Republicans are not the only ones embracing President-elect Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency to reduce the size of government.
A week after winning the Nov. 5 election, Trump announced that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will head up a new efficiency department commission with the goal of dismantling government bureaucracy and "cut wasteful expenditures" throughout federal agencies by July 4, 2026.
Although most Democrats likely will oppose DOGE, Business Insider reported several party members who have indicated they want to join discussions concerning any proposals.
Reps. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., Val Hoyle, D-Ore., and Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., and Sens. Chris Coons, D-Del., Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., were named as Democrats open to working with DOGE.
Moskowitz was the first Democrat lawmaker to join the House's DOGE caucus, which will partner with the DOGE commission.
"If this is where that conversation is going to happen, I'm happy to be at the table," Moskowitz told Business Insider. "And if they want to do stupid stuff, I'll call it out, and I'll vote against it."
Moskowitz told the outlet his main focus is to reorganize the Department of Homeland Security so the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Secret Service report directly to the president.
He recently told NPR that joining the DOGE caucus isn't an indication that he's fully embracing Trump's legislative ideas.
"On some issues, I'm progressive. On other issues, I'm conservative, and I think that's how most of my constituents are," he said.
Hoyle, who opposes cuts to Social Security, said she wants "to be in the rooms where the tough conversations are happening."
"The DOGE Caucus is a forum to discuss ways to find savings in the budget," she told Business Insider. "Anyone who thinks there aren't opportunities to make government more efficient and effective is not living in the real world. This isn't a partisan issue."
Khanna would like to work with DOGE to reduce wasteful spending in the Department of Defense.
"American taxpayers want and deserve the best return on their investment," he recently wrote in an MSNBC opinion column. "Let's put politics aside and work with DOGE to reduce wasteful defense spending."
Coons and Sanders both have signaled cooperating with DOGE.
"Elon Musk is right. The Pentagon, with a budget of $886 billion, just failed its 7th audit in a row. It's lost track of billions," Sanders wrote Dec. 1 on X.
"Last year, only 13 senators voted against the Military Industrial Complex and a defense budget full of waste and fraud. That must change."
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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