cuts, what should be done with the debt overall? guest: we can probably get away with extending it, but the notion that tariffs will replace it? a 60% tariff on china where they didn't retaliate? we can probably get 100 billion per year out of it, tops. extending the tax cuts will costs 300 $50 billion per year. that's about the limit of what we can do. then we get into that kind of 2020 four deficit. 2025 it will be a bit smaller as a percentage of gdp. the economy is growing so rapidly that they can get away with that, that's about the limit. one thing to also recognize and my parting thought is that joe biden will tell you differently. donald trump bequeathed to joe biden a good and strong economy. covid required it to shut down. it was running like an olympic athlete during the trump time.

growing 2.8% per year. when it woke up from covid, it woke up like a prizefighter. for the last eight years the u.s. economy has been accomplishing 8% annualized growth, light years above what obama accomplished. the economy was going gangbusters. this isn't a time to mess with this well oiled machine. host: peter morici, univ -- we would like to hear from you and federal employees. what are your ideas to make government more interesting? before lawmakers met on the house side behind closed doors, speaker mike johnson spoke to a reporter about what he expects from the department of government efficiency. [video clip]

>> we are all excited, we know that you all are excited that they have joined us today. it is the beginning of a journey. you heard what it is all about. it is a new thing, and this is a new day in washington and america. we have long limited the size and scope of the government, and it has grown too large. government is too big and it does almost nothing well, and taxpayers deserve more, they deserve a more efficient government and one that is leaner and more focused on primary objectives and that is the opportunity we have here now. we believe it is an historic moment for the country, and these two gentlemen will help navigate this exciting new day. elon musk does not need much of an introduction, and most of the american people know what they have achieved. oath of these gentlemen have run

successful organizations, they are innovators and forward thinkers. that is what we need right now. [end video clip] host: speaker mike johnson making a plug for the department of -- department of efficiency. there are many ideas of how they would make government more efficient. how would you make it more efficient? that is the conversation this morning for the first hour. gallup did a poll at the end of november asking people if they support this idea. 55% of those polled said they do support making government more efficient. recently here on the washington journal, the union that represents federal employees had this to say about the commission. [video clip] >> we are the ones making sure social security checks are out

on time. we are making sure that our veterans are taking care of. but the truth of the matter is not that they are trying to make the government more efficient. what they are trying to do his contract out the jobs so that when they do this, you know, it is a matter of not the patriotism of people i represent display, but it is about the bottom line and making a dollar. that is what it is all about. i remember, and i'm a retired department of defense employee. i remember the saga when contractors were bidding on our jobs, and the sad thing that i remember is contractors were

charging the government $600. this is the type of thing you get to, where you start contracting out jobs and things like that, it is not cost savings at all. but i would enjoy the opportunity to sit down with the administration to talk about how we make the government more efficient. we are saying we should sit down and have this conversation. if you would really like to talk about making the government more efficient, let's look at medicare. we could save about $60 billion now. when you look at the irs, let's have this conversation. let's have those conversations and talk about how we can be more efficient. [end video clip] host: everett kelly, who were present federal workers on

washington journal recently. how can the federal government to become more efficient? the leaders visited capitol hill, sparking energy for a new day in america. rob, new york, democratic caller . what do you say? caller: you are doing a great job as usual. you are for that. there are so many simple fixes. i remember hearing a few years ago that they could streamline the paperwork for health insurance companies from medicare, and save a fortune, but i think ultimately before you start cutting, you have to put proper taxes on those earning more than $400,000 a year, which republicans refuse to do. by the way, oddly, elon musk and

even our incoming new president make fortunes of these tax breaks that have been extended and will likely continue to be extended. i believe you have to remove the cap on social security, on those earning over 126,000, that cap should be removed, and you can shore up social security, so we are not doing the basic things we need to do, raising taxes on those earning more than $400,000. i think it is a big game the republicans are playing. we don't believe in trickle-down economics any longer. thank you for that and for the time. host: michael, republican, pennsylvania. can the government be more efficient? caller: absolutely. thank you for taking my calls. thank you for c-span.

i believe there are so many things the government can do. they admitted they like the idea of making the government more efficient. i report came outside one percent of federal workers in washington, d.c., show up for work five days a week. that is an abuse of our taxpayer money. you hear the stories of orji's and all kinds of things going on in d.c., and you hear the fellow you had on earlier talking about the federal employees union. i think it is really a shame. i believe there is no reason

that federal workers, that government workers should be in unions. it is a shame that has to happen because they have a dog in the fight. the last thing i would like to say is that the department of defense has had seven audits in a row, and they could not meet these audits. they failed every single one of them the last several years, and 14 years before, they started the audits, and that was the first one they were able to come close to doing. host: you say elon musk and we rock look at -- they look at the pentagon and how they spend money? senator bernie sanders tweeted out on december 1, elon musk is right, the pentagon has a budget of 886 billion just failed at

seventh audit and a row. it has lost track of billions. last year, only 13 senators voted against the military industrial complex for love fraud. this must change. for all of you watching this morning, would you say that elon musk and vivek ramaswamy, the cochair of this unofficial informal commission, the department of government efficiency that they should look at the pentagon, and should be first on their list? they also mentioned federal workers. federal employees are using remote work, according to an audit done by the senator. they will make the federal workforce return together job in office, no more work from home. when they are charge of the

119th congress. .22 those programs, i would like to share this headline and story in "the wall street journal," receives gop embrace on capitol hill. president trump promise not to cut social security or medicaid benefits. they would look for waste and fraud in this program but were not put broad cuts. [video clip] >> you tweeted about efficiency, what are some of the efficiency metrics you are looking at the end cutting humans? >> one of the ways you run a business, you look at whether or not the dollars of the company are being used in the highest manner or not.

i think the way the federal government ought to look at the dollars spending on behalf of taxpayers is to look at the taxpayer and shareholder. are we getting the highest out of those taxpayer dollars are not? the question is undeniable. both people would say this. there is a counterintuitive approach, where some of the biggest items are mandated, mandatory that require business to change. it is some of the smaller items that you can move more quickly but add up to be pretty big when you add them all together. for example, half $1 trillion a year not even authorized by congress in terms of spending that is going out the door. the magnitude of waste fraud abuse era or program integrity issues, or even the kinds of

entitlement payments we talk about medicaid, medicare and social security, that adds up to hundreds of billions of dollars in savings, as well. one thing i have noticed coming in as an outsider is that sometimes you use these traditional political debates, philosophical debates about entitlement spending or not as a way to sidestep. in some ways, it is a harder question but the more practical question of what if you could just look at what savings we could get to by making sure nobody, who is not even supposed to receive that payment is getting. it is important to discuss the entitlements before we have that waste and excess era -- error. you get into discussions on whether or not the president has the power to impound fronts. read the statute, it says the president does not have to spend the money if it goes toward wasting quad reviews. it is a bit of a deflection to

say that there is this grand political and philosophical question that we would rather be debating about when in fact there is lower hanging fruit that we can all deliver in ways that require real work and barreling through. [end video clip] host: fever grandma sahni on wednesday -- vivek ramaswamy on wednesday. on thursday, he and elon musk were on capitol hill, and then they worked over to the house site and met with lawmakers behind closed doors. we are asking you to join the conversation in washington. how can the federal government become more efficient? warren, florida, republican. caller: the government needs to get out of the way. social security before they took 2.9 7 trillion away from it,

they said they put bonds in their to pay and 1.5 interest rate, and now it is part of the general fund. they need to eliminate education department, get it back down to the state. they need to pass a budget saying that they will not go over there borrowing of 1.6 trillion year. they need to gather a balanced budget amendment so they can go over 3% or around there, their budget, no more turning money. and they need to do that. no matter what, and they need to eliminate that somehow. host: raanan, tim -- rhonda, democrat, brooklyn. can the government be more efficient?

caller: yes. there's no way for the government to be more efficient without having a strategy, and without calling out the tremendous income inequality, and that is a strategy that we need to as a country and government, we need to address that, so unless you have that as an outstanding primary factor in any decision made, no efficiency is going to be achieved. host: ed in massachusetts, republican. your turn. caller: one of the things i would do is cut all of that funding for ev's and rockets. host: you would start there? caller: and no social security for billionaires. anybody with a private pension.

there are a couple. host: ed commenting on where he would make government more efficient. that is our question for all of you this morning on the first hour of the washington journal. we ask because yesterday on capitol hill, elon musk and vivek ramaswamy were up there talking to all makers, knitting them a taste of what they would do first with this department of government efficiency. they met behind closed doors. republican, tennessee went on x to post this video of his thoughts on meeting with the two gentlemen. [video clip] >> just leaving the dog, and i think the key to the whole thing is in that room. if congress does not have the

guts to do those things that they are talking really big about, it is a waste of time. it is for bureaucrats who put rules and regulations. and that is what scares me. i vote against a lot of stuff. 15 or so red dots on the board and there will be about 400 green lights on the board. that is going

fridge five. he gestured down the hallway. no limited presidential

candidate, the two leaders is that they'll consider hiring much of the federal workforce publishing agencies and to trying to from the expenditures like we have to go through numbers and lawmakers is better and for less money spent to has their own bills and know how much help and will reform might be.