♪ host: good morning. welcome to "washington journal," friday, december six.

capitol hill was abuzz with elon musk visiting lawmakers and giving them a taste of how they will take up washington with cost cutting proposals. we would like you to tell washington how can the government become more efficient? here's how to join the conversation, (202)-748-8000 -- democrats. (202)-748-8001 republicans. independent, (202)-748-8002. you can text us as well. federal employees, your line is (202)-748-8003, the same line for all of you to textus, (202)-748-8003. or -- 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 cos 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. tic 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 to be the problem. >> how are you?

>> i was telling them that the problem is not in that room, and we have to have the guts to pull the trigger. >> we have to actually do our job, so i hope they do it. we have to hold them accountable. >> amen. thank you. [end video clip] host: that was tim versed, republican of tennessee. you heard them say that that problem was in the room, which was full of house republicans meeting with elon musk and vivek ramaswamy, a meeting for republican house lawmakers, led by speaker mike johnson, and from notice.org reporting, they also quote chip roy, republican lawmakers were thrilled to meet on thursday. here is a quote from the texas republican. hopefully these guys can expose it so that congress has to do its job.

and then they pointed out how difficult spending will be in practice, and identified thousands of things we should not be spending on. down the hallway, his republican colleagues were gathering, and they believe they have an unlimited checkbook. the two leaders of the department said they would consider firing much of the federal workforce, and that they may even find 2 trillion to cut from the government expenditures. they could take stabbeds at some reforms, if president-elect trump agrees with their recommendations but likely of the others would have to go through congress, and plenty of republican government officials say they would be happy, but they also spent years trying to pass their own bills, and they

know how much of an uphill climb real reform might be. half of the people in the room were probably excited, and the other are in reality, said one senator from ohio. he said to trillion is a lot. the reaction to what you're hearing here from house republicans about the department of government efficiency and the idea that elon musk and vivek ramaswamy have thrown out, plus what you think the government should do to become more efficient. west palm beach, florida, democrat. good morning. caller: hello? host: go ahead. caller: the main problem with the deficit is from way back during the time of ronald reagan , when they decided to supply-side economics.

imagine from the great depression to that point, the deficit was less than $1 trillion. and from the time of reagan, it was on the republican president, and that is the main problem with the budget deficit. it is supply-side economics. people should not let the republicans spread lies about the other stuff. the other stuff has to be taken care of, but the main problem is supply-side economics. it starts with trump was not in office, we passed a $6 trillion tax cut for the rich.

host: all right, bill, independent, maryland. caller: good morning. first, i would like to say that i would like to bring up the late, great senator from oklahoma who studied all the waste, fraud and abuse, and wrote many books, but the main one i'm familiar with is the debt bomb, where he talked about how we are going bankrupt. i know a lot of folks are probably listening. i hope they revisit tom's work because i think he has laid out a map for them to start their work. host: he would have a report every year about what he calls waste and fraud and abuse in the federal government. he would come to the floor and try to pass amendments to cut spending time after time.

caller: the other thing that needs to be done is all the work that is added to other legislation, that is sort of like the grease that keeps the wheels going in washington. you would like to secure the border, well, you cannot just support everybody and leave the border open. we can work on reducing the waste, fraud and abuse, if they keep adding all of this work, they need to get to a point where they are passing one bill, voting on the bill, and you don't have dozens of senators and congressmen adding to the bill. i heard one person, i hear so much, but somebody was talking about how they were 50 or 60 programs for helping people prepare for jobs. so, obviously, if you go down to

one program, leave the duplication, and the money goes from washington to the states. host: the cut federal workforce bill? start there. caller: and then also look at the civil servant. i have a friend, and they asked him to look at how they could reduce costs. he had about 15,000 people under him, and he did report, he did the work, and he said we can reduce this to 5000. in other words, 10,000 jobs could be eliminated. you don't have to fire the people, just don't rehire them. and when he put that report, he got crickets. host: bill and maryland. he mentioned the president-elect policy agenda, border security

at the top of the list. here is politico with this reporting. gop lawmakers already divided over sweeping trump policy bill. the new leader for republicans in the senate, the majority leader would like a two step strategy that addresses immigration and energy first, and then taxes later. because republicans are not on board with that plan, so they have got to iron this out before january 3 when the 119th gavels in. heartburn was sparked across the capital district when he told gop senators that the package with under bucket reconciliation rules would bypass the democratic filibuster with them split into two parts, the first on the focus of border and energy and the second on tech. speaker mike johnson ignored the

strategy, and they are still working out what could be included in each package. for more reporting on how republicans in the house and senate with majority in both of those chambers would spread president-elect's agenda. in january, with a 119 congress convenes. ray, republican. we are talking about how to make government more efficient. where would you cut what you think is waste, fraud, or abuse? caller: yes, there has been waste for years. if it is 55% of the people who think government can be run more efficient, i would like to know what the other 45% are thinking. come on. let me tell you a little story. the mess sergeant told me and

another private to throw it in the dumpster. he said if you don't use it, you lose it. that the government had been running that way for years. it is time that somebody stepped in and put a blowtorch it and stopped the craziness. host: would you start with the pentagon? caller: say what? host: would you start with the pentagon when you look at government spending? caller: absolutely. when you pay $90,000 for a bag of bolts or $500,000 for a hammer, come on. where is the person that is in charge of everything? that man needs to be fired because he's not doing his job. host: ray in tennessee, republican caller, talking about the pentagon. others have mentioned, we shared

a tweet from bernie sanders, talking about sale audits. they had lost track of aliens of dollars, and the top democrat on the armed services committee in the house had some reservations about this commission what they could accomplish. here's what he had to tell cnn. [video clip] >> i think bill clinton and al gore, they went to say, how can we make this more efficient? that is great. i have seen no evidence that marjorie taylor greene has an idea of how government functions. when you can cut $2000 out of the budget, 62 percent is social security, medicare and medicaid, and he's also saying that he will not cut anything out of that. >> where is that money? >> exactly. so you have a $6.5 trillion budget. you are not going to touch 16%

of it, so what, you are going to cut 80% of everything else? defense is about a trillion dollars, so now you're going to cut to trillion. it doesn't add up. the instinct to make government more efficient? yes, let's do it, but the way he thinks he could cut it like twitter, people would like their medicare checks and social security checks. so even if you cut all the stuff, and republicans don't think education matters, that would not get you there, even if you cut every last penny of that. it helps fund school districts. that is what people do to try to give people an opportunity, so they will run headlong into reality. [end video clip] host: adam smith, expressing concern about the department of government efficiency, led by elon musk and vivek ramaswamy.

you have the headline, democratic state the agency is unconstitutional and illegal. one said it is illegal in an interview with cnn. they have not asked to meet with me, but the impoundment funds that are appropriated by the congress is unconstitutional and illegal. good luck to them. in oklahoma, independent. do support this idea of the department of government efficiency, doge? talking to you. all right. moving on. charles, tennessee, democrat. you support the department of government efficiency? caller: yes.

i think here in tennessee, we have a lot of factories here. [indiscernible] people quit their jobs. they don't really go back to work. [indiscernible] factories that have good health insurance. [indiscernible] and it doesn't cost them

nothing. they need to have some skin in the game because people working or paying taxes. you have all these jobs open. they ought to start charging them because the people working cannot afford to keep paying them. host: michelle, facebook. she posted, may be federal workers returned to their offices so buildings in washington are not 60% to 70% vacant. if not, so the buildings and closer department. host: william, virginia, independent. caller: hey. i tell you what. let's just see where we are now. this president was elected by people who are either ignorant of the history and purpose of

this country, or they just did not care. they elected an amoral, style does not have the maturity term in the country or the knowledge, and you see what he is doing with the people he is supporting just certain positions, like his father-in-law and others. appointing family members and felons. he just does not have people. we might as well -- i have got to tell you, democracy died when donald trump became prominent. our country, democracy lasted for 250 years, but it is over.

the supreme court is a political, they don't respect the rule of law. host: william there in virginia. we are asking you this morning, how can the federal government become more efficient? elon musk and vivek ramaswamy were on capitol hill yesterday. they met behind closed doors with senators. first republicans and then went to the house side and that with republicans over there to talk initially about where they see that they can make the government more efficient. do you think it can be and if so, what would be first to cut for you to make the government cut waste, fraud and abuse? there the lines on your screen. we would like to hear from you this morning. more of that conversation coming up. first, we would like to show you

what president-elect trump had to say last night at an event on taxation yesterday. here is a portion of his remarks, talking about terrorist threats on canada and mexico. [video clip] >> as you know, i spoke with canada, and that is just the beginning. this is a nice crowd. thank you very much. i do appreciate all that pent-up anger and love. it is everything at one time. we are going to do a lot of things. we are going to drill, baby, drill.

we were campaigning. a lot of people thought that was it, but i never believed it was as important as immigration and stopping our country from being invaded because this was a massive invasion of our country. and i spoke the other day to the new president of mexico, very nice woman. we had a very nice conversation, but she said, why are you doing this to me? i said, i'm not, i'm putting a lot of tariffs on because you are allowing criminals to pour into our country and we cannot allow that anymore. [end video clip] host: president-elect donald trump on fox nation, where he talked about his threats on tariffs for canada and mexico. he also mentioned the leader of canada took a trip to mar-a-lago

right after he was elected to meet with him. and there is this headline this morning in the new york times, the new president of mexico said she had an operation that received more than 20 million doses of fentanyl, worth nearly $400 million. the new president is focused on combating crime and it may appease mr. trump. he has threatened tariffs on the country's exports, and challenged mexican sovereignty. here is a quote, without a doubt, it has set the wheels spinning. all of this has been done to arrive at the negotiating table with trump security team with a portfolio of achievements. cracked down in mexico, new york times this morning, if you're interested in reading that. other headlines this morning

about the president-elect and his administration. the second time around, the first page of the wall street journal. the sec picked delights the crypto industry. president trump chose paul atkins, a crypto company advisor . a milestone for an industry that has often felt unwelcome in washington. a few hours later, bitcoin rates past 100,000 for the first time. that is different page of the wall street journal this morning. front page of the new york times this morning, work troubles feed leadership doubts over nonprofit missteps, and according to news reports, there are 11 senators who are not publicly saying it but they are privately saying that they oppose the nomination. here is the washington post, a

top trump pick cannot win approval. that is in the washington post this morning, and then there is this headline. the president-elect urged him to continue fighting on. here's what the nominees said on capitol hill to reporters yesterday. [video clip] >> i'm grateful president trump bestow this opportunity on me. despite all the noise on the outside, i had a great interview with megyn kelly yesterday and continue to answer questions, specifically to senators. every office we stood in welcomed the opportunity. has been a great week, a process that is ongoing,, look forward to finishing it. >> [indiscernible] >> it is interesting what the press likes to dub me,

whistleblower, which some others may clarify. >> what about the issue of alcohol? >> we've had great conversations about who i am, what i believe in the man i am today. and my wife, jenny right here, i'm a different man than i was years ago. that is a redemption story that a lot of americans appreciate. they resonate with that, as well. you might do to have things, and sometimes that changes you little bit. and it's a great opportunity to do great things. they fought for this, and at the fox news channel, i advocate for those very same. i'm proud of what i fought for. i'm not going to back down one bit trade i will answer all of

the senators questions, but this will not be a process in the media. i don't answer to any one these groups, not to that camera at all. i answered president trump, who had a mandate for change. the answer to senators who are part of the process and those in the committee, and my wife and family. i'm proud to be here. as long as donald trump would like me in this fight, i will be standing right here, fighting and running it back to what it needs to be. [end video clip] [video clip] host: yesterday, pete hegseth meeting with senators. saying that he answers to president-elect trump, and the senators who have to confirm him. according to news reports, there are nearly a dozen, around 10 or

so senators who are privately saying they would oppose the nomination. wall street journal with this report, the release of the report with that lock, republican lawmakers voted down a proposal from democrats to release a detailed report on allegations of sexual misconduct against matt gaetz who resigned last month as president trump considered him to leave the justice department. lawmakers voted to send to committee, effectively locking resolution that would force the public release, and the second vote of 198, similar to what was sent to the committee. the house ethics committee also met behind closed doors yesterday on capitol hill. back to our conversation with

all of you. how can federal government become more efficient. the cultures of the department of government efficiency, elon musk and vivek ramaswamy on capitol hill yesterday. george, republican, what would you tell those two gentlemen to cut first? caller: happy new year. first, i would like to complain. i called and now i had to listen to 12 minutes of recording. you ask for callers and then you don't take the calls. you are playing recorders recording the wall street journal, this and that, when you ask people to call. what is going on with c-span? host: thank you. u know what is happening in washington at the same time, it is informing you about the debates happening. go ahead. what is your comment? caller: your callers are pretty

well informed or they would not be calling. i'm a senior citizen and probably no more about what's happening in the country then you do -- host: you better get to your point. caller: a caller complained about social security and medicare. if they repay that, which they did not, social security would not be part of the general fund, so put that out. that needs to be pointed out. they are being misled. and medicare fraud is rampant. 6% of the federal employees work from home. i knew all the facts. 87,000 irs agents? caller in previouscaller talked about expenses. the list goes on and on. there is so much fraud in the government, and you mentioned bitcoin went up.

it is going up because the dollar is going down. host: juan, maryland, democrat. where would you cut, if at all? caller: i would start with the pentagon. i retired from the pentagon, and i used to work for one of those agencies, security system and cooperation arena. and the purchasing acquisition department was so worthless. and the leadership of the agency decided to disband the acquisition and basically align us with the main washington headquarters services to streamline the process.

employees came to the office two days a week, and they will come in at 10:00 and leave by three, and some of them would not even do any work. so that is were the abuses. -- abuse is. host: on facebook,linate all government contracts and private companies. cut out the middlanhey cannot reduce profits, eliminate pollution that cost taxpayers billions and end all subsidies, terry, illinois, democrat. where would you cut the waste in the federal government? caller: the first thing we need to do is every bit he. i would start from the top. i hear of billionaires getting such a low tax rate compared to

average people. for the first two years, i would text -- i would cut all the billionaires, and if they don't like it, we'll get a corporate charter and get more corporations into here. the deal when carnegie went into business, he sold out, so why would he create identity with young americans, so i think everybody needs to make that sacrifice. we need to look at dual citizenship. are you loyal to this country question mark -- country? we need to take care of the seniors and put a freeze on everything else. since we are not making money, america needs to make sacrifices

and we need to get serious about it. the two men you mentioned, either, swami and elon musk -- vivek ramaswamy and elon musk, they have to sacrifice of the corporate buddies. host: matt? caller: you know, trump, all republicans have been repeatedly telling everybody exactly what he did last night, telling you how is he doing it? lord god, bless this country. we have more oil than saudi arabia. you can drill, so it to the nighttime countries, pay off your national debt. that will bring down your interest rates.

also, you can take that money, you are going to have more money than you could ever dream of once you start selling that to the nato countries and india. biden would not allow our own industry to drill on federal lands. he has put so much oil on this country, it is unbelievable, and the permian basin, it is everywhere. and biden, all he cares about is putting men and women's bathrooms. you've got a businessman in there now, and what did he say last night? what did he say? he said, we need to drill, drill, drill. after that, he said to all nato

countries, you can rebuild your roads, your hospitals. that is not really going to amount to much, and where you are going to get your money is selling that oil, selling it to nato countries, pay off the national debt. host: max, texas, republican caller with that idea. david, independent. good morning. caller: real quick, one of them is medicare. it is a $4.5 trillion a year industry. now, they are wasting $1.5 trillion of that with a ppo, that is public, private offices, where this is a republican program that they started.

this is mitch mcconnell, let's have insurance companies come in here and let's take another republican policy, which was cutting taxes for the wealthiest people in the country, down to 9.6% per year, while everybody else has to pay 25% a year. that is just two republican programs. let me correct the last gentlemen. when we started drilling and hit all this oil, we have 49 years of oil left in the ground at current production levels of 14 million barrels. house bill 702-2015 gives people from our country the ability to come and sell our oil, we are not getting tax money for it. the only tax money we get is

sold at the pump. the rest of it is going to paying taxes. so you will need to wake up to what republicans are doing. this is another wade on our economy and revenues that they are doing with this business, a fancy word, and they are taking another $1.5 trillion a year and just give it back to them and let us suffer and pay the bills for you. thank you. i appreciate you putting up with me. i know you don't really like me when i tell all this truth. host: thank you for jordi. david and george are there. also, another moment from capitol hill. c-span cameras at the task force on the attempted assassination of donald trump when he was

running for reelection this past campaign cycle. they had their final hearing on capitol hill. we will share this moment. republican of texas, ronald rope got into a shouting match over accusations of not properly protecting former president trump and president biden. [video clip] >> yes sir, i do. >> was this remnants of september 11 in new york? >> it was, ground zero. >> who's usually at an event like this, president of the united states security wise? >> special agent in charge of the detail. >> were you the special agent in charge of detail that day?

actually, let me address this, thank you. >> actually, congressman, what you are not seen is they detail out of the pictures you. that is the day where we remember the more than 3000 people who had died on 9/11. i actually responded to ground zero. i was there, going through the ashes of the world trade center. >> i'm not asking you -- >> i'm asking you! you show respect -- that died on 9/11. >> do not invoke 9/11 for political purposes. >> i'm not. >> you are, sir! >> asking a question, please. >> i'm an elected member of congress, and i'm asking you a question. >> i have served this nation. >> on our country --

[overlapping shouting] >> a serious question for the american people, were you the special agent in charge? >> no, i was there representing the secret service. >> [indiscernible] >> you are out of line, congressman. you are out of line. >> you put those agents out of position. [end video clip] host: heated exchange on capitol hill yesterday when the acting secret service director testified before the task force, looking into those attempted assassination's against donald trump. it was the final report, and we covered it on c-span. go to our website, c-span.org to listen to that hearing and if you miss any of it, we have

points of interest, yellow stars at the bottom to indicate key moments from that hearing yesterday. you can find it again on c-span.org or our free video mobile app, c-span now. back to our conversation about government waste. elon musk and vivek ramaswamy would like to cut the waste of the federal government and they believe they can make it more efficient. mike, independent. what do you say? caller: that ronald rowe should be terminated automatically, unprofessional. even though he works for the government, his government agency failed protecting donald trump. two things i'm thankful for this year, i have a healthy family, and we are making it through, and trump is in position now to show us what our government is doing. i will tell you one thing, would biden got in there, he screwed everything up.

host: how would you make government more efficient? caller: we should audit every department. if they fail, everybody that is responsible for the audit and expenditure should be terminated. any other company would have terminated everybody, even the ceo, everybody. the only way that we are going to uncover everything as people who have no skin in the game to get into our government, which they made their own dirty little deals, and expose it and stop it. as far as the v.a., are you serious question mark it is outrageous. they have sexual stuff going on. this is ridiculous. we need people to get in there and expose what is going on. host: mike is calling for an

audit of every federal agency. that is where he would like this so-called doge to start. mike also in shooting the veterans affairs department. yesterday on capitol hill, we covered a hearing where they discussed the budget shortfall for the v.a., and you can find that on c-span.org, as well. bernice, detroit, democratic caller. do you think the government is inefficient? caller: i do. i do, but i think it in the opposite way of the american people. my comment is directed toward the american people. i'm not highly educated and don't know the answer to the questions you ask because i cannot count billions of dollars. i've been working since 16 years old.

and i don't understand why we as american people go against each other. and say what should be cut on jobs, the pentagon. things that protect people. we deserve at least that. why don't they start off by telling elon musk to give back those tax credits that have made him the richest man in the world? and take all our taxes to carry this country, but we let him walk down the hall grinning with a child on his shoulder. we let the one who is running for the pentagon to look at the camera, and says, i'm not listening to the american people.

i'm not listening to the american people. i'm only listening to donald trump. that is because some of us is donald trump or joe biden. i'm a strong democrat, but i'm impartial. host: all right, we will go to ohio, gary, republican. your guest: i would start with our military. i would bring them back. i know a lot of working age

people on disability for stupid reasons. that needs to be looked at. host: in new jersey, democratic caller. your turn. guest: here is my problem with trying to cut $2 trillion from the budget. i saw the cow jumping over at noon last night. it is not going to happen. i would bring it onto kitchen table economics. for families having financial trouble, what that is not working might get a job. husband working a job might getting -- get a second one. and then cuts, they might not take a vacation. they might pasta three times per week. you have to do more get make more money and spend less money.

that is what heaven will be paid of world war ii debt. in the eisenhower administration , the tax rate was 92%. people won't believe me because they say the government lies. we have to do both, just like a family. get more money in and spend less money. guest: james, chevy chase, maryland. guest: thanks for taking my call. i think it is a matter of controlling our spending. i also wanted to point out that i noticed in the last few years we are having trouble balancing the budget. if the government is always in a threat of the government shutting down. if you can't control your spending and always on the

threat of shutting down, it doesn't look good to other countries. we should serve the department of defense. social security is an area we can look into. the committee trump has formed as a great idea. we have too much for spending we need to cut out. host: we are going to return to this conversation later on the washington journal at eight: 30 eastern. coming up, representative gwen moore on the ways and means committee to talk about the incoming tax cuts with the trump administration. and we will return to the government department of efficiency. texas has formed a new congressional caucus designed to support the efforts of elon musk and vivek ramaswamy. we will talk about that's coming up on the washington journal. >> >> since 1979 in partnership

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the african-american sailor was killed on the uss california during the japanese bombing of pearl harbor on december 2, 1941. at 8:00 p.m. eastern on lectures in history, the first of a two-part lecture by university of maryland history professor on the trial of lizzie borden who is accused of killing her mother and stepfather with an ax. the supporting became lizzie borden became popular in culture. inside the white house on december 7, 1940 one as president franklin roosevelt learned of the japanese attack on pearl harbor and moved to assess the damage and america's response. exploring the american story, but american history and guide a wrecked online anytime at c-span.org.

play >> "washington journal" continues. host: we want to welcome host: guest: tax rate went down to 21%. i heard the programming earlier were so many was talking about the eisenhower years where it

was 92%. the corporate tax rate dropped precipitously from 3521%. in addition to that, there was a change to the standard deduction to double the standard deduction for individuals, which is great. but mostly, the tax cuts went to the top 1% of the population, ceos, and to shareholders. we had a provision which was supposed to be targeted to small businesses, but quite frankly the benefit primarily, 70 pence or so, went to very large corporations. what we found is we had a $2 trillion tax cut, in most of the benefit went to shareholders,

ceos and to corporations and didn't trickle down to regular americans. host: which ones are set to expire? guest: was that set to expire and fortunately the individual taxes. and that is about $3 trillion. were we to renew those tax cuts, people with incomes under $114,000 a year would not experience that big of a tax change again. those individual tax changes would benefit primarily people who are wealthier. we also have the 199 provision for businesses that is to expire , and that is a provision the committee ought to look hard at

because we have had input from small business associations who say that the small business community what we consider mainstream businesses don't really benefit from a 20% deduction on qualified business income, it is mostly the larger companies, $10 million or so and income that organize the same way the smaller businesses do with llcs and so on. they are primarily working on the benefit from those tax cuts. host: let's listen to the chairman of the ways and means can who was on foxbusiness earlier this week and here is what he had to say about letting the tax cuts expire. [video clip] >> we win this by delivering for working-class americans, small business and family farmers.

if congress does nothing, every single american will face a tax increase by the end of the year and a neat -- every individual great will brought. the tax credit for the children will be slashed in half. the standard it deduction at which 90 1% of americans use to file taxes it's slashed in half. these are tax cuts for real working americans and i would hope to think the democrats would not want those taxes to increase on working-class americans, still dismisses him farmers. guest: jason smith and i are good friends and he is a very clever man. when he talked about there was the fact that they elected to make permanent those tax cuts that benefit corporations and were they to renew them, that would add $4.6 trillion to the deficit and what they allowed to

expire where those provisions that helped families. i just want to say that the standard deduction helped a lot of families but at the same time doubling the standard deduction of people who lost tax deductions that they had, lost other benefits, and again, those tax cuts for small businesses, you take small business, see you have a small business that had a net income of $100,000, that tax cut was about $2000, as opposed to the millions of dollars that larger corporations receive. there definitely was no equity. and the other thing is that the $4.6 trillion of tax cuts that jason smith has the we needed to

renew would be added to the deficit and the joint committee on taxation, the federal reserve board, other economists said not a single penny of the tax cuts that we have given to these corporations has trickled down to regular americans, that they have gone toward a ceo pay, buybacks and shareholders. if there is any growth that has been realized from slashing the corporate tax cut down to 21%, it is to the benefit of large businesses and crohn's literally from the master table. he said every single person will have their taxes increased and the measly child tax credit that

they have put in place to replace what the democrats did during the american rescue plan is hardly worth the pain that people will endure with this being added to the deficit. host: republicans will have the majority in the 119th, just a handful of his seats. will any democrats to join them in re-upping the tax cuts? guest: some of the tax cuts have bipartisan support. there is bipartisan support for the research and development credit for example. but the question for me is what republicans will join democrats in reforming some of these things. the 199 credit is a huge giveaway to large corporations, the hundred percent bonus

depreciation is a huge giveaway. how many republicans, there are republicans that wax on about the deficit and i hope they will step up during these discussions end because of their be some restraint. i heard earlier in the program people talk about how spending is the problem. providing tax cuts to corporations is spending. be clear that that is spending. and to pay for the corporate tax cuts have included medicaid, snap, and we have even had republicans who say that the 50 and medicare is on the table. host: let's get to calls. bill in new jersey, the

democratic caller. you are joining the conversation. welcome. caller: i just want to know the status about the disability and health care. i hear the republicans are probably going to go after that. guest: i hope i am getting your question right, the disability benefits and social security disability benefits? caller: know the veterans disability benefits and our health care. guest: what you are talking about i think is the d oge committee to be headed up by elon musk and mr. ramaswamy. they have talked about slashing and burning any sort of program that doesn't have a reauthorization connected to it. the veterans benefits you are talking about and i am scouring

my memory. it has been reauthorized since may beat 1976. that would theoretically put it on the chopping block. it is an example of how the blanket that the programs that don't have the reauthorization could be on the chopping block. but that is an example of a program and i don't remember the exact date but it has not been reauthorized for decades. it is one of the programs that could be on the chopping block because of the status with regard to reauthorization. host: let's go to town, charlotte, north carolina, republican. caller: good morning. caller: i am a retired v-8 nurse

and veteran. the administrator in the hospital got a 500,000 dollars bonus because he saved $5 million for the veterans administration. they say if you save the government money, if you saved them to trillion dollars, then they are headed for a $200 billion bonus. guest: i will have to plead ignorant and what you are talking about with regard to the bonuses. i think the bonus, to trillion dollars they can save from somewhere, we ought to make those investments in people. the child tax credit we discussed earlier, $10 to one dollar pay that we can document

for investing in our future workforce and our children versus 100% bonus depreciation which if we restore that benefit costs us more than a half trillion dollars. this goes into the pockets of big fat cat quite frankly. there is more useful productive use of money than just providing it and slashing benefits which is another thing they are talking about doing, slashing benefits from efforts to meet the challenge of climate change, just to be able to provide those benefits to fossil fuel companies. and we do know that we have to tackle this problem and not just stand up to the donor community. there is no reason to go back to having grandma pay $500 a month

for insulin because we are realizing some savings for pharmaceutical company executives who are not suffering at all. this is the biggest profits that they have seen in the history of the industry. i understand the whole notion of your question and i'm sorry i don't know the specifics but the trend has been to reward people at the top, ceos and to allow people at the bottom to suffer. i just want to .1 thing out. when we are talking about the poor, we are talking about the 11% of people struggling from day to day facing possible homelessness and food insecurity but the reality is when you look at the true cost of making it in

america, over half of americans, 50 2% of americans are financially insecure. if the car that gets you to work every day it breaks down, you don't have the money to get it fixed up and ready and cash in the bank. not a penny of the tax cuts that we are talking about reauthorizing will solve that problem. people under $114,000 a year, the problem that financial insecurity will not be solved by adding another $4.6 trillion to the debt. host: loretta, cleveland, ohio, democratic caller. caller: good morning. i haven't spoke to you in a long time. host: good morning.

caller: i want to tell the congresswoman, i love your eyeglasses. they are fantastic. guest: thank you. caller: i have three quick questions that i try to cut them down. i want to know first of all, why can't a mother, divorced on food stamps with a couple of kids get the assistance that she needs over the years because they cuts all of that, but someone who owned a company and not paying taxes continues to get tax cuts and they haven't paid any taxes. i would like to see the democrats come down on those republicans about where this money is going. host: i apologize to you.

we just have to take the one because we are running out of time with the congresswoman. guest: basically that is what they are talking about, talking about cutting snap or medicane, block granting it so that there is not enough money to meet the need in order to provide the tax cuts because that is where their priorities are. there are some people who perhaps believe that these tax cuts pay for themselves and there is absolutely zero proof that it ever happens. investing in people feeding babies with food stamps has a return. host: peter in orange park, florida, independent. caller: representative moore,

thank you for everything. i am a retired teacher. thank you for fighting for our children. guest: thank you for your service and a male teacher at that. we really need you. host: new jersey, independent. good morning. caller: good morning. before i get to my question, i need to say you're a city hosted the republican national convention. congratulations. my question is about the tax law, specifically what it did to certain insurance companies. the insurance is headquartered in milwaukee and i've heard that because of the tax law which was passed in 2017, president trump

worked with speaker ryan at the time in the tax law was going to stay in milwaukee. isn't that a good thing and why are you not going to vote to extend the tax law? guest: i didn't say i wouldn't vote to extend some of it. i hope they take it in pieces. insurance is different. life insurance insurers and they put a lot of life insurance providers in a strange position bear they came -- became the pay for for businesses. you say it why wouldn't i vote for the tax law, the tax law but to provide some sort of equity. remember when i talked about the

52% of americans and you may be one of them, who day to day are not facing homelessness in your kids are not going to start early but if an aunt dies and you need to get a plane ticket to go to her funeral, that would be a strain on your budget. people just don't have the kind of window and the kinds of needs they have it doesn't have employer sponsored insurance and we are talking about cutting medicaid it. pick -- people are very insecure. why would i vote to extend the bonus, hundred percent bonus depreciation or the 100 99 benefits so big it doesn't help mainstream businesses and

loopholes so that ceos, the heads of pharmaceutical companies and fossil fuel companies can get $10 million bonuses while 52% of the population is struggling. i am going to look at it and i will vote for some of the stuff. we do want companies to grow with the research and development credit but some of it doesn't make any sense at all, particularly if it is going to extend the deficit which republicans complain about all of the time and watch, they will stop complaining about it. host: james, san diego, republican. caller: corporations do not pay taxes, they pay employees in they a shareholders with interest and dividends. that area is not correct, young lady. the congress spends the money

and the president sends out a budget that he or she thinks is correct and the house of representatives go over the budget along with the senate and they approve and compromise and what they want to spend. if congress and senate quit spending money then the deficit would go down to start off with. host: i will get the congresswoman's reaction. guest: i am not as young as you think, but thank you for the compliment. but spending, tax cuts to a corporation is spending to the tax code appeared at getting bonus depreciation's instead of doing other things with the money. so be clear, when we start talking about spending, everything needs to be on the table. right now we have a deficit of revenue. we don't have enough revenue in this country to meet the needs of veterans. we just had a call or earlier,

if a block grant medicaid in order to pay for the tax cuts, that will mean we will have so many of our wonderful seniors in nursing homes, maybe spending the last month of their life in an icu burning up the medicaid dollars and some mother with two kids, totally eligible won't be able to receive those benefits. we might find ourselves cutting things like rides to doctors appointments, cutting perfectly eligible people on behalf of rich people. and like you said, corporations don't pay taxes but the tax cuts we have given them, the joint committee on taxation, the federal reserve board, all of these economists find that people did not get jobs, new

hires or increases in wages based on these tax cuts. they went to shareholders. but they did not trickle down to the 52% of americans i am talking about. looking at the exit polls during the election, people said they voted because they were feeling financially insecure. the money did not help them. host: congresswoman gwen moore, democrat of wisconsin. thank you for talking to our viewers. guest: thank you, greta. host: when we combat, congressman pete sessions will be joining us. he formed a new caucus to support the department of government efficiency. we will talk about how it is going to work and where they may start cutting it. it stay with us. ♪

>> american history tv, saturdays and c-span two, exporting the people and events that tell the american story. this weekend at 12:30 p.m. eastern, more than 80% -- a veteran buried with full honors. the african american sailor was killed on the uss california during the japanese bombing of pearl harbor. at 8:00 p.m. eastern on lectures in history, the first of a two-part lecture by a university of maryland professor on the 1893 trial of lizzie borden, who is accused of murdering her father and stepmother with an

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host: at our table, congressman pete sessions, republican of texas, 17th district and the cochair of the delivering outstanding efficiency caucus. what prompted you to start this caucus? guest: the need that became apparent not just me but i think the country came as a result of the performance of the last four years. as the chairman of the subcommittee for government reform and oversight on government operations and federal workers, we saw a very early on the impacts of the president, whether we say covid or not, the president having almost every single government operations and figure out a weight that you can stay at, or you can not only operate from home but see if you can use that as your main estate. what happened is, we immediately saw the first public casualty of

this. the american people needs a government that provides goods and services that they illegally are responsible to do but also to make americans lives better. as people stayed at home, we dug in on the subcommittee of what is the plan? how are you going to make sure you serve the american people. what do we do about these problems, and the more we found out, the more we found out that thousands of people in operations were inefficient, not meeting their mark and became a problem. then we tried to get under that and that is where it developed, this idea with got to deliver a better product. host: your caucus will support

elon musk and vivek ramaswamy. as lawmakers came out after the meeting, we heard that the problem is in the room. it is republicans who are going to be the problem with having doge being responsible. there could be truth behind what they are saying. the bottom line is we are kicking off an idea that is not partisan. we now have four house democrats that have said i want to be a part of this also. government efficiency, whether you are a publican or a democrat needs to work for the american people. government has services that it provides that a lot of people are inefficiently being provided. so when they want to make these comments, they are right. if we are going to include any

members congress that wants to be available and we will include an email address. we are going to take feedback and solicit feedback and specific problems or ideas that people have and we are going to work on them. the difference that they are not giving credible viewpoint and the president of the united states has not just commerce and industry but two titans who have jumped into this with the own personal time to say, we have run larger companies and we may be here but we need to go there. i think it is going to be at least successful for us to say, we need to be held accountable by the american people and tell

them why we are doing what we are doing. host: it was said there is no statutory authority fordoge and it is not a department. a lawyer said it is illegal. and she is quoted of saying that they haven't asked to meet with them but the funds appropriated by congress is unconstitutional and illegal. there is no such department of government efficiency. it is made up so good luck to them. guest: i know her and she is very thoughtful and articulate leader for the democratic party but she is also one that would recognize that she will get an invitation. we will allow her to provide her feedback and i think she would help make it better because if we assume it is ok to have the irs, the office of professional

management to take month after a person were to retire from the government before they started receiving benefits and to wait five months for these offices to do these, only to find out they are operating from home with no real direct supervision over what is awaiting them. we had conversations about government all the time and ask them, do you recognize this backlog? and they said there are just more people. we said how are you managing people and holding them accountable. if there is a problem, we will point plenty of them out. host: we want to invite viewers in this conversation. where is the government waste fraud and abuse. how would you make government more efficient? we have congressman pete

sessions, the cochair of the delivering outstanding government efficiency caucus, a complement to the front of government efficiency. roger in phoenix, democratic caller, you are up first. good morning. caller: good morning, mr.. i know you are a southwestern man, so go pirates. so my question is specific to the federal workforce. i know you are going to be receiving feedback specifically from constituents but are you going to be doing any hearings on doge specifically? i know this from working on the hill and for federal contractors , would your committee be open to fellowships? i know there are a lot of

fellowships at the agencies and fellowships coming into congress , but more fellowships to help alleviate the brain drain. i look forward to hearing your answer. guest: what a thoughtful young man. i think the insight he is providing not only where i went to college and living in waco. but then he referred to a brain drain. it is something we do need to pay attention to. there have been an incredible number of schools, universities, masters programs that have developed themselves here in washington dc and provides many government workers being brought up to date with not only the newest processes and procedures but the code and computing necessary behind all of this.

what we have got to do is look at making sure that every person who is hired is qualified and this has been an issue that republicans have made over the kinds of people that were running these departments and making these decisions. you may recall that nine days after president trump with the attempted assassination in pennsylvania, we had a head of the secret service and she essentially come in my opinion and i think others, did not offer the american people nor congress nor her agency the kind of leadership that is needed to lead. we really caught her flat-footed in front of the committee. we find this across government and we found that people were selected for a reason as opposed

to learning and using experience on behalf of the american people. we will have feedback. in making sure we are taking care the worker that wants to work for the government but it needs to be done at work. host: will there be hearings led by your caucus and other meetings and will elon musk and vivek ramaswamy testify? guest: i have no reason to include we would not include that. it is not broken out in the new congress yet but we will do that and plan the schedule. we are in essentially the first three or four days of this. it will be open and there is a reason why we need the american people to know what we are doing and why. it has to pass their smell test and that is why we push of what is in the best interest of the american people. host: let's start with telling

the american people what is happening by telling them what happened behind closed doors with house republicans. what did you hear from those two, elon musk and vivek ramaswamy? guest: they had an opportunity to meet 30 people they have never met. 200 members of congress that they had never met and it gave them an opportunity to say we are in this battle come in this fight because we put our companies and invested ourselves in doing things and america is in trouble and if we allow us to go from 30 $5 trillion to $40 trillion to $50 trillion, simply because we are having to pay off the debt, then america is in trouble and we will look at us as being responsible and they looked at us and said, we are

looking at either the problem or the answer. it was not necessarily a comfortable time for a member of congress, especially not someone who is brand-new. we empowered herself to say we will get there and we will make sure it is bipartisan or at least an opportunity to be bipartisan. host: let's go to huntsville, republican. caller: it is a pleasure to speak with you today from huntsville, texas. my question is this, we trust our elections in walker county. we know the people who run the elections but in some of the larger cities in texas, there

are problems that we suspect there has been a lot of cheating going on. it happens not only in texas but in certain counties in georgia in maricopa county, in arizona, and other states where election cheating happens. in what way? caller: it could happen with crooked election officials. we had a gentleman in tarrant county who helped develop the code that enabled chavez to cheat in the venezuelan elections. so the governments could bring

in voting machines and people both and phyllis a recall election for chavez. host: i think -- and people -- and there was a recall for chavez. host: i think we understand. guest: we have had lots of reports of abnormalities and inconsistencies that have happened with irregularities. many of these, while they were in our past could us -- persist today. but many states looked at those abnormalities, inconsistencies, irregularities and they came back and updated the laws. for instance, in georgia, texas and other states, governors as a result of covid made decisions that were contrary to the law

but they put them to a commission and a commission made the recommendation. we now have lots of states that have said, a governor nor any official can waive the rules that are laws of the elections. it is a continuing process. i was here with gore versus bush where there were hanging chad we continue to do things that bring the american people to have confidence in what we do. in texas in particular, we have paper ballots. the paper ballots at least provide a context for a paper trail that would be necessary. we are going to take a look at this. we are open to hearing back from people. i hope that your estate also at it. host: potomac maryland, mary,

independent caller. caller: i am calling to say that donald trump did the most to the national debt. today he is strangling the life out of the republican party. host: the first part of what we were saying, we were talking to representative gwen moore and she was talking about the tax cuts adding to the deficit and then republicans spending during the first term of the trump administration. how do you reverse course in the second trump administration? guest: it is important to note that we had an economy that was losing jobs, that phased high tech station. as you know, the corporate tax

rate was 36%, almost 30 7%. american business found themselves at the back end of becoming not just efficient but adding jobs because they were making the payments to the governments. republicans are not for higher taxes. republicans are for more people having jobs. once we immediately cut those taxes,, we don't have as high rates, more money came into the treasury. almost overnight there was 500 billion dollars that came from overseas investment into america, investing in jobs and opportunity. i will take it for what it is. the dent of the country rose but it was not because of the tax code, it is because we had

people turning 65 and 78 moving to social security and moving out of the workforce into retirement, where the government would have to pay that. that is not something necessarily that the president had to deal with. that is them -- had to do with. that was demographics. the question became are we going to replace those people who retired and moved to social security with younger workers. and that answer was overwhelmingly. so america i believe is better off. we not only made investments but added new workers. so many workers that we had jobs . at one point, 6 million more jobs were available then people were signing up for it. so this was what the republicans did. they created a successful

viewpoint that people could move on that we would replace workers behind them and that american companies would not only make a profit. host: we only have a few minutes here for the house gavels in for the morning session. they are doing so early at 9:00 eastern. i will share this with viewers. this is the new york times, top tax cuts won't help the economy grow. this is from the nonpartisan congressional budget office. that is what they found in their latest report. patricia in chandler, arizona, democratic caller. welcome to the conversation. caller: good morning, everyone. i want to see what is going to be done about the patriotic act. guest: the patriot act

originally came about after 9/11 when we recognized a huge number of things that were happening that america had we been balancing processes that we thought were important including the bill of rights. what has happened since then is congress has not only authorized but paid for a huge data center in utah. huge data center collects incredible amounts of data. the question now becomes something that the fiza court is dealing with, the nsa and the fbi and others are tinkering with. i do not see at this time that there is going to be any law change until we see how the new process works. you and i both know that what happened is under testimony, the

fbi director was confronted with five or 6 million, i don't recall exactly, where people were looked at where the records were looked at and he come in my opinion, did not adequately answer the question. they were looked at, for what did you do with it? the questions we have are the retaining of that data and information. we have been unable to, between not just republicans but republicans and democrats, house and senate and the president come up with the best or more thoughtful way of how do we do with people process information that has been gathered and collected? are they american citizens? was it because they got a call overseas? this is where the fiza court came back to the department of

justice and said you need to clarify when you come to us and ask for a warrant, tell us what you are after and how you follow through to use the data and disseminate that data or get rid of it. so it is not available to harm the american people. i am delighted in chandler, arizona that people are interested in this issue and that is essentially something that the fis courta and i have belief that pam bondi, the new attorney general nominee would be prepared to tackle. host: will go to paul -- palmer, republican, georgia. caller: i think you for taking the call and i appreciate your efforts in trying to reduce excess spending.

i think you are fighting a losing battle overall. i am an old man and i have heard this song sang a million times over the years. and it is congress' responsibility for the spending that they are irresponsible. our 535 representatives and nobody is responsible for the deficit. until we change, i think we need a constitutional amendment that would allow the federal reserve to dictate the amount of deficit spending allowable. host: palmer, let's take that idea. guest: feedback from the american people, a lot of viewpoints not only i hear it but i subscribe to.

the first thing i would say is please remember there is something called mandatory, would you like it or not, and discretionary spending. the federal government does have to deal with 65% to 70% of spending on pilot. people are retiring and are entitled to social security. we don't budget how much will be spent in that spending has accelerated. do we need to deal with the issue? yes, we do. but the size of government which is where we primarily are going to spend our time, the government is wholly inefficient because it is not our song but it is the truth. the american people know that government is staying at home. president biden and his administration just two days ago

announced they had concluded a deal with the union that is binding contractually with the union that 42,000 people could work from home. we openly asked the administration, the biden administration, how do you make it work? what is your backlog? how do you take new people and have them come and work to learn? we have lots of new people. how do you manage your business and why are you behind? these are questions that will be vetted by not just the american people but the doge caucus and i think we will make things better and we will make sure that the reorganization that is going to happen comes from the very top. if we don't think that elon musk can make better the circumstance

and put his good name on it, then i think we are all missing the point. host: it is in the initial days, what happens first with doge? guest: we are gathering our stuff together and finding out who wants to be on the caucus. we have between the three cochairs, a division of labor, who is going to answer the emails, who is going to put together the first meeting, who is going to decide our division of labor about what areas? how do we divide some 63 people up? we can't all work on the same thing but we have to find ourselves where we then can go and ask questions, come up with ideas and vet them before they come back to an example we would say is here is our recommendation. it is a lot of deep water and i do appreciate and respect