CARRIE SHEFFIELD: Trump And Congressional Republicans Have A Mandate To Rein In Spending

CARRIE SHEFFIELD: Trump And Congressional Republicans Have A Mandate To Rein In Spending

by | Jan 22, 2025 | Opinion

By Carrie Sheffield |

America is now drowning in $36 trillion in federal debt.

While past efforts to reform our nation’s finances have failed, Washington, D.C. will have a new sheriff in town after Jan. 20, leading a posse with plans to take the bold steps necessary to clean up our fiscal mess. To achieve different results compared to past efforts will require Republican unity.

Thankfully, President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to restore America’s economic stability has close allies in Congress. In an interview with the Daily Caller News Foundation, Republican Kentucky Rep. James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, outlined his new Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Republican Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

“I don’t think there’s going to be any shortage of waste, fraud and abuse for that subcommittee to investigate,” Comer said.

Comer said DOGE will find healthcare savings, through reducing Medicare fraud and reforming areas like pharmaceutical patents and pharmacy benefit managers.

“One of the things I would encourage those to do — in this administration and Pam Bondi — we need to encourage our U.S. attorneys to focus more on Medicare and Medicaid fraud,” Comer said. “It’s not a priority for a lot of jurisdictions, and that’s something that needs to be a priority.”

Comer said Congress will adopt DOGE cuts through a legislative process known as “reconciliation” that doesn’t require a 60-vote threshold in the Senate.

“You’ve got to do it on reconciliation, because you’ll never get 60 votes,” Comer said. “Democrats don’t want to cut anything, right? Nothing.”

Comer’s DOGE bears a similar name to Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which will be run by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.

Trump’s DOGE has set its own deadline at July 4, 2026 (America’s 150th birthday). Comer said he plans to keep his DOGE subcommittee throughout the entire 119th Congress, which ends in January 2027.

Ramaswamy told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo that DOGE is “the greatest effort to downsize government in our lifetime” and that, “We expect certain agencies to be deleted outright.”

Comer said the Department of Education is a prime example of a duplicative federal bureaucracy that has outlived its usefulness.

He said it is duplicative because each state has its own Education Department. Comer said it’s better to cut out the middleman and send federal education funding directly to the states in the form of block grants. Federal student loans can be administered by the Treasury Department.

Comer said he would love to bring Democrats on board, but he is no Pollyanna.

“I have yet to meet a Democrat in Congress that’s concerned about $36 trillion debt, that’s concerned about Social Security running out of money,” Comer said. “There may be one, but I haven’t met them or they’re very secretive on their opinions.”

This can’t wait any longer.

Our debt-to-GDP ratio, e.g. the size of our debt compared to our productive economy, was less than 31 percent in 1980, growing to nearly 57 percent by 2000 and mushrooming to 120 percent today, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. This is unsustainable and will bankrupt America’s future.

Conservatives have a golden opportunity to create a generational shift in America’s fiscal future. The only way these massive spending reforms will take place is if Republicans remain unified.

During Trump’s “off-season,” he garnered a fairly successful track record in primarying squishier Republicans who would be far less likely to use the political muscle we need to stop our fiscal drift. Comer is confident that Trump’s cost-saving agenda will pass, thanks to GOP unity.

“Obviously, I can only speak for the House,” Comer said. “We can get, I think, just about everything they want, passed out of the House.”

We’ve become awash in feckless spending, unmoored by excessive COVID-19 stimulus packages (riddled with fraud), followed by more in Green New Deal scams and pet project giveaways.

Trump and congressional Republicans earned a powerful mandate to rein in government spending, which will also lower inflation. It’s what the American people desire and deserve.

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Originally published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Carrie Sheffield is a contributor to The Daily Caller News Foundation and a senior policy analyst at Independent Women’s Voice.

Petersen Urges Trump To Adopt Arizona Oversight Model For DOGE

Petersen Urges Trump To Adopt Arizona Oversight Model For DOGE

by | Jan 12, 2025 | News

By Daniel Stefanski |

One of Arizona’s top Republican leaders is urging the incoming presidential administration to adopt his state’s regulatory oversight model.

Earlier this month, Senate President Warren Petersen wrote an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal, which was entitled, “Arizona’s Sunset Law Is an Example for DOGE.”

The piece was written as a roadmap to the proposed Department of Government Efficiency to be operated by the next Trump administration. President-elect Donald J. Trump has deputized Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to run this department once the transition in American government becomes effective on January 20.

When Trump announced the formation of DOGE on November 12, he wrote, “It will become, potentially, ‘The Manhattan Project’ of our time. Republican politicians have dreamed about the objectives of ‘DOGE’ for a very long time. To drive this kind of drastic change, the Department of Government Efficiency 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.”

Trump added, “I look forward to Elon and Vivek making changes to the Federal Bureaucracy with an eye on efficiency and, at the same time, making life better for all Americans. Importantly, we will drive out the massive waste and fraud which exists throughout our annual $6.5 Trillion Dollars of Government Spending. They will work together to liberate our Economy, and make the U.S. Government accountable to ‘WE THE PEOPLE.’ Their work will conclude no later than July 4, 2026 – A smaller Government, with more efficiency and less bureaucracy, will be the perfect gift to America on the 250th Anniversary of The Declaration of Independence. I am confident they will succeed!”

In Petersen’s piece for the Journal, he writes, “To make these reforms last beyond his administration, Mr. Trump should also consider pushing for a federal law that has been effective at the state level. Every federal agency should be subject to a periodic sunset review requiring affirmative congressional reauthorization for the agency to continue in existence.”

Petersen added, “The federal government can, and should, learn from the states. Since 1978, Arizona has had a sunset law, which was signed by Democratic Gov. Bruce Babbitt. To combat the sins of government complacency, Arizona law requires the automatic expiration of all state agencies in 10 years or less, unless continued by the Legislature. In recent years, lawmakers have generally renewed agencies for eight years. During an agency’s ‘sunset review process,’ the Legislature’s independent auditor identifies inefficiencies, exposes fraud or abuse, quantifies costs imposed on consumers, and analyzes the continued need for the agency. As part of the review process, agency heads must answer direct criticisms from the testifying public, unshielded by the bureaucratic processes created to discourage accountability.”

The Senate President concluded his appeal to the incoming administration, saying, “The American people, not special interests or bureaucrats, are the sole beneficiary of the sunset review process. Arizona taxpayers have saved millions since 1978 from the repeal of unnecessary regulations and the termination of occupational boards that suppressed competition and inflated the cost of services while fulfilling no government function. Imagine the same for federal taxpayers. DOGE promises to save our nation from collapse beneath the weight of bureaucratic bloat and financial incompetence. I hope Congress goes one step further, ensuring that the good DOGE does is enshrined for many generations to come.”

Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.