Sen. Bernie Sanders praised tech billionaire Elon Musk on Sunday over plans by the Department of Government Efficiency to eliminate waste in defense spending.
"Elon Musk is right," the Vermont independent wrote in a post on X. "The Pentagon, with a budget of $886 billion, just failed its 7th audit in a row. It's lost track of billions. Last year, only 13 senators voted against the Military Industrial Complex and a defense budget full of waste and fraud. That must change."
Musk replied to Sanders' post with several American flag emojis.
His America super PAC posted on X: "Sensible spending is not a partisan issue. The general public supports @DOGE holding government accountable to spend taxpayer money more wisely."
President-elect Donald Trump announced shortly after winning last month's election that Musk and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy would serve as the co-heads of DOGE, which will coordinate with the White House and Office of Management and Budget to root out government waste, according to the New York Post.
Sanders has long been a harsh critic of U.S defense spending, which he has slammed as "bloated and wasteful" while urging more funding geared toward social spending.
Last month, members of both major parties expressed concern after the Department of Defense announced it had failed its seventh independent audit in a row.
Sanders is not the only lawmaker who has signaled a willingness to cooperate with DOGE on cutting defense spending, the Independent reported.
Last week, Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., posted on X: 'When it comes to cutting waste, fraud, and abuse and opening the 5 primes to more competition, there are Democrats on HASC [the House Armed Services Committee] who will work with @elonmusk and @DOGE."
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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