Capitol Hill lawmakers are starting to meet with tech CEO Elon Musk and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy as they begin forming an advisory panel, dubbed the Department of Government Efficiency, which promises to cut wasteful spending and "dismantle Government Bureaucracy."
The effort has gotten some bipartisan support as Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz has said he would join a caucus aimed at making government more efficacious.
Although the incoming Trump administration, along with Musk and Ramaswamy, have made bold pledges, many of their ideas would require congressional approval.
Much of the federal budget goes toward defense (13%), Medicare (14%) and Social Security (24%). Also, 3.5% of federal spending is on veterans benefits. With well over half of the government's budget going into four buckets, Executive Vice President Brandon Arnold of the National Tax Union said nothing should be left off the table.
RELATED STORY | What to expect from Trump's new Department of Government Efficiency
"If you have these sacred cows that you refuse to touch, you end up making the budget pretty small in terms of what you're actually looking at for waste and inefficiency," he said. "And we know we know very well that there's a lot of waste in, say, the Department of Defense that haven't been able to pass an audit over there.
"So if we go through with a fine tooth comb and find those wasteful weapons systems, find those $200 toilet seats and so forth, we can save substantial money."
Beyond defense spending, reducing costs on entitlement programs could be politically unpopular as the incoming Trump administration says they want to cut $2 trillion from government spending.
"I'm optimistic, yet cautiously so, because I know there's a lot of resistance, both within Capitol Hill and beyond, to touching those very popular programs," Arnold said.
RELATED STORY | Hegseth returns to Capitol Hill as he vows to fight for top Pentagon job
Arnold added that "it's easier to identify waste" than to get Congress to vote to eliminate wasteful programs.
