President-elect Donald Trump’s team picks so far prove that he’s dead serious about draining the bureaucratic swamp.
However, many of them — primarily cabinet-level positions — will require Senate confirmation.
One position that doesn’t need confirmation is Director of Government Efficiency (DOGE). a temporary position that was a Trump brainchild.
He appointed noted businessmen Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to run it.
They reported Wednesday that they’re already "Working overtime to ensure your tax dollars will be spent wisely" and plan to finish the job by July 4, 2026 — America’s 250th birthday.
The New York Post immediately found nearly $386 billion in waste to eliminate, including:
- Medicaid and Medicare sent out $101 billion in improper payments.
- The federal government shipped $1.3 billion in checks to dead people.
- Prisoners thought to still be free and out of work received $171 million in unemployment payments or Social Security.
Musk noted the Post article and said, "Looks like a lot of opportunity for @DOGE!"
Trump also wants to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education, along with its approximate 4,000 employees and $238 billion budget.
Bur as Twitchy writer and Substack columnist Amy Curtis observed, this is just scratching at the surface.
"The notion — as some politicians claim — there’s nothing to cut from the budget is laughable," she said.
"There’s a lot of wasteful spending we don’t even know about," she added.
But in addition to the bureaucratic swamp, Congress’ actions so far appear to indicate that there’s still a huge congressional swamp — even within the Republican conference.
The GOP not only took the White House, it also garnered control of both chambers of Congress. The last time Republicans did that was in 2016 — when Trump became the 45th president.
However, just because we control Congress, it doesn’t mean it’s all downhill from here. We got a hint of that on Wednesday when Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., was eliminated from consideration as Senate majority leader after the first round of voting.
Scott knows something of the real world, having started from nothing to build a successful healthcare business before entering politics.
Plus, he’s a Trump-supporting, "America First" senator.
War Room host Steve Bannon reported at the time, "Breaking news just in — Rick Scott has been eliminated in the first round of the race for Senate Majority Leader this morning and will not advance. So, victory is not ours. I don’t care how you dress it."
Here’s a similar reaction: "RICK SCOTT WAS JUST ELIMINATED FROM SENATE MAJORITY LEADER," said Kylie Jane Kremer, executive director of Women for America First.
"We will be RINO hunting next election cycle. Bookmark this."
Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., was selected majority leader on the second round.
He went directly from college to politics, and thus has no firsthand experience in real life — in how businesses function.
His only talent is in winning popularity contests.
Conservatives were disappointed at this pick.
"This is who the Swamp wants to be your Senate leader," independent journalist Kyle Becker said.
"John Thune. A man with a 37% conservatism score in the last Congress. After a Trump electoral landslide. And voters delivering Republicans the Senate majority. And a House Majority."
He added that Thune "voted for massive spending bills . . . rejected reforming the intel community [and] opposed auditing Ukraine war funding."
Becker concluded, "This is *NOT* the change the American people voted for!"
Thune is, in short, Mitch McConnell 2.0. Nevertheless, he promised to support President Trump’s "America First" agenda 100% this time out.
"We have a mandate for the American people," he said. "A mandate not only to clean up the mess left by the Biden-Harris Schumer agenda, but also to deliver on President Trump’s priorities."
We’ll see how well he lives up to that promise in the coming months.
One of his first tasks is to quickly confirm the president’s nominations for cabinet-level positions, and Trump is already getting pushback on at least some of his selections.
It would be less of an issue if we had an "America First" Congress — a Congress like the "citizen legislature" envisioned by the Founders, consisting of farmers, lawyers, merchants, doctors and businessmen — people like Donald Trump, JD Vance, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.
The idea was that they would bring their knowledge and experience to Washington for a few years where it’s needed.
These are the people who know how the real world operates — not the career politicians like John Thume.
If we want to achieve that ideal, it’s up to us, the American people, to clean up the congressional swamp. And we have to do that, at the ballot box — every two years.
Only then can we achieve a true "America First" government.
Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and has been a frequent contributor to Newsmax. He is also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and a Second Amendment supporter. Read Michael Dorstewitz's Reports — More Here.
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