Thune and Johnson vow to take DOGE spending cuts to the next level
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The GOP's Hill leaders are signaling their eagerness to back up Elon Musk by turning DOGE spending cuts into real legislation.
Why it matters: Musk's slash-and-burn cuts may be undone by the courts. But he's given congressional Republicans a blueprint for what's possible to cut.
- "I think that anything that DOGE does will be factored into what we do up here," Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told Axios.
- "We are going to be codifying a lot of these changes," House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told reporters Monday, "and what they've uncovered is, frankly, shocking."
Zoom in: DOGE has gone from a meme to a machine in the last three weeks, sparking lawsuits and injunctions.
- Judges have paused Musk's access to Treasury information and blocked more than 2,000 USAID employees from being put on leave.
- More court activity is expected as Musk pounces from one agency to the next in search of DEI initiatives, bureaucratic bloat and other opportunities for spending cuts.
Zoom out: Republicans need to do some serious unifying if they want to pass party-line spending cuts. Ten GOP senators and 34 House members voted in December against the government funding stopgap.
- But DOGE-inspired cuts might help get the House's rowdy Freedom Caucus and senators like Rand Paul (R-Ky.) to vote yes on some bills — as long as specific cuts don't create new GOP "no" votes.
Reality check: Even if the House can pass anything, outside of budget reconciliation, the Senate GOP will need Democratic votes to overcome the 60-vote filibuster for spending bills.
- Democrats are rallying in opposition to President Trump's spending freeze — and are threatening to allow a government shutdown next month.
The bottom line: Musk's appeals to Congress on deep cuts could force Republicans to justify tough cuts to popular programs, and Democrats to defend funding some unpopular ones.
