Warren sends Musk 30 ideas for DOGE to cut government spending

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) sent tech billionaire Elon Musk 30 ideas for how the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) could cut government spending.

Warren's Thursday letter to Musk, President Trump’s close ally and the commission’s chair, recommended that he consider numerous progressive policy proposals, including allowing Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices, renegotiating Department of Defense (DOD) contracts and curbing tax loopholes for large corporations and the highest earners.

“With regard to policy, I am disturbed by the dangerous proposals you have discussed and released to date: proposals from you and your allies to cut Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, veterans’ benefits, and other programs that tens of millions of Americans count on and rely on are unrealistic and cruel,“ Warren wrote in a 21-page letter.

“It would be outrageous to cut these programs in the name of government thriftiness while handing out trillions of dollars in tax cuts for billionaires and big corporations,” she added, but she also said the notion that the “federal government spends trillions of dollars on wasteful spending is correct. And if you are serious about working together in good faith to cut government spending — in a way that does not harm the middle class — I have proposals for your consideration.”

Warren’s prime proposal when it comes to slashing spending is renegotiating DOD contracts, arguing contractors often price-gouge the department. The progressive senator highlighted a inspector general report from 2011 that discovered military contractors often raise prices. She then recommended that Congress pass the bipartisan "Stop Price Gouging the Military Act to close loopholes in acquisition laws that make it nearly impossible for DOD to obtain the data they need to negotiate fair deals.”

Warren said that her recommendations around defense spending would allow the government to save almost $200 billion over the next 12 years.

The senator also proposed that Medicare should negotiate drug prices and crack down on pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs).

“DOGE should support Congressional efforts to crack down on PBMs and see that the FTC follows through with this lawsuit to save the federal government and taxpayers billions of dollars,” Warren wrote, referring to the lawsuits the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed in September last year against three giant PBMs.

Warren's letter comes after former 2024 Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy departed the commission to focus on running for governor in Ohio.

Musk has said DOGE would help curb some $2 trillion in government spending over the next 10 years. Earlier this month, Musk told former President Clinton adviser Mark Penn that the figure would be a “best-case outcome.”

Warren has been critical of Musk, who backed Trump’s 2024 campaign with at least $250 million, and she has asked the president what ethics standards were put in place to prevent conflicts of interest.

“Putting Mr. Musk in a position to influence billions of dollars of government contracts and regulatory enforcement without a stringent conflict of interest agreement in place is an invitation for corruption on a scale not seen in our lifetimes,” Warren said in a letter to Trump.

Musk has gone after Warren before, agreeing in late 2022 that the U.S. has “definitely” been harmed by having Warren as a senator.

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