Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa is getting in on the racket Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are making in Washington DC, proposing her own waste-cutting solutions.
In a thread on X, Ernst proposed all the ways she believes the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) could start cutting costs. Step one? Eliminating “ghost workers” and “empty buildings.”
1. Ghost Workers
We are spending $15.7 billion a year on underutilized buildings.
Many are vacant!
Bureaucrats refuse to show up to work, so why are we paying for empty buildings?
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) November 25, 2024
Step two: Audit the IRS. She claims “hundreds of IRS agents owe millions in back taxes” which she says equates to about “$1.5 billion in back taxes government-wide.”
2. Audit the IRS
Hundreds of IRS agents owe millions in back taxes.
150,000 federal employees owe $1.5 billion in back taxes government-wide.
After we are done, these numbers need to be zero.
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) November 25, 2024
Step three is likely already on the to-do list of the DOGE staff: “Undo Biden’s billion-dollar boondoggles.”
3. Undo Biden’s Billion-Dollar Boondoggles
Biden has spent $7.5 billion to build 17 EV charging stations and $42 billion to expand rural broadband but has connected zero people to the internet.
Pulling the plug on these programs will be the only efficient part about them.
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) November 25, 2024
The rest of the list continues in a similar fashion, listing all the ways government has so carelessly thrown away taxpayer dollars.
5. Stop Christmas in September
From $4.6 million for lobster tail to $2.1 million for games, the ridiculous “use it or lose it” model encourages wild spending by federal agencies before the end of fiscal year.@DOGE needs to be the Grinch and save taxpayers $53 billion.
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) November 25, 2024
7. Bad Pennies
Currently, the federal government is paying 3 cents to produce a penny and 11 cents to make a nickel.
That makes no sense!
Only Washington could lose money making money.
Changing the composition of coins would save $50 million a year.
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) November 25, 2024
9. Bogus Bonuses ️
The federal government spends hundreds of millions of dollars giving bureaucrats and contractors unearned bonuses for work that often never took place, including more than $500 million at @NASA.
Time to end this moondoggle.
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) November 25, 2024
11. Unemployment for Millionaires
Nearly 15,000 Americans earning a million dollars in income collected $213 million in unemployment last year.
The million-dollar question – why are hardworking folks paying for this?
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) November 25, 2024
13. Head in the Clouds ☁️
Consolidating federal agencies’ cloud computing software licenses would save $750 million a year.
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) November 25, 2024
15. UN Overpayments
The USA pays higher dues to the UN than any other country, and sends $15 billion more voluntarily, despite UN employees participating in terrorist attacks and encouraging illegal immigration to the USA.
Why are tax dollars undermining our national security?
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) November 25, 2024
17. Unhealthy Benefits
The Federal Employees Health Benefits program wastes $1 billion annually paying for ineligible individuals.
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) November 25, 2024
19. Stop Giving Away the Farm @USDA spends millions to support pet projects like teaching pigs to play video games, subsidizing cricket farms, and other nonsense that does nothing to support our farmers.
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) November 25, 2024
21. Reducing Duplication
Efficient and government rarely go with each other but implementing hundreds of recommendations from Congress’ nonpartisan watchdog @USGAO would increase efficiency and save $200 billion a year.
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) November 25, 2024
This is just a $2 trillion start.@elonmusk, @VivekGRamaswamy, and @DOGE and I will be hard at work putting waste on the chopping block and carving up Washington’s bloated budget. #MakeEmSqueal
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) November 25, 2024
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