Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D‑FL) argued Democratic lawmakers ought to engage with Republicans on the Department of Government Efficiency, as voters want their lawmakers to work together “to make the American government more efficient” and save taxpayer money.
The Florida Democrat became the first member of his party to announce he would join the House DOGE Caucus, which will aim to slash unnecessary government spending. In explaining his decision to join the caucus, Moskowitz contended that Democrats need to partake in discussions on improving the government’s efficiency, as these discussions will be held “with or without Democrats at the table.”
“I think Democrats should go have that conversation. What are we afraid of?” Moskowitz said on Fox News’s America Reports. “We shouldn’t just run to save space. No, we should run in the room and have this argument. There’s going to be disagreements. I’m not going there because I’m going to agree with every idea that they have. But where there is agreement, I think the American people expect us to try to make the American government more efficient and to save taxpayer money.”
Moskowitz cited how Republicans opted not to join the Democrats with their Jan. 6 committee, which ended up being “a strategic mistake” for Republicans. As such, he was joining the caucus to “push back” on disagreements between him and the Republicans in the caucus while working with them to solve “bipartisan” matters.
Among the top problems Moskowitz would like to see DOGE address, he explained, include balancing the budget, arguing the United States is spending far more money than it is bringing in and “hasn’t had a balanced budget since Bill Clinton.” Another problem he wanted to help the government adopt is technology, saying the federal government is “not using anywhere near” the amount of technology the private sector is using, and fixing this would improve the government’s efficiency.
“So there’s definitely going to be ways in which you’re going to see, I think, both parties come together on some ideas, and in other areas, we’re going to diverge,” Moskowitz said.
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Last month, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R‑GA) was tapped to head the new Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency. She expressed enthusiasm for her new role in DOGE in a statement, explaining that the main purpose of DOGE is “to bring accountability and GUT useless government agencies.”
Billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the co-heads of DOGE, have stated they will conduct a weekly podcast detailing their work on cutting government waste. Ahead of President-elect Donald Trump‘s inauguration, many have expressed excitement for DOGE to get to work, including Sen. Rand Paul (R‑KY), who said he would do “anything I can to help them.”