In Ronald Reagan’s stirring 1964 “A Time for Choosing” speech, he said: “No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. So governments’ programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth.”
Reagan’s words were as true 60 years ago as they are today.
And, just as Americans did in the 1980 election, voters chose a new direction in November to slash a wasteful and burdensome government. President-elect Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, and the accompanying DOGE caucuses in Congress are the antidote to D.C.’s bloat.
A few weeks ago, entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, Trump’s designated government slashers, met with House Republicans to outline ideas and receive feedback. Their advocacy is a welcome departure from the current administration, which has pushed the bigger government on the backs of hardworking Americans—sucking up more of their tax dollars and forcing unnecessary, burdensome regulations.
The federal government was designed to be limited in scope, as highlighted in the Constitution and Bill of Rights. But over the years, especially the past 100 years, it grew bigger and bigger, adding more burdens to Americans.
Efforts to scale back the size and scope of the federal government really aren’t anything new.
I introduced legislation to cut nondefense spending by a mere 1% in the last Congress, but it was blocked by Democrats. And the House passed the REINS Act on June 14, 2023, to establish a congressional approval process for major rules. (The Senate needs to act.)
My proposed Executive Action Cost Transparency Act—which would help increase transparency and accountability at the Congressional Budget Office)—cleared the House Budget Committee, yet most Democrats voted against it.
The problem is that each time Republicans on the Hill have tried to make our government more lean and accountable over the past four years, the cries from the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue—and all the bureaucratic offices all around—have stopped our efforts.
To provide a picture of how unbalanced our fight is, the executive branch employs close to 3 million people, not including members of the armed forces. Many are “working” from home—with only about 6% reporting in-person full time, per a recent report.
Yet the legislative branch, which consists of 535 voting members of the House and Senate, employs just over 1% of what the executive branch employs to carry out our duties in serving our constituents.
So anytime Congress talks about reducing regulations, cutting spending, or just holding spending at current levels, there’s an army of entrenched bureaucrats and big-government Democrats ready to fight against our efforts.
With Trump back in the White House as of Jan. 20 and Musk and Ramaswamy heading DOGE, there’s hope that Republicans in Congress will have allies in reforming our government to be leaner and constituent-focused.
History shows us what we can expect.
In his first term, Trump pledged to cut two regulations for every new regulation imposed. He outpaced his pledge. His administration actually eliminated eight regulations for every new regulation created.
That’s an incredible accomplishment. For small businesses, families, and state and local governments, rolling back the burdens of the federal government is welcome news.
Unnecessary regulations not only add red tape but a real financial cost. Since taking office, President Joe Biden’s agency rulemakings have cost the federal taxpayer $1.37 trillion and counting. This is 45 times the regulatory costs accumulated under Trump and almost five times the regulatory costs added under President Barack Obama.
We need to reverse course.
The recent Supreme Court decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which rolls back its 40-year-old Chevron deference ruling, also will aid in reining in Washington’s rulemaking, pulling back the power of federal agencies to interpret the laws they administer by ensuring that courts rely on the intent of Congress and not the interpretation of the agencies.
Just last year, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed a new rule that would negatively impact small meat processors in Kansas and across the country because of the steep costs of implementing major but unnecessary phosphate and nitrogen testing, which large-scale meat-processing operations can absorb and already conduct. I’ve introduced legislation to push back on this egregious overreach by the EPA.
The bureaucrats in D.C. have held far too much power for far too long. And Congress has ceded too much authority to unelected pencil pushers who make decisions without considering the resulting burdens placed on hardworking Americans.
My colleagues and I are prepared to work with Musk, Ramaswamy, and Trump to reduce our government’s footprint.
Ronald Reagan was right: Government agencies and their rules don’t ever disappear—voluntarily. But November 2024 was a time for choosing, and Americans chose a new direction to reduce the government waste, fraud, and abuse concentrated in the D.C. bubble and the burdens placed on Americans across the country.
Reagan offered more than rhetoric six decades ago. Every day, American workers and families are eager for Trump to deliver the same kind of results.
Rep. Ron Estes, a Republican, is a fifth-generation Kansan who has served that state’s 4th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2017. A senior member of the Ways and Means Committee, Estes was one of the first House lawmakers to join the DOGE Caucus.
Reprinted with Permission from The Daily Signal – By Rep. Ron Estes
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.
If we are to truly reign in federal spending, the first step is to determine which federal spending should be the responsibility of the individual states rather than the federal government and push that back to the states. I.E. the department of education. The net step is to determine which government programs do not really benefit the country as a whole exist and eliminate them altogether. Funding a multi million dollar grant to study the migratory habit of the African fun beetle really doesn’t do anything for anyone except the researcher getting the grant. Before anyone throws it out, butterfly effect be damned. How many homeless and hungry people in this country could we have housed and fed with the billions sent to the Ukraine? Take care of home before you worry about anyone else. It may sound selfish, but it really isn’t.
The American people will be watching Congress very closely as to how willing Congress really is to reduce the size and scope, and thus the cost in real dollar terms, of the federal government. What I think the people want to see is meaningful cuts that substantially begin to reduce both the federal budget and the national debt in some substantial way. That means we’re by definition talking about items measured in 10’s or 100’s of billions of dollars in the budget to start, with much larger cuts to come in the next series of budget bills. So don’t toss out cutting some $10,000 grant to study whatever or some $50,000 pork payout as some big accomplishment by Congress, that you expect the American people will be happy with.
Cautiously optimistic BUT, the 1500 page bill that turned into a passed 122 page bill was for the SAME AMOUNT OF DOLLARS and still included the 3 million for molasses monitoring! No one stopped that a second time but they gave 34 Republican “no” voters” a hard time! Republicans MUST get in lockstep with each other and Dems like Fetterman and others who DO listen to THEIR constituents.
I’m ready. They say they’re ready. So what is everyone waiting on? After January 20th there’s no more excuses!
They’ll be the usual push-back from the progressive/socialists, and that’s to be expected. A good solidified Republican Party could, and should, be able to override that. What I’m far more worried about are socialist/progressive leaning Rinos in the RNC who are going to do all in their power to stab Trump and the rest of us in the back during his presidency. For any of those who got your precious feelings hurt by Trump, get over it! Instead of retaliating against Trump, use all that hate fueled energy to bring our nation back to its former greatness.
Why doesn’t the DOGE ask for copies of Rand Paul’s annual Festivus report and eliminate what is on that? All the hard work has been done. Just use a few pen strokes and from what I heard on Newsmax the other day, $1 trillion dollars will be saved. I do agree that the Dept. of Education needs to be eliminated and returned to the individual states. Reigning in the do nothing AFT union and their big mouth leader will really help families everywhere.
The dems, anything for more regs and more employees. Only they are a burden on the taxpayer. If they all can work from home they are not working for us. If you have a problem they tell you we will correct it but a year later you still haven’t heard anything because the person is not in the office. In meantime they hope you will forget about the problem. Government red tape has to be cut. The many dept of inefficiency have to be eliminated. We don’t need a dept to find out if your food has been spit on would you still eat it. Common sense says no. And those that do, do so at their own risk. But we don’t need a dept to look into that. Life is full of risks every day and each person has to make judgements each and every day. No dept in Washington should have to tell them that. Common sense is returning to the country. I think DOGE will save us a lot of money and regulations which will make doing business in this country much easier and profitable. We might even get a balanced budget passed.
I’m looking forward to see the outcome of this. I find it sad beyond words how joe sent billions to Ukraine as well as billions to everything else, yet he and congress can have the gaul to talk about how S.S. will essentially be belly up by 2034. Why do we feel a need to go around the world to finance, in so many cases, where many of these entities despise us and frankly would spit in our faces. on top of it all our national debt is so through the roof that if President Trump isn’t able to get it fixed, we’ll be under the control of the Chinese. In talking with the reps in our U.S. Reps office the individual I was speaking with actually told me that yes, he did vote against the WEP and that I needed to understand that S.S. benefits were actually nothing more than welfare. Eli Crane is his name. After I sent an email back to his office asking if that was his stance the reply came back with his “yes.” Well, my family and I voted for him his first two runs, but he can rest assured we won’t vote for him again! Paul Gosar used to be our rep., but we lost him when the districts were adjusted. He cosponsored H.R 82.
We the people need to crawl on the backs of those we elected and stay there 24/7/365 making sure they do exactly what we elected them to do. No rest for anyone, so get off the couch and put down the phone.
The DOGE sounds like something that we absolutely need. The amount of waste and frivolous spending has been insane. With that said, we may need some people that are not billionaires, or multi-millionaires, to be involved with decision making in this organization. The truth is that people in this financial stratosphere cannot truly relate to the common, everyday American. They need to realize that some programs are needed, especially for the elderly (who have been underrepresented) and children. I am neither, although I’ getting closer to the elderly side, lol. Seriously, having some people that come from an “everyday” household, being involved with the DOGE, wouldn’t be a bad thing. I’m hoping and praying that the DOGE does what we’re hoping, and cuts down on wasteful spending and allows us to save money on taxes.
It will certainly be refreshing if the Republican majority actually follow through and DO SOMETHING CONSTRUCTIVE. They all need to have personal protection if they actually do what they say.
Hope feds can eliminate Californias Air Resource Board…. killing businesses and jobs
Getting down to the details. Have you checked out the cost of beef? If regulations are causing this high cost, then they have to be dealt with. Now!
This will be a welcome change, even if temporary, because when democrats are in power again they’ll reverse it. Hopefully, it will be more than a few years before people forget how bad the Obama-Biden administrations were.
The regulatory burden that affects the most US citizens is the Income Tax. A sales tax, such as the Fair Tax would relieve us of that burden and provide a fairer, more efficient and effective tax policy. Why should the Federal government require me to disclose my personal financial information? That should be my information alone.
Musk wants citizen Input so far only from X
No other site hosts DOGE for consumer input
X blocked me since I submitted too MUCH ideas to DOGE on X
Can AMAC lobby here??
The amount of progress will equal an amount that rhymes with a long dead Roman emperor and his name was “Nero”.
My God people, all this latest narrative is just that………narrative. Often country people have to scrape it off their boots.
I mean are we really thought of as being so retarded that we cannot remember the same BS that oozed from the political types just four years ago not counting mid term elections?
Baaahhh……..bahhh………bleeet
Congress should review Presidential Executive orders and consider if the order should be elevated into a law. If so, the law should be devised, passed, and sent to the President for signature before the next President has an opportunity to rescind it.
Good Luck and God Bless America!
But on another website they said that Trump wants all cars sold here to be made here. I don’t think that’s going to go over very well. After all many foreign made cars are better quality if they are made in the country of origin rather than the USA. Just saying.