[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 24 (Wednesday, February 5, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S632-S635]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                  Department of Government Efficiency

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, with me today is one of my colleagues 
from my Senate office, Mr. James Shea. He is one of my right-hand 
people and does great work. And I am honored that he could join me 
today.
  Gosh, I don't know where to begin. I have been in the Senate for 8 
years. In dog years, that is 56 years, and it feels like 56 years. I 
have learned a lot, met a lot of interesting people. You know, before I 
got here, everybody told me about the Washington bubble, and I said, 
you know, how serious could they be.

[[Page S633]]

  Well, it is true; there is a Washington bubble. This place is 
different. It is in its own way sometimes disappointing, sometimes 
refreshing. It is deeply weird. For one thing, common sense is illegal 
in Washington. It is illegal.
  For another thing, I have discovered that this is a town of very 
frustrated ex-class presidents, and there is a Washington way of doing 
things. And when things aren't done that way, when somebody challenges 
the status quo, many--not all--but many of these frustrated ex-class 
presidents in Washington, on the Hill and otherwise, they get excited, 
not in a good way.
  They can't get their mind around doing anything other than the 
Washington way. Some of them, particularly in the media, they go almost 
catatonic, or the exact opposite, they foam at the mouth. And they 
really get upset. They can make a Valium nervous. It is like we are not 
doing things the way we have always done them, and the world is going 
to spin off its axis.
  I want to try to put in perspective what many of my Democratic 
friends have been talking about today. They are very, very, very upset 
at President Trump, and they are very, very, very upset at Elon Musk.
  President Trump ran for President on a number of issues. One of the 
issues he ran on--he said it almost every day. He said: If you make me 
President, I am going to go through the entire budget and review all 
the spending, line by line. If I heard him say that once, I heard him 
say that a thousand times. And that is what he has been doing.
  He went out and appointed, through an Executive order, Elon Musk--who 
some people like him, some don't, but he is not a dummy. He is a very 
successful business person. He has got a top secret security clearance. 
President Trump issued an Executive order, and he turned to Mr. Musk, 
and he said: Mr. Musk, I want you to do for me what I said I was going 
to do in the election. I want you to go through all the spending line 
by line.

  Now, let me ask you something: How are you going to review the 
spending without reviewing the spending? How are you going to audit the 
spending by an Agency without auditing the Agency? That is what I mean 
when I say common sense is illegal in Washington, DC. That is what Mr. 
Musk is doing.
  He has put together a crackerjack team, and they are going through 
everybody's spending line by line, item by item. And my Democratic 
colleagues are very, very, very upset, and they have been very 
eloquent. They have talked about the process, and President Trump's 
Executive orders supposedly violates the Constitution. And they have 
accused Mr. Musk of having conflicts of interest. And I have heard 
people say he is sitting over there with a notepad copying down 
everybody's Social Security number, and he is going to go use it to 
make money.
  I mean, people in this town--not just my Democratic colleagues--they 
are really upset. They have never had anybody question their spending. 
But that is what Mr. Musk is doing. But you know what, I have listened, 
this has been going on for a week. People have been screaming like they 
are part of a prison riot. Oh, my God, look at what Musk is doing. He 
is looking at the spending.
  And I have listened to the people talk about the process and debate 
whether it is constitutional and discuss how many lawyers can dance on 
the head of a pin, but you know what I haven't heard one single person 
who is upset with President Trump or Mr. Musk talk about? What he has 
found. They don't want to talk about the spending, the spending porn, 
the waste of taxpayer money that he has found. I mean, that is the 
point of all of this.
  I tell you who is interested, the American people, the people in 
America who get up every day and go to work and obey the law and pay 
their taxes and try to educate their kids and try to do the right thing 
by their kids and try to save a little money for retirement. And they 
have had to live through 20 percent inflation under President Biden. 
They understand what Musk is doing. They understand spending porn and 
wasting taxpayer money.
  Now, Mr. Musk started with USAID. It handles a lot of foreign aid for 
America. The American people are very generous. In our country, when 
you are homeless, we will house you. When you are hungry, we will feed 
you. In our country, when you are too poor to be sick, we will pay for 
your doctor. And we send a lot of money overseas to help our world's 
neighbors. And USAID is a part of that.
  But I will tell you what Mr. Musk discovered--I will tell you it 
fascinated me. He discovered that the American taxpayers are giving 
money to Afghanistan. He found that we are giving money to Yemen. He 
found that we are giving money to Syria. I didn't know that. Some of 
our foreign aid is going to Yemen, Afghanistan, Syria.
  He found that USAID has 10,000 people--10,000 people--employees, and 
every year, they give away $40 billion. Mr. Musk also found--and I am 
not saying that all of this money is wasteful; I am not. Some of this 
money, I am sure, does some good. That is why Secretary Rubio is going 
to revamp the Department and separate the good from the bad.
  But this is the kind of stuff Mr. Musk found: He found that USAID 
gave money to support electric vehicles in Vietnam--our money, taxpayer 
money. He found that USAID gave money to a transgender clinic in 
India--I didn't know that. I bet you the American people didn't know 
that.
  He found that USAID gave $1.5 million to a Serbian LGBTQ group called 
Grupa Izadji. I probably mispronounced that. My apologies. Anyway, they 
got 1.5 million to ``advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in 
Serbia's workplaces and business communities.''

  What else did Mr. Musk find that my colleagues don't want to talk 
about? Well, he reviewed a study and then went and checked it. The 
study was done by the Middle East Forum. They found that USAID spent 
$164 million to support radical organizations around the world. We are 
not talking Cub Scout troops here. We are talking about radical 
organizations around the world. They gave $122 million of that to 
groups aligned with foreign terrorist organizations--our taxpayer 
money.
  According to this report and Mr. Musk, the USAID has given millions 
of dollars to ``organizations . . . in Gaza controlled by Hamas.'' Why 
aren't my colleagues talking about that?
  Recipients of the money, they found, have ``called for their lands to 
be `cleansed' from the `impurity of Jews.' '' That is who we are giving 
our foreign aid to? What else? I am not going to spend my whole time 
talking about this, but nobody else is talking about it. They are just 
talking about the process and Mr. Musk and he is a mean guy and he 
shouldn't be looking at our spending. Well, he is, and I kind of find 
what he found out interesting.
  He found that we gave $2 million--USAID did--for sex changes in 
Guatemala. He found that we gave $20 million to produce a new ``Sesame 
Street'' show in Iraq. He found that we gave $4.5 million of taxpayer 
money to combat disinformation in Kazakhstan. He found that we gave $10 
million--USAID did--of meals to an al-Qaida-linked terrorist group 
called the al-Nusrah Front. Mr. Musk found that we gave $7.9 million of 
taxpayer money to a project that would teach Sri Lankan journalists to 
avoid binary-gendered language. We took--the USAID took 8 million bucks 
and gave it to a bunch of journalists in Sri Lanka to teach them how to 
avoid binary-gendered language. I don't know what the hell binary-
gendered language is. I think I do. You think most taxpayers would 
support that? Why aren't we talking about that? USAID gave $1.5 million 
to promote LGBT advocacy in Jamaica. They gave $1.5 million to rebuild 
the Cuban media ecosystem. They gave $1.5 million for Art for Inclusion 
of People with Disabilities in Belarus, another $3.9 million for LGBT 
causes in Macedonia, $8.3 million for equity and inclusion education in 
Nepal. I could go all night.
  And many of my colleagues are upset. They are really mad at Mr. Musk. 
Hell, I think we ought to give him a medal. All he is doing is what 
President Trump said he was going to do. President Trump said he was 
going to audit the spending. So Trump goes and hires Musk--again, with 
a top-secret security clearance. Nobody can quibble with his 
intelligence, you know. The guy is as smart as Einstein's cousin. He is 
a very successful businessman. Some say he is the richest guy in the 
world. And he is doing the auditing. And, man, he is finding a lot of 
stuff. I call it spending porn.

[[Page S634]]

  Now, I am not saying everything that USAID does is wasted, but I am 
saying a lot of it is--a hell of a lot of it is. And we ought to be on 
the floor of this U.S. Senate thanking Mr. Musk, and we ought to be 
asking him to go through every Agency and look at everybody's budget--
everybody's budget.
  That is what the American people want. They don't want to talk about 
process. They don't want to continue with the Washington way. They want 
to save some money.
  Now, let me tell you what is really going on here too. For 4 years 
under President Biden and for, what, 8 years under President Obama--and 
I respect both of them. I don't hate anybody. I don't. When I say my 
prayers at night, one of the things I ask God: God, don't let me hate, 
because it is hard in Washington. Don't let me hate. I have all the 
respect in the world for President Biden and President Obama. Tough 
job. But between them, they spent 12 years in Washington. And 
Presidents set the tone; they control the questions that are asked.
  And here is the question that President Obama and President Biden 
asked for 8 years--for 12 years. I heard it every single day: Who needs 
to pay more in taxes? Is it you? Is it you? Who needs to pay more in 
taxes? We need more money. Who needs to pony up more? That was the 
issue.
  But that is not the issue today. We have a new President. You know 
what the issue is today? What the hell happened to all of the money? 
What the hell happened to all of the money? And that is what Mr. Musk 
is finding out. That is all this is about.
  I am just shocked that my colleagues have decided that this is the 
hill they are going to die on. How can you look the American people in 
the eye and support this kind of waste? Support this kind of spending 
porn?
  I mean, the election, to me, made at least one thing clear, that the 
American people are sick and tired of people in Washington denying 
reality. The last administration tried to convince us that we were 
living in a crime-free world where inflation was temporary and the 
border was secure, and the American people didn't buy it. You know why? 
Because it wasn't true.
  And the administration, our last administration, tried to argue that 
Bidenomics was making our lives better, but the American people knew 
differently. They understood Bidenomics to mean: I get to spend more to 
live worse. And they voted.
  Now, I mean, the American people were poorer under the last 
administration, but they didn't become stupid. They could see that the 
government was creating the problem, not trying to fix it. And they 
noticed the national debt too.
  Put up that first chart for me.
  You know what our national debt is? $36 trillion. Not million, not 
billion--$36 trillion. It takes my breath away. Highest it has ever 
been, over 100 percent of our gross domestic product. Our debt is 
growing faster than our economy. And we toss around these numbers--a 
trillion, a billion, a million, a squillion--like it is nothing. I want 
to try to put this in context.
  If I started counting right now and I counted one numeral, if you 
will, per second--1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7--and I kept counting all day and 
all night, I didn't sleep, I counted between bites of oatmeal at 
breakfast, I just counted continually one numeral per second, it would 
take me 32 years to count to 1 billion--32 years to count to 1 billion. 
It would be 2057. I would be dead as Woodrow Wilson. I wouldn't live 
that long, and that is just a billion.
  Our debt is $36 trillion. Do you know how long it would take me to 
count to a trillion? It would take 31,000 years if I counted one 
numeral per second. About as old as Chuck Grassley--31,000 years.
  It would take me 1 million years to count to 36 trillion.
  Those are the kind of numbers we are talking about, and the American 
people understand it.
  Since 2019, America's population has grown 2 percent. We are not 
having babies--2 percent. And that is after massive immigration.
  You know how much our budget has grown? It has grown 55 percent--55 
percent. Yeah, we have had inflation, but we haven't had 55-percent 
worth of inflation. That is how we got to this $36 trillion in debt.
  Put up the next chart for me.
  Now some of this money we had to spend during the pandemic, and it 
was a bipartisan effort during the pandemic. Republicans voted for it, 
and Democrats voted for it because we had no choice. I was there. I saw 
it from the inside. We came this close to losing the American economy.
  And you know who helped a lot, doesn't get enough credit? Jay Powell 
with the Federal Reserve. I watched it. The whole world wanted to go 
into a cave and retreat.
  Back in the great recession, I remember all the other countries in 
the world looked to us. They may hate us, but they know we are the 
greatest country in all of human history. They look to America.
  And you know what? Back in the great recession, all the other 
countries wanted treasuries, treasury notes, treasury bonds. Not this 
time. They were so scared; they didn't want treasuries. They wanted 
dollars, cash dollars. So Jay Powell--thank the Lord--he goes over to 
the Federal Reserve. He opens what is called a currency swap line. And 
he told every country: You want dollars? I will trade you dollars for 
your currency. Everything calmed down. He doesn't get any credit for 
that, but it was a gutsy thing to do.
  But on top of that, to save the American economy--that wasn't helping 
the American economy. We had to keep the economy going. We spent a lot 
of money.
  But then COVID ended. And what we should have done was go back to 
pre-COVID spending, but we didn't do that.
  President Biden, after the shutdowns and the coronavirus, the 
pandemic was over, passed the American Rescue Plan. COVID was over. He 
spent $1.9 trillion. Never let a good crisis go to waste. I didn't vote 
for it.
  Then he came back and passed what he called an infrastructure deal. 
It was really just the green new deal. I know what is in that bill. 
That was another $1.2 trillion.
  And then he passed the Inflation Reduction Act. I didn't vote for it. 
But that was another $1.0 trillion.
  And then he passed the CHIPS Act. This is really special. He said: 
Big Tech, the semiconductor companies, need our money. They need 
taxpayer money. They are not making enough money. And he gave them 
money.
  He didn't give hardware stores money. President Biden didn't give the 
healthcare industry money. He said: I want to help Big Tech, and, boy, 
they sucked it up like a Hoover Deluxe. We spent $280 billion 
subsidizing Big Tech.
  And you add it all up, and that is 4.3, almost $4.5 trillion, and 
that is how we got $36 trillion in debt. And that is why Donald Trump 
said: I am going to look at every single line item we are spending. And 
that is why he gave the job to Elon Musk. And that is why Musk is 
altering these accounts. But nobody wants to talk about what he is 
finding. Nobody wants to talk about the spending part, except the 
American people. They get it, Mr. President. They get it.

  I hope Mr. Musk continues. My colleague and friend--we had a little 
discussion in Banking today. Senator Warner makes a good point. He 
wants Mr. Musk to come over and talk to Congress about how he is doing 
this. I am all for that. I am all for that. I would love to have him 
come over and walk us through what he is doing and how he is 
discovering all this spending part. We need all the help we can get in 
reducing our spending because we can't continue at this pace.
  I just want to spend a few minutes putting all this in perspective. 
The world is not going to spin off its axis, folks. Every business that 
I know of goes through an audit. Now we are being audited. But we are 
being audited by--not by the usual auditors--but we are being audited 
by a person appointed by the President of the United States.
  I am betting you, when he is through--and he is going to go through 
all these Agencies. He is starting on the Department of Education next. 
I think he will end up finding that some of our money is being well 
spent, but he is also going to find that some of our money is being 
stolen and it is being wasted, and that is an insult to every taxpayer 
in this country.
  I am going to end like I began. We ought to be giving Mr. Musk a 
medal. We ought to be thanking him. Maybe nobody else wants to hear 
about the

[[Page S635]]

spending part, but I can't wait to read the book. I hope he finds all 
of it and compiles it. I hope Marco Rubio, the new Secretary of State, 
takes USAID and shakes them by the shoulder and lifts up the good 
people there and fires the bad people--the people that wasted taxpayer 
money like this, giving money to terrorist organizations, giving money 
to organizations that support Hamas. I hope he gets rid of every single 
one of them.
  I think, if we listen to Mr. Musk, we can save a lot of money. And I 
hope he does come over and explain what he is doing.