 billion, just failed its 7th audit in a row. It’s lost track of billions. Last year, only 13 senators voted against the Military Industrial Complex and a defense budget full of waste and fraud. That must change.”
Musk responded to Sanders’ comment with two American flags.
Sanders did not reply to Fox News Digital’s request for comment right away.
This post comes as Musk continues to criticize government spending on social media. For instance, he shared a post from DOGE’s X account about the California High-Speed Rail Project. Originally estimated in 2008 to cost $33 billion, the project’s current projected cost is between $88.5 and $127.9 billion. The post also highlighted that the project, initially set to be completed in 2020, has yet to transport anyone, and most of the railway remains undrafted. The project has already received $6.8 billion in federal funding, with the project team now asking for an additional $8 billion.
Musk commented on the post by writing, “The government needs to stop wasting your hard-earned money!”
In another post shared by Musk, he is seen speaking in front of an American flag.
“The interest that we owe on our national debt is now higher than the defense budget. Over a trillion dollars and growing. The country is going to go bankrupt,” he said. “That’s why we need the department of Government Efficiency, D.O.G.E., on a brass plaque on a desk.”
Just last week, Musk pointed out that many people are unaware that the national debt even exists.
“Those that do often don’t know how big it is or that our interest payments now exceed what we spend on our military. Only a small % understand that government overspending causes inflation,” he said on X.
The national debt has now surpassed $36 trillion.
“America is going bankrupt fast,” Musk warned in another post.
“The excess government spending is what causes inflation! ALL government spending is taxation. This is a very important concept to appreciate. It is either direct taxation, like income tax, or indirect via inflation due to increasing the money supply,” he stated in a tweet earlier this month.
Trump mentioned in a statement that DOGE “will provide advice and guidance from outside of government and will partner with the White House and Office of Management & Budget to drive large-scale structural reform and create an entrepreneurial approach to government never seen before.”
In a Wall Street Journal opinion article, Musk and Ramaswamy explained that they will operate “as outside volunteers, not federal officials or employees.”
{Matzav.com}