Fiscal Accountability - Rocky Mountain Voice

“Thank you, President Trump”: Musk exits DOGE, $175B saved—says mission will endure

On Wednesday night, Elon Musk made it clear that the reason he was leaving his role leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) project was due to a rule limiting special government employees to 130 days of service rather than any rumored feud with President Donald Trump.

This week, Musk publicly criticized the tax and spending package championed by Trump, saying, “I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing.”

Walcher: Want to fix Congress? Break the budget process first

GregWalcher.com, Approved, Commentary, National / May 15, 2025 / Appropriations Reform, Budget Transparency, Congressional Budget, Continuing Resolutions, DOGE, Federal Spending, Fiscal Accountability, Line Item Budgeting

A popular blogger called Taylor Cone gave some great advice for budding inventors, discussing the process of prototyping: build it, then break it, then fix it. That’s a strategy Congress ought to try.

The House Appropriations Committee, Congress’s most powerful panel, has 63 members, only 8 of whom have ever voted to do what the law requires of them, namely, to pass 12 appropriation bills to fund government agencies and programs. In fact, Congress has passed the required bills on time only 4 times in the last 40 years, the last time 26 years ago. Only 25 of the 435 House members and 8 of the 100 Senators were even in Congress then, all of them now in their 70s, 80s, and 90s. They may not even remember how it was supposed to work.

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