AAF DOGE Memo

For more information, please contact AAF Policy Director John Shelton at jshelton@advancingamericanfreedom.com

December 5, 2024 AAF: That DOGE Can Hunt

The Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has an unprecedented opportunity to shrink the federal government by cutting the wasteful, woke, and weaponized spending of taxpayer dollars that undermines the American people’s way of life. In November, DOGE made an encouraging start with promises to force federal workers back into the office and to cut funding to Planned Parenthood and other progressive groups that receive hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars a year. This summer, Advancing American Freedom released a comprehensive memo in the same spirit of DOGE, entitled: “Confronting Our Debt Crisis: A Guide To Cutting Federal Spending.” Below are some highlights that DOGE should consider implementing. End Waste, Fraud, and Abuse • Pressure Congress to reinstate the longstanding earmark ban. • Ensure illegal immigrants are ineligible for federal benefits. • Eliminate all taxpayer-funded corporate subsidies in U.S. law, including tax expenditures. • Prohibit federal funding for programs that are designed to promote DEI. • Claw back all unused COVID-19 funding. Repeal the Democrats’ Green New Deal Legislation: • The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), more accurately named the Green New Deal, is wildly over

budget, projected to cost $1 trillion over 10 years while the initial estimates were $430B. • Companies controlled by the Chinese Communist Party are benefiting from IRA tax credits. • Why is it that, despite the IRA appropriating $7.5B to build EV charging stations, just 20 have been

energized? Cut Mandatory Spending • Require able-bodied Americans to work in order to receive welfare benefits. • End the hundreds of billions of dollars erroneously paid by mandatory programs every year. • Put an end to Biden’s Student Loan Cancellation, which could cost as much as $1 trillion. Return Non-Defense Spending to Pre-COVID Levels: • Shutdown threats have repeatedly forced Republicans into bad spending deals. • End the gamesmanship around government shutdowns by automatically continuing federal spending

when spending cliffs occur, minus 1% of last year’s funding levels. • Such sequestration would prevent the size of government from creeping steadily up (non-defense

spending grew from $518B in 2017 to $765B in 2023).