John Cornyn Celebrates Creation Of Texas Version Of DOGE, Says US Owes Musk 'A Debt Of Gratitude'

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During remarks on the Senate floor Monday, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) spoke about the Department of Government Efficiency.

Transcript

00:00Well, Madam President, it looks like my timing is exquisite because I came down here to talk

00:08about something that I think has sort of fallen off the radar screen in here in recent weeks,

00:14and that is the work of the Department of Government Efficiency, one of the most important

00:19developments that I think we've seen with the advent of President Trump's ascension to the

00:26Office of President. It's amazing to me to listen to my Democratic colleagues speak, talking like

00:35chicken little, the sky is falling. I heard the senator from Rhode Island suggest that we are

00:43trying to privatize Social Security. There's no one, absolutely no one, suggesting that. This is

00:52what's called a straw man. You erect a phony argument, and you knock it down, and you claim

00:59victory. The truth is that Mr. Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency should be

01:07applauded for their efforts to root out waste, fraud, and abuse. And you would think taxpayers,

01:14the same taxpayers our colleagues represent in their states, would applaud this effort.

01:23I can't think of a more difficult but important goal than helping the government find efficiencies

01:29and reduce spending. Because if we reduce spending, two things happen. Either we've reduced the taxes

01:36that are taken from the hardworking families that produce the revenue by which government operates,

01:42or we eliminate or reduce the amount of debt that the federal government accrues, which right

01:50now is at an unsustainable level. To me, both of those things are positive. Restricting or limiting

01:59the amount of money that comes from the taxpayer, or, and maybe it's and, reducing the government

02:09debt. The problem of runaway spending by the government, of course, is not a new one,

02:16but it's been getting increasingly worse, particularly during the last four years of the Biden

02:21administration. The truth is, it's taken us a long time to get to $37 trillion in debt, but it's now

02:29reached the point of unsustainability. We are spending more money on interest on the national

02:35debt than we are on defense in an increasingly dangerous world. That alone is unsustainable.

02:45But Ronald Reagan described our spending problem back in 1984 when he said these famous words. He

02:54said, we could say they spend money like drunken sailors, but that would be unfair to drunken sailors,

03:02drunken sailors, which just about sums it up. For somebody like Elon Musk, who is reportedly one of the

03:11most wealthy, maybe the most wealthy person on the planet, to spend his time and effort and to assemble

03:19a team like he has to work in the government, Department of Government Efficiency, is a huge public

03:27service. And I'm grateful to Elon Musk, who's volunteered his time as well as recruiting others

03:34to help the United States government deal with its spending addiction and to try to help it get clean,

03:42certainly much worse than a drunken sailor. This morning, I had a chance to meet with a gentleman,

03:49Joe Gebbia, who's the former CEO of Airbnb, and who is volunteering his time because he sees this as an

04:00unprecedented opportunity to get at problems that the government historically has been unable to deal

04:07with. And that is the incredible rise and increase in government spending, the inefficiency, the waste of

04:15taxpayer funds, and the national debt. So trying to getting a team like this with very accomplished

04:23entrepreneurs and people who've been very successful in the private sector come in and try to help us

04:30figure out how to eliminate waste and fraud and abuse strikes me as an act of patriotism and public service.

04:37And I know we've heard the saying that imitation is the highest form of flattery. Back home in Texas,

04:47Governor Abbott and the Texas legislature have also followed dozens of other states in paying a high

04:54compliment to the Department of Government Efficiency and Elon Musk by proposing a doge-like task force

05:01at the state level. I'm sure even in a state as efficiently run with as low a taxes as Texas,

05:08that you can find inefficiency that can be and should be rooted out. Governor Abbott recently signed the

05:16bill, the first bill of this year's legislative session, into law to establish the Texas Regulatory

05:22Efficiency Office modeled after Doge. And while some states are more fiscally responsible than others,

05:32state governments, as I said, are not immune from spending taxpayer money on outdated or inefficient

05:38programs. Texas is one of the most efficient. That shouldn't surprise anyone. We have the fourth

05:45lowest state taxes in the country, and we've been ranked one of the lowest spending states in terms

05:52of state spending per capita. I look forward to seeing the great work being done down in Austin

05:59by the Texas Doge and what they can do to try to help make state government more efficient. And I know

06:06I join many of them in thanking Elon and his team at Doge for the inspiration and what he has brought

06:15down to our state. Of course, Elon's status within the federal government is that of what's called a

06:22special government employee. That means it's for a period of time, 130 days in this case. And with

06:30that date approaching soon, Mr. Musk indicates he plans to wrap up his work. But I must emphasize that

06:38the work of Doge must go on. The task of improving government efficiency is one that will never be

06:46finished. And I believe that Elon Musk and his team at Doge have made monumental progress in just a few

06:53short months. And let me give you a few examples. The Department of the Treasury started its first

07:01automated payment verification system at the recommendation of Doge. So far, more than 300 million

07:09dollars has been identified in improper payment requests. Over at the Center for Medicare Services,

07:17the government has launched a fraud detection operation center. And one week ago today,

07:25CMS announced they suspended suspected fraudulent payments to 33 different providers.

07:32One such fraudulent payment was for a patient that died two decades ago. It reminds me of some of the

07:40people on the Social Security rolls that Doge has also found, some well in excess of 100 years old,

07:48if they exist at all. Well, another example included billing more than two million dollars in genetic

07:55testing for patients that never actually received the test. These are just a few examples of

08:02the gross fraud and inefficiencies that happen throughout the federal government. And I'm sure it's just

08:08the tip of the iceberg. But these technical payment glitches are just scratching the surface. Doge's

08:17findings and recommendations have also eliminated some of the most egregious examples of fraud.

08:24The Department of Justice, in partnership with Doge, discovered and charged an Iraqi man for

08:30illegally voting in a U.S. election. Now, we should know, I think everybody does know, that foreign

08:36nationals, non-citizens, are not eligible to vote in U.S. elections. That is a privilege reserved for

08:44citizens of the United States. Instances of foreign nationals voting in our elections threaten the bedrock

08:50of our democratic republic. All of us should be thankful to the Department of Justice, Attorney General

08:57Bondi, FBI Director Patel, and Doge, that they've identified and eliminated this violation of the

09:05sanctity of our election process. The Department of Labor and the Department of Agriculture are working to

09:12make sure that illegal immigrants are not receiving federal benefits that they are not authorized to

09:18receive, such as unemployment insurance or SNAP benefits, otherwise known as food stamps.

09:25These programs are meant to protect vulnerable Americans, not to reward illegal immigrants

09:32for breaking our laws. From eliminating improper payments to safeguarding our elections,

09:39I believe we owe Mr. Musk a debt of gratitude for helping identify these problems, again, just the tip of the iceberg,

09:48and for eliminating these wasteful use of hard-earned tax dollars. In order to consolidate the gains that

09:57Doge has made, I support Congress and the administration working together to codify these cost-cutting measures

10:05through rescissions. That's the official process by which we actually save the money. This will be important for a few

10:12different reasons. Number one, it will allow us to use the savings that Doge is identifying in order to offset

10:20the costs of the tax bill that we are currently considering, allowing us to send even more money back

10:26to the American people. Any money we can save from wasteful spending obviously can be sent back or kept

10:35by the people who earn it in the first place, which are hard-working American families. So I'm very happy to

10:42hear the White House indicate that they planned on sending us a rescissions package very soon. And I would

10:48recommend, personally, that they send a rescissions package on a monthly basis. I'm going to be very

10:56interested to see how our Democratic colleagues react to some of these sensible spending cuts or

11:02rescissions. So far, what they've done is they've been in complete opposition to anything and everything

11:08that the Trump administration has proposed, including the Department of Government Efficiency.

11:15I don't think it helps their credibility when some of the most egregious expenditures and waste of taxpayer

11:21money is pointed out. And they complained about the person who's identified it and made it possible

11:27maybe to save that money or to return it to the taxpayers from whom it came in the first place.

11:36As officials at the Office of Management and Budget consider their options moving forward,

11:41I hope they know that I will be a willing and eager partner in their efforts.

11:45Madam President, I yield the floor.

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