As far as congressional meetings gosuper game, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy’s huddle with Republicans was remarkably efficient.
The moguls whom President-elect Donald J. Trump has charged with producing a federal government marked by “more efficiency and less bureaucracy” — the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE — arrived on Capitol Hill on Thursday for a series of sitdowns with lawmakers that culminated in an afternoon session open to all congressional Republicans.
Mr. Musk and Mr. Ramaswamy each delivered roughly a minute of introductory remarks, as if to show off their talent for streamlining in a roomful of officials known for long-windedness. They disclosed little in the way of their plans for where to find spending cuts, according to those who attended the closed-door meeting, instead emphasizing how badly both the government and its $36 trillion debt had ballooned.
Then they turned the microphones over to lawmakers, who enthusiastically lined up to offer suggestions of government agencies and programs to slash.
Republicans who have long dreamed of the opportunity to downsize the federal government — and are eager to rub elbows with the richest man in the world, and a close Trump ally to boot — hailed the arrival of Mr. Musk and Mr. Ramaswamy on their home turf.
Taxpayers “deserve a more responsive government, a more efficient government, one that is leaner and more focused on its primary objectives,” Speaker Mike Johnson told throngs of assembled reporters before the closed-door meeting. “And that’s the opportunity that we have here now. We believe it’s an historic moment for the country, and these two gentlemen are going to help navigate through this exciting new day.”
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