Summary
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, leading Trump’s “Department of Government Efficiency,” are pushing for $2 trillion in federal budget cuts, which could target Social Security and Medicare.
While they claim to streamline government, critics argue billionaires like Musk and Ramaswamy are unaffected by these cuts, which could harm ordinary Americans who depend on these programs.
Despite Trump’s repeated promises to protect Social Security, skepticism remains over whether these cuts will influence Congress, where voter opposition to reducing benefits is strong.
Critics call the department’s influence limited but politically concerning.
I did hear NPR at least clarify that it would not be a “department”, but instead just some advisory body.
They also pointed out that the closest analog would be the grace commission, but that was largely ignored in the end.
So they can make recommendations, but no authority to make them happen. Currently every sycophant Republican is talking up just how much they are in support of the vague concept of this body, but it’s quite likely that if they ever make specific recommendations, they are probably going to face much more rigorous objections. Republicans have a tendency to complain loudly about the abstract, but then not want to touch any specifics that might have blow back.
See also how they easily kept passing killing the ACA when they knew it would be vetoed and the second they actually knew it wouldn’t be vetoed they lost their appetite for it (admittedly they came close, but still it took them a long time to even try).