GOP lawmakers get an earful on Elon Musk's DOGE
WASHINGTON – Some Congressional Republicans are getting an earful from their constituents over President Donald Trump's budget slashes to the federal bureaucracy.
In an Atlanta suburb, Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga., was booed by hundreds of attendees at a town hall Thursday night who demanded he stand up to the efforts by Trump advisor Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, which has abruptly fired tens of thousands of probationary workers and offered to pay tens of thousands more to stop work.
One attendee asked why Republicans are taking a "radical and extremist and sloppy approach" to cutting the federal workforce, according to reporting by the Atlanta Journal Constitution, including around 1,000 workers fired at the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
McCormick responded that much of the work they do is "duplicitous with AI," which prompted jeers from the crowd.
"I believe they could do more with less, just like the Marine Corps and everybody else does when you have to do more with less," he added.
McCormick represents a solidly Republican district covering Atlanta suburbs including much of Gwinnett County and the northern part of of Fulton County.
In Oregon, GOP Rep. Cliff Bentz faced crowds of hundreds of concerned voters in multiple town halls over the last few days who raised concerns about Musk's cuts.
"I'm all for fiscal responsibility and downsizing the government," one attendee to a town hall in Baker City said, who identified herself as an independent voter. "You can do it in a way that is humane and treats people with dignity."
Bentz responded that if the crowd had ideas "on how to better do what's occurring now" they could share them with his team.
Another attendee, who said he was a veteran and blamed President Joe Biden's administration for "the mess that we're in now," asked Bentz whether he believes Elon Musk has "the right and the authority" to pull people's private records from Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. "I don't see him answering to anybody," he said.
Bentz said the approach has been approved by courts. He called Musk a "world-renowned expert" in improving systems, to laughter from the crowd. "We need the money to be used" for better purposes, Bentz said. Trump and Musk are "getting it done," he added.
Bentz represents an expansive rural district encompassing two-thirds of eastern Oregon. The district is deeply Republican.
Musk and a team of young computer and IT specialists have been remaking the federal bureaucracy despite the complaints of Democrats and repeated legal challenges, cancelling contracts and slashing the workforce in the first month since Trump retook office.
Some House Republicans have also begun hedging their support for Trump's executive orders and DOGE's activities.
Rep. Troy Balderson, R-Ohio, represents a deeply Republican district outside of Columbus. He told a business luncheon Thursday that Trump's orders are "getting out of control" and called for Congress to play a bigger role in changes to the federal government.
"Congress has to decide whether or not the Department of Education goes away," Balderson said, according to reporting by The Columbus Dispatch. "Not the president, not Elon Musk. Congress decides."