Human Events Daily host Jack Posobiec spoke with Senator Howard Johnson about the federal budget and the role of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in tackling waste and mismanagement.
“I think Elon is doing a brilliant job. It was a brilliant move by Trump to set up the Department of Government Efficiency,” Johnson told Posobiec. “You hear all the complaints from the radical left, the people who feed off big government. This is one of the most brilliant people, most accomplished and effective individuals that has ever walked planet Earth. He’s using his talents to come and identify just outrageous levels of waste, fraud, and abuse. He gave us a number of examples. I don’t want to quote them because I don’t have the numbers right in front of me, but it’s unbelievable what he’s finding in the federal government.”
Johnson’s appearance comes one day after Musk delivered a statement at President Donald Trump’s first Cabinet meeting, highlighting the importance of DOGE’s mission in reducing government waste and addressing the national deficit. Musk, who humorously referred to himself as “tech support,” said a major part of the department’s work involves fixing outdated government computer systems prone to inefficiencies. However, he stressed that the overarching goal is to “help address the enormous deficit.”
“We simply cannot sustain as a country a $2 trillion deficit. Just the interest on the national debt now exceeds the Defense Department spending,” Musk stated. “If this continues, the country will become de facto bankrupt. It’s not an optional thing, it is an essential thing. That’s the reason I’m here.”
“If we don’t do this, America will go bankrupt. That’s why it has to be done.”
Trump has repeatedly said Musk has his full support for the efforts and has even urged him to be more aggressive in his cost-cutting measures. During the Cabinet meeting, Trump set an ambitious goal for DOGE to help save the government $1 trillion.
“We’re looking to get it maybe to $1 trillion, if we can do that. We’re going to start getting to be at a point where we can think in terms of balancing budgets,” Trump said. “And that’s a big—whether it’s this year or next year, I think we’ll be very close to balancing budgets.”
On Wednesday, Trump signed an executive order aimed at further reducing government costs. The order mandates that all federal agencies justify their payments and travel expenses, with these details now being publicly posted. It also requires agencies to work with DOGE to eliminate or modify unnecessary contracts. Additionally, all government-issued credit cards will be frozen for 30 days, except for essential services such as disaster relief.
Senator Johnson said again the importance of patience and legislative action in implementing DOGE’s findings. “We gotta give him time to expose all these things and to get past the lies of the legacy media, the Democrats, our Democrat colleagues. Here’s to truth, here’s how grotesque the waste and abuse of taxpayers’ money and borrowed funds is. We have to end it. We have to take some time and we have to translate what he’s exposing into legislation. All of that is complex and it all takes time,” Johnson said.
This Story originally came from humanevents.com