U.S. Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Hoover) joined U.S. Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) on Fox Business Network's "The Bottom Line" on Thursday to talk about the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
The lawmakers were among those who met Thursday with Elon Musk and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who will head the nongovernmental organization. The purpose is to slash frivolous spending and eliminate overreaching federal regulations and wasteful programs.
Palmer, a member of the DOGE House Caucus, said the initiative is reminiscent of the National Partnership for Reinventing Government effort during the Clinton administration. According to Palmer, over 426,000 federal employee positions and over 16,000 pages of regulations were eliminated during that effort.
"I'm kind of a nerd," Palmer admitted. "I get into the weeds, but the bottom line is, nobody should be in panic mode about this. This is going to be a very sensible, a very thoughtful process to get our spending under control and modernize our government."
"We really need to bring our government in the 21st century, and these are, in my opinion, two of the best guys that we could possibly have heading this up," he added.
Show host Dagen McDowell said Republicans should be panicked because they have been part of the problem. She also suggested Musk and Ramaswamy may not understand how government works. McClintock said times have changed and Republicans are coming together to reduce waste. Palmer said it is the responsibility of lawmakers to know how government works.
"That's our job, and we're going to support what they're doing," he said.
Palmer said lawmakers are committed to the cause and while it won't be overnight, they will continue to move things in the right direction.
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