'A lot of waste': Blackburn and Ramaswamy talk DOGE cuts

FIRST ON FOX: Vivek Ramaswamy, who was recently tapped by President-Elect Trump to head the nascent Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) alongside tech billionaire Elon Musk, said there are several "low-hanging fruit" to weed out "a lot of waste" through executive action when Trump takes office.

"One of the low-hanging fruit areas is to look at areas under the executive branch, through executive action that we can actually put an end to a lot of the money that hasn't been authorized by Congress, but it's still being spent, a lot of the waste, fraud and abuse, even in entitlement programs that are resulting in a lot of frictional cost, and ultimately tame the administrative state itself back down to the size that would make our Founding Fathers proud," Ramaswamy said on "Unmuted," Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn's podcast.

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Last week, both Musk and Ramaswamy took to X, formerly Twitter, to say they'll also focus on defense spending cuts while heading up the DOGE advisory panel. 

"We need to strengthen our military by focusing on the *effectiveness* of our defense spending, rather than just reflexively increasing the magnitude," Ramaswamy wrote.

DOGE will expire in July 2026, he noted, on the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. 

"I think it was Reagan who famously said there's no such thing as a government program that doesn't live, it's the best evidence we have for eternal life," Ramaswamy said. "And you know, I don't think it has to be that way." 

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Blackburn added that she has introduced legislation to halt federal salary increases and hiring until recommendations from DOGE are implemented, as well as a bill to reform the federal workforce, advocating for a shift from tenure-based promotions to a merit-based system.

"And those are things that need to be enacted," Blackburn said. "We are just so pleased that President Trump has said now's the time. We're so pleased that he has said that you and Elon are the people to make this happen."

When announcing the Department of Government Efficiency, Trump said the panel would help his administration "slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies."

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., recently announced a new subcommittee for the 119th Congress to correspond with the Department of Government Efficiency.

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House Republicans are also jumping on the bandwagon to slash spending. Rep. Stephanie Bice, R-Okla., introduced a new bill last week – the "Decreasing Overlapping Grants Efficiently (DOGE) Act" – that would establish a system for cutting down on redundant government grants across multiple departments.

"It's a big undertaking," Ramaswamy said. "But I do think that if we bring the public along and even allow the public to participate in airing areas where they're encountering government waste or bureaucracy and surface that we're able to make this something that isn't just top down, but also bottom up."

Fox News Digital's Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.