Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will likely find ways to cut wasteful spending in the federal government, but some of the things Musk is proposing, including "finding $2 trillion" to cut, isn't going to happen, and "we should stop saying it," Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., told Newsmax.
Moskowitz on Wednesday became the first Democrat to join the Department of Government Efficiency caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives.
"We're setting the bar so high, we're not going to meet it," Moskowitz told national correspondent Alana Austin, "but can we find waste in government? Of course, we can. The Pentagon hasn't passed an audit in seven years. We probably have programs that are 30, 40 years old that are not functioning. We probably can bring in technology to make government more efficient," he added.
"So those are the things that I think Elon and Vivek should be looking at and proposing, and I think if we're rational about this, and I want to use that word, if we're rational about this, we're going to make these changes. If we go so unrealistic, then this is going to die under its own weight."
On why he joined the House DOGE caucus, Moskowitz told Newsmax: "I don't think anyone in the country thinks government's perfect … and so I'm going with the conversations happening."
"We shouldn't be afraid of conversation. It doesn't mean I'm going to agree with everything that comes out of it. In fact, I'm sure there's going to be things that come out of that that I'm vehemently going to disagree with. But I'm going to go where we're having that conversation, and in this specific instance about reforming DHS, that's where that conversation is going to happen."
Moskowitz is one of the biggest proponents on Capitol Hill of moving FEMA out of the Department of Homeland Security and making it a standalone Cabinet-level agency.
He told Newsmax he thinks other Democrats will partner with DOGE, including "some of the most progressive members — Ro Khanna, Bernie Sanders," who have shown interest in aspects of the advisory body.
"But that's my point. If Republicans are rational about what we want to do here, then it will happen on a bipartisan basis. But if they start being like, We're just going to get rid of the Department of Education; we're going to cut Social Security, then this is not going to be a rational conversation."