Democrats’ DOGE freakout
Lawsuits, protests and over-the-top rhetoric inflame the debate over federal spendingRumors are swirling in Washington about the next targets of the Department of Government Efficiency. On Jan. 20, President Trump commissioned the agency to poke around federal finances in search of waste, fraud and abuse.
That stirred Uncle Sam’s beneficiaries into a frenzy. More than 1,000 idle government employees and activists rallied outside the Treasury Department on Tuesday to express outrage over the role of Elon Musk, the leader of DOGE.
Rep. Maxine Waters, California Democrat, suggested that the world’s richest man was raiding the public coffers to enrich himself. “You want to use our money to go to Mars,” she claimed. “Nobody elected you. You think you’re the pope. … We’re going to stop you right now. … He is a low-down, dirty person.”
Other senators got even more personal by attacking the computer engineering whiz kids Mr. Musk hired. “We don’t pledge allegiance to the creepy 22-year-olds working for Elon Musk. … Every one of us has a duty to stand up to this fraud …,” Sen. Christopher Murphy shouted. “We have days to stop the destruction of our democracy.”
“We have to fight this in the streets,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen, Maryland Democrat, threatened.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt pushed back by noting that Mr. Trump is doing exactly what he promised: “He campaigned across this country with Elon Musk vowing that Elon was going to head up the Department of Government Efficiency, and the two of them, with a great team around them, were going to look at the receipts of this federal government and ensure it’s accountable to American taxpayers.”
Democrats simultaneously swarmed the D.C. federal courthouse with lawsuits begging a judge to command Mr. Trump to resume spending the public’s money with abandon. One lawsuit says DOGE has failed to abide by open meeting rules. Another incorrectly states that DOGE can’t do what it’s doing because it’s not a government agency.