Bernie Sanders backs DOGE, says 'Elon Musk is right'



Former Democrat turned independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont publicly endorsed the Department of Government Efficiency, a new agency in the upcoming administration aimed at reducing the bloated bureaucracy.

President-elect Donald Trump announced that tech mogul Elon Musk will be at the helm of the department alongside former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. While the department received a lot of expected praise from conservatives, Sanders also came out in support of DOGE.

'Republican politicians have dreamed about the objectives of "DOGE" for a very long time.'

"Elon Musk is right," Sanders said in a Sunday post on X. "The Pentagon, with a budget of $886 billion, just failed its 7th audit in a row. It’s lost track of billions."

"Last year, only 13 senators voted against the Military Industrial Complex and a defense budget full of waste and fraud," Sanders continued. "That must change."

Trump announced on November 12, just one week after his landslide victory, that Musk and Ramaswamy would be leading the department.

"Together, these two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies - Essential to the 'Save America' Movement," Trump said in a statement on November 12.

"It will become, potentially, 'The Manhattan Project' of our time," Trump continued. "Republican politicians have dreamed about the objectives of 'DOGE' for a very long time. To drive this kind of drastic change, the Department of Government Efficiency will provide advice and guidance from outside of Government, and will partner with the White House and Office of Management & Budget to drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before."

Trump also detailed that the department will exist only through July 4, 2026, the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

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'Tremendous Risk to the Taxpayer': Biden-Harris Admin Awarded $400 Million to Energy Companies Linked to Foreign Adversaries, Watchdog Finds

The Biden-Harris administration awarded at least $400 million to energy companies with "suspected ties to foreign entities of concern," according to an inspector general report published on Monday.

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'Unacceptable That the Department Accommodates This Behavior': House Foreign Affairs Member Calls for State Dept. Briefing Over Post-Election Therapy Sessions

A senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee is calling for a briefing after the Biden-Harris State Department hosted a series of in-house therapy sessions in the wake of President-elect Donald Trump's victory.

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Pentagon fails audit again while officials boast of 'progress'



The Department of Defense failed its seventh consecutive annual audit on Friday, revealing that it cannot fully account for its over $824 billion budget.

The nation's largest government agency has been required to run yearly audits since the 1990s but only began doing so in 2018. The Pentagon has failed every single one of these reviews, which are carried out by independent auditors and the department's Office of Inspector General.

'I have zero tolerance for fraud, waste, and abuse.'

The DOD's leadership has fully anticipated its repeated audit failures, stating that the agency aims to pass for the first time by 2028, as required by the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act.

This year's audit resulted in a disclaimer of opinion, meaning the agency failed to provide auditors with sufficient information to form an accurate opinion.

Of the DOD's 28 reporting entities, nine received an unmodified opinion, one received a qualified opinion, 15 received disclaimers, and three opinions remain pending, according to the agency.

Despite the Pentagon's repeated failures, Michael McCord, under secretary of defense comptroller and chief financial officer, claimed that the agency "has turned a corner in its understanding of the depth and breadth of its challenges."

"Momentum is on our side, and throughout the Department there is strong commitment — and belief in our ability — to achieve an unmodified audit opinion," he claimed.

McCord said that the DOD anticipated receiving a disclaimer of opinion but rejected the notion that the agency "failed" yet another annual audit.

"I do not say we failed, as I said, we have about half clean opinions. We have half that are not clean opinions," McCord told reporters on Friday. "So if someone had a report card that is half good and half not good, I don't know that you call the student or the report card a failure. We have a lot of work to do, but I think we're making progress."

McCord emphasized that to achieve a clean audit by 2028, the DOD must "make enormous progress," but he believes the goal is within reach.

"Is 2028 achievable? I believe so," he stated. "But we do have to keep getting faster and keep getting better."

In response to the latest audit results, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin stated, "While we have made real progress in our annual audit, there are several areas where we need to work harder and achieve better results. I am deeply committed to transparency and responsible stewardship of taxpayer funds, both central to our mission to defend our country."

"I have zero tolerance for fraud, waste, and abuse — in the Pentagon or elsewhere in the Department," Austin continued. "The Department is grateful to Congress for supporting our mission and strengthening America's defense. Yet, there is still much more to do. We must account for every taxpayer dollar and present a clean financial bill of health to the American people."

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Jeffries Rally for Top New York Congressional Challenger Was Illegally Promoted With Taxpayer Funds: Watchdog Complaint

A village on Long Island used taxpayer resources to promote a campaign rally headlined by House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D., N.Y.) in violation of local, state, and federal laws, a watchdog group alleged in a complaint Monday.

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'Secretary of Cost-Cutting': Trump taps Musk for new potential role to slash government waste



Former President Donald Trump stated on Sunday that, should he win the presidential election, he plans to tap Elon Musk for a new potential role to significantly reduce government waste.

During an interview on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures," the Republican presidential nominee said he hopes to appoint Musk as his "Secretary of Cost-Cutting."

'We will rip the waste out of our $6.5 Trillion budget. Our goal: Balance the Budget of the USA.'

Trump told the news outlet, "He's a great business guy, and he's a great cost-cutter."

According to Trump, Musk told him he could slash government costs "without affecting anybody."

He noted that Musk does not want to be a part of the Cabinet but does want to help eliminate government waste.

"He is dying to do this," Trump said of Musk. "We'll have a new position: Secretary of Cost-Cutting. Elon wants to do that, and we have incredible people. He's running a big business. He can't just say, 'I think I'll go into the Cabinet.' Other people can. He can't, but Elon's a little bit different in that sense."

Trump also told Fox News that Musk promised him he would get a rocket to Mars by the end of Trump's potential second term, stating he hopes Musk pulls it off "long before" China or Russia.

During an August X Spaces discussion, the former president complimented Musk for being "the greatest cutter." Musk previously stated that he had slashed the staff at Twitter by approximately 80%.

"I look at what you do. You walk in and you just say, 'You want to quit?' They go on strike — I won't mention the name of the company — but they go on strike, and you say, 'That's OK, you're all gone. You're all gone. Every one of you is gone,'" Trump told Musk.

Musk explained during the Spaces conversation that government overspending causes inflation.

"Would you agree that we need to take a look at government spending and have, perhaps, a government efficiency commission that just ... tries to make the spending sensible and so that the country lives within its means?" he asked Trump.

Musk advocated for a government efficiency commission "that takes a look at these things and just ensures that the taxpayer money — that taxpayers' hard-earned money — is spent in a good way. And I'd be happy to help out on such a commission."

On Monday, Trump-Vance transition team co-chair Howard Lutnick posted a photograph on social media of himself and Musk.

"Welcome to DOGE," Lutnick wrote, an acronym referring to Musk's proposed "Department of Government Efficiency." "Doge" is also a cryptocurrency.

"We will rip the waste out of our $6.5 Trillion budget. Our goal: Balance the Budget of the USA. We must elect Donald Trump President," Lutnick stated.

Musk shared Lutnick's post, adding, "We gotta win, but, once we do, we can cut the millions of strings that, like Gulliver, hold back the giant that is America!"

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Reports: Democrats’ Idea Of Progress Is Shoveling Billions Of Dollars To Illegals And Insurance Companies

The CBO reports show how the Inflation Reduction Act has proved anything but and how Biden and Harris' border crisis has increased spending.

Failure To Pass SAVE Act Proves Republicans Aren’t Serious About Winning

Weakness is not a luxury that the GOP can afford right now.

Angela Alsobrooks Led a $40,000 Taxpayer-Funded Trip to Africa as Violent Crime Plagued Her County. What Did Her Constituents Get Out of It?

Violent crime was on the rise in Prince George's County, Maryland, in November 2022, but County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, who is now the Democratic nominee for the state's open Senate seat, had another thing on her mind: traveling around South Africa on the taxpayer's dime.

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Too Much Deregulation? We Wish.

In 2022, philanthropic organizations the Hewlett Foundation and the Omidyar Network gave millions of dollars in grants to top universities to "reimagine capitalism." This reimagination is necessary, they said, because "for more than 40 years, neoliberalism has dominated economic and political debates, both in the U.S. and globally, with its free-market fundamentalism and growth-at-all-costs approach to economic and social policy."

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