they be not the circumstances you want to drive that decision, but that is what is happening and it needs to transition to more local control. host: what also you working today on capital -- working on today on capitol hill? guest: we have issues coming up in energy and commerce. name, image, and like this, that is a huge deal. college sports. have to do something in that arena. now it is a free-for-all with money going to student athletes and all kinds of agencies and potentially bad interests getting involved in that. that is kind of on the short-term radar. different topic entirely but important one. we want to save college sports. don't typically like the federal government to get involved, but now we need to because there is a lot of bad stuff going on. host: let's have you want on the road to talk about that issue and others you are working on on capitol hill. a member of the energy and.

good friday morning to you. you can start calling inow. we begin on x, a question that he proposed to his 216 million followers earlier this week, asking -- would you like doge to audit the irs? one of the responses that he reived was from the ways and means chairman of the u.s. house , congressman jason smith, posting a cartoon showing elon musk as the grim reaper, knocking on the door of the irs. other federal agency doors that have been opened after being knocked on, the fbi and the u.s. agency for international development. a lot of scrutiny around cuts and changes that usaid, whether that agency will be folded into the larger state department. it was yesterday at the white house that the press secretary, caroline levitt, answered

questions about those changes at usaid. this is what she had to say. [video clip] >> secretary rubio is the acting administrator of usaid, we have streamlined it into the state department -- hello, rachel -- and we want to be sure we are being good stewards of taxpayer dollars. he's going line by line to make sure that foreign aid to private and public organizations, government organizations, line up with american interests. >> 2% of federal employees have accepted the buyout offer. is that less than the white house was anticipating? >> last time i checked in with the office of personnel management, there were more than 40,000 federal workers who had accepted the buyout program. we expect the number to increase. that alone, just the 40,000, is going to save the american people tens of millions of

dollars and we encourage federal workers in the city to accept the very generous offer. if they don't want to show up to the office and rip off the american people, they can take the buyout and we will find highly competent individuals to fill the roles. host: caroline levitt from the white house yesterday. we are asking this morning what cuts would you make to doge the federal government in the wake of the cuts that have already come down? it was the congressional progressive caucus that held a press constant -- press conference expressing concerns over what they've done already. this was a part of that meeting, yesterday. [video clip] >> today we are here with one voice to say fire elon musk. unelected, unaccountable billionaire who now has seemingly unlimited powers over american private data and over american taxpayer dollars. it seems that every hour brings

more news about a new threat that elon musk poses to working people. a new way that elon musk wants to take your hard earned money and keep it for himself. just yesterday, he threatened to go after medicare and medicaid. just yesterday we also learned that head start programs serving 20,000 young students are locked out of their federal funding by elon musk. to be clear, that means that you have a billionaire, the richest person on earth willing to take away your health care, willing to take away kids lunches and meals, willing to take away pre-k, just so that he can finance a tax rate for himself and his billionaire buddies. just last night, elon musk came out and we found out that he is interfering with air traffic

control. when muska took over twitter, he repeatedly crashed that platform. it's not a big deal if your app does not load one day. it is a huge deal if you don't know if your plane is going to crash or not. if we don't fight back, elon musk will take dollars away from our public schools, our health care, social security, away from our own safety systems and use the dollars to line his own pockets. we are here fighting for a country that is by and for the people. not by and for the ultrarich. host: texas democrat greg gosar there, focusing on elon musk. elon musk posted this cartoon of a sign in front of the white house, beware of doge. if you were to answer his inquiries about where he should target the priorities of doge,

what cuts would you make if any? phone lines for republicans, democrats, and independents as usual. starting on the independent line, marlene, minnesota, good morning. caller: i would like to say that i would like to actually have them go through every one of our federal departments. being as we are speaking about the social security and medicare , i can tell you that as a person that has been fraudulently billed to my medicare, which i reported, there is so much fraud going on in our social security. and in our medicare. and medicaid. i do believe that all he is doing is looking for the fraud and the waste. i don't know why people are getting so wound up and lying

about what he's doing. i just, i don't see it. he's not making -- he's giving the information to the president. and then the president will make the decision. elon musk is not doing it on his own. you know? it's -- he's giving the advice to the president and then they can make the decisions. he is not doing this all on his own. that is what -- i don't understand why these democrats, and the people of the united states, don't want to stop all of this fraud and stuff that's going on in our country. it's our money. why are they being so defendant of our money? host: that is marlene and minnesota. here's two beds today, first from "the new york times," writing "it isn't reform, its

sabotage, musk and trump are launching a frontal attack on the government." the lead editorial from "the washington times," "the doge free up -- freak out and flamed the debate over federal spending." that some of the debate in today's papers. your thoughts this morning, mark in oklahoma, good morning. caller:[sneezing] good morning. host: good morning, mark. caller: i think they need to cut the irs, going after people from taxes. they did a big hiring. we could switch them to then border patrol and stuff. one of my main concerns is they are talking about taking whatever, country sides, taking them overseas, building them up and making them into investment

buildings and stuff. but he's cutting all of these other government jobs in programs and stuff. if we are going to save money, are we going to throw it over there and spend it on something like that? host: that was mark and oklahoma. this is robert in texas, amarillo, good morning. caller: the answer to your question is -- i don't know. let me explain why. the significance of good democratic party policy has been demonstrated by bill clinton, jfk, and most importantly fdr. in the book, paul dickinson, the author, explains how fdr established a draft with an 87% approval rating, way before pearl harbor saved the world.

today the magnitude of intellectual dishonesty in the democratic party has destroyed fdr's legacy. so, let me provide some evidence of my assertion by mr. hakeem jeffries. when we call january 6, perhaps pull up the clip, a day of infamy, which fdr used to explain the entire pacific fleet to the nation. by the way, mr. jeffries has no support in his own district, new york eight. he actually received fewer votes than the loser in new york 17. host: robert, he was just reelected in november. caller: let me explain. mr. jeffries was in the wall street journal a few days ago, trying to change the rules to fill the seat of miss stuff

ionic. mind you, mr. jeffries should resign immediately, as he demonstrates a high level of intellectual dishonesty. host: that's robert in texas. back to the independent line. mark, jefferson, colorado. caller: good morning, america. i want everybody to think about this. as doge cruises through the computers of the united states, what is he doing in the veterans affairs computers? disabled veterans, why is he pulling our names, addresses, social security numbers, bank routing and account numbers? this is happening to everybody in america, starting in the treasury department. one of his "experts" is a 19-year-old hacker, freshman at northwestern. what is he doing routing through your computer? the further question arises, how much is that information work on the black web?

go to that 19-year-old kid and say -- i will give you a million dollars cash in an offshore account for 50,000 names, bank accounts and routing numbers. america, concern yourself with our security, because our security portals are in the toilet. good morning, america. protect yourself. have a good day. host: that was mark in colorado. some doge staffers are now getting the spotlight from media organizations, including "the wall street journal." this is one of their headlines today. key staff or over racist posts on x. one of the staffers who gave access to the central payment system resigned yesterday after he was linked to the deleted social media account that advocated eugenics and racism. a 25-year-old who is a part of the cadre of the elon musk lieutenants deployed by the department of government

efficiency to scrutinize federal spending resigning after the journal asked the white house about his connection to the account. "for the record, i was racist before it." that account posted back in july. "you could not pay me to marry outside my ethnicity," it posted in september. "normalize indian hate." has emerged at the center of the legal battle over access to taxpayer information and systems the treasury department uses to process trillions and payments annually. that story again from "the wall street journal" today. vivian, good morning. caller: thank god you have -- you are there to help us voice our opinion. trump is trying to turn us just like apartheid america. elon musk is from south africa. if you remember the pain they put those people through? they are doing the same thing, sir, to us, like my

brother-in-law from nigeria, saying elon musk is doing the same thing to us, what they did for all of those years to the people over there in south africa. please, wake up. democrats, republicans, independents. this is what they are doing. host: to the question we asked, are there any agencies that you think should be cut or should receive some scrutiny in your view? caller: no, we need all the agencies we got. we need medicare, medicaid, school lunches for children. we need the veterans benefits. we need all of it. we need protection for our children in school. they are not talking about that. they are talking about cutting out stuff. what about them getting guns, blowing our children's brains out in school. no republicans said anything about it. democrats need to wake up and put it all out there, let them see what they are trying to do

to america. you all will be next, they will want to take you off the air. host: that's vivian in tennessee. fernando, good morning. caller: good morning. i think that what should be eliminated and must be eliminated if america is going to get by, we are the welfare of the world. america must wake up. democrats, liberals, independents and republicans, stop giving our money to other nations. if they cannot grow their own food, we can't make -- keep maintaining people that want to have 8, 9 babies and are starving to death. this a crooked way of stealing money and funding it to other things outside of this country. these people should be put in jail, just like the governor. trump was good, didn't lock him up. that guy, he let the hollywood

burn for a reason. two weeks before that, nobody's talking. i'm mad at the republicans. they are afraid to speak up and democrats are going crazy and saying all kinds of lies in the street in the cities to rise the people up to turn against the republicans, but they don't look at the facts. they burned down that city. host: that was fernando in new york city. the debate that he started there, usaid overseas, playing out on the floors of the house and senate this week. this from the senate on wednesday, louisiana republican john kennedy repent -- criticizing his democratic colleagues for not expressing concerns over certain programs. [video clip] >> this is the kind of stuff that mr. musk found. he, he, he found that the u.s. id -- usaid gave money, our

money, taxpayer money, to vietnam, usaid, he found, gave money to a transgender clinic in india. i didn't know that. i bet the american people didn't know that. it's he found that usaid gave $1.5 million to a serbian lgbtq group. it's a doge, probably mispronounce that. apologies. 1.5 million dollars to advance diversity and equity inclusion in serbian workplaces and bits this communities. what else did mr. musk found? my colleagues don't want to talk about it? well. he reviewed a study. he went and checked it. the study was done by the middle east forum.

they found that usaid spent 164 million dollars to support radical organizations. we are not talking cub scout troops here. we are talking about radical organizations around the world. they gave $122 million of that two groups online with foreign terrorist organizations. our taxpayer money. according to this report from mr. musk, usaid has given millions of dollars to " organizations in gaza. controlled by hamas. why? why? why are -- my colleagues, talking about that? host: john kennedy on the floor of the senate. that was wednesday.

this is today's op-ed page of "the wall street journal." "the left didn't always love usaid. "it may look like a cherished agency of political progressives but has often faced opposition from centrist liberals. many vocal left-leaning groups behaving as though usaid is an apolitical agency would have employed a more thoughtful multifaceted assessment in decades past. tom nicholson is the author of that piece, the head of a global health nonprofit who points back to the critics of the new left movement of the 60's and 70's who criticized usaid for its nefarious actions, deeming them politically subversive and manipulative. in 1965 the new york times reported the level of funding to india was contingent on india importing certain products likes fertilizer from u.s. companies,

an example of the so-called tied aid from the u.s., with usaid support for dictators attracting opposition over the years, the agency generously supporting many authoritarian figures and regimes in countries from zaire, now congo, haiti, nicaragua, and others. this story, a column in today's "wall street journal," if you want to read it. paul, chesapeake, good morning, you are next. caller: good morning, john. couple of things. one, i agree with senator kennedy. it's amazing. i had just texted my senators about this, that they have budget malpractice is what they have. now, you are asking about what agencies i would cut in the federal government. they, they actually, several

years ago, when gingrich was speaker and clinton was president, they tried to do away with the department of commerce and the department of education. so, this is not the first time. i have family members, many who are educators, and they all agree the federal department of education needs to go. and return it back to the states and the localities. now, it started out as a small division under health and human services or what used to be health education and welfare before they split it up. so, that is what i would do. now that, that is just one agency. but when you have 15, count them, 15 cabinet positions, each

one of them must have, must have numerous, numerous agencies that are being funded by congress. when was the last time, when was the last time they cut a budget that did not dissolve or just move an agency into another department, or just rename it? when was the last time our, our senators and representatives, both chambers, have they done that? for them to say -- they are all screaming about elon musk being an unelected bureaucrat. how many of them -- that is what the chevron decision in the supreme court was all about.

that agencies cannot make bureaucratic mandates. now, senator kennedy talking about money just from usaid that congress did not have, they knew the money was going to usaid, but they didn't know where it was going from there. host: that was paul in virginia. phil, land o lakes, florida, you are next. caller: how are you today? host: doing well. is there an agency that needs more scrutiny that you would cut? caller: not a particular agency, but when you ask yourself, taxpayer money goes into funding with this country does and when it comes to cutting and spending, the first thing we look to is to cut funding at home. i question, why isn't there a similar action taking the cuts to others when it comes to

cutting funding abroad? host: the focus on usaid, that agency, international development, money spent abroad. caller: but who makes that possible? host: congress appropriates money and usaid, it's a part of their funding. caller: no taxpayer money goes into that at all? host: no, that money is taxpayer money, phil. caller: then why are they cutting funding for veterans and social security? all that taxpayer money going to helping people abroad, but when it comes to cutting spending, we cut at home first? that's a question i would ask the government. that's all. host: kent, new boston, illinois, good morning. caller: there are so many things

other than the department of education, but that one is paramount in my mind. we spent so much more money than anyone in the world to educate our kids. that's really the wrong word. our kids being educated, go up to any young kid and ask them what nine times seven is, they pull out their computer and start trying to figure it out. in theory, illinois, where i grew up, i went to school back in the 50's. all the elementary school teachers were ladies from the community. ladies of good character. they taught us how to read. a lot of emphasis on learning how to read. how to write. cursive. english. a lot of emphasis on basic math. these things have all been taken

out of the public school now and replace with transgender studies . climate. they believe they are teaching the kids that we control the weather. they've got climate change here in illinois at this time of year when it snows, we call that climate change weather? in a month or two it'll get nice , the flowers come up, we call that climate change spring. the young kids in school are taught that. they are taught that they are little gods unto themselves and that they and their peers can control the weather. i'm 77 years old. the fact that the public has allowed this stuff to go on and pay all this tremendous amount of money to the department of education to ruin our young kids. host: that's kent in illinois. talking about climate change,

environmental issues, the latest shakeup came yesterday when the trump appointees at the environmental protection agency notified staff members they planned to close the office of environmental justice and external civil rights and put 168 of those employees on administrative leave with hummel there and golfing the justice department natural resources division. they called it a little known crucial office tasked with defending environmental actions of the government in court. the office of environmental justice was created in 1992 under george h w bush as the office of environmental equity. in 1994 the name changed to the office of environmental justice. that's the story from "the washington post," today, if you want to read more. good morning, marty. caller: good morning. this is the duke of the delaware

, little tiny karen. i tell you what needs to be cut. you need to cut out the insider information and that crooked trading that is making all of these fat cats rich. these politicians for years, it's horrible, all of this oil is coming off of the united states land. that is our money. but they are rich off of it. they know what they are doing. they are giving everyone sweetheart deals. now they are scared to desks -- scared to death that elon musk may expose them. host: kiki, massachusetts, democrat, good morning. caller: i'm not sure i'm qualified to state what should be cut but i think they should invest in the irs, because i believe statistics have shown that when you hire more irs workers and invest in the irs,