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Warren to Musk: I’ve got your $2 trillion right here
In a letter sent to Musk last week, Warren explained her concerns with DOGE and provided alternative suggestions for cutting government spending.
In a letter to Elon Musk Thursday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren outlined more than 30 proposals that would cut at least $2 trillion of government spending in the next decade.
Musk was tapped in November to head the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and has since called for sizable cuts in spending on programs like Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and veterans’ benefits.
Warren has “very serious concerns” about the DOGE process as well as policies that have been publicly discussed, she wrote in the letter.
“The committee appears to be a venue for corruption, allowing well-connected billionaires to put government policies in place that enrich them while hurting ordinary Americans,” Warren wrote in her letter.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren
Instead, she suggested, the government should reduce spending in other areas. She identified instances of “waste, fraud, and abuse in government.”
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“My recommendations would reduce spending on wasteful programs and contracts, would cut out unfair loopholes and giveaways to the wealthiest Americans, would make the government more efficient and effective,” she wrote.
She estimated these changes would save taxpayers a minimum of $2 trillion over the next decade.
Some of Warren’s recommendations include cuts at the Department of Defense, in federal health care programs, and in the federal tax codes, as well as saving on education programs. Within each area, she included specific changes, such as negotiating better Department of Defense contracts and finding opportunities to save costs, which she said could save $52.8 billion on goods and $10.3 billion on services over 12 years.
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She also advised stopping what she called “taxpayer abuse” by Medicare Advantage insurers, noting that the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission estimates that private insurers overcharged taxpayers in Massachusetts alone by almost $83 billion in 2024, with other researchers putting the figure at $140 billion.
On Tuesday, Warren published an op-ed in Fox News headlined “Trump, Musk and I agree on something important. And I’ve got 30 ways to get it done” that included some of her proposals.
“We can eliminate at least $2 trillion of government waste over the next decade without cutting programs that help our grandparents, our veterans, and our children,” Warren wrote.
Warren’s letter to Musk comes shortly after she signed on to another letter along with 20 other Democratic lawmakers urging Trump to address the high prices of eggs. In a letter sent this week and signed by other Massachusetts Reps. Seth Moulton and Jim McGovern, they asked him to prioritize grocery costs that impact the day-to-day lives of Americans ahead of other initiatives he has priotizied in his first week in office.
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