The War on Waste: Stamping Out the Scourge of Improper Payments and Fraud
Government Efficiency, Financial Management and Intergovernmental Relations
2025-02-12
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Source: Congress.gov
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Transcript
This hearing of the Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency will come to order. Welcome, everyone. Without objection, the Chair may declare a recess at any time. Also, for today's hearing, Chairman Comer and Ranking Member Connolly will each be recognized for one minute after me and the Ranking Member provide our opening statements. I recognize myself for the purpose of making an opening statement. Good morning. Today we begin the first hearing on the Oversight Subcommittee on Doge. This committee will be laser focused on bringing full transparency to waste, fraud, and abuse within the federal government and presenting the plans to fix the tremendous problems we expose. We as a country are $36 trillion in debt. That is such a stunning amount of money. It's absolutely staggering to even comprehend how we as a people, we as a country, found ourselves here. This is not a Democrat problem. This is not a Republican problem. This is an American problem. To make it clear for everyone, not only are we $36 trillion in debt, but the compounding interest on our debt is also growing out of control. Even if we decided to defund the entire federal government, we cannot escape our debt and the compounding interest owed on our debt, which grows bigger and bigger every year. In 2025, interest payments are projected to be $952 billion, which is more than our entire military budget. In 2026, it will be $1 trillion. And by 2035, $1.8 trillion. Over the next decade, total interest payments are projected to be $13.8 trillion.
These interest payments don't serve a single American. They don't build a bridge, a road, provide disaster relief, or fund a single part of the behemoth that is the federal government. These interest payments pay our masters who own our debt, and the American people are in debt slavery to everyone who owns our debt. Our crippling national debt and massively growing interest on our debt will destroy us. Not destroy one political party or the other, it will destroy all of us together. It drives inflation, making life unaffordable for Americans struggling to financially survive. It is crippling small businesses struggling to be successful. Our massively growing debt and interest are the chains and shackles harnessed to every American and their children and every generation to come. But first, let us be brutally honest about how this massive debt came to be in the first place. It came from Congress and from elected presidential administrations. And I believe enslaving our nation in debt is one of the biggest betrayals against the American people by its own elected government. The American people's anger over this betrayal is what gave birth to the concept of DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency. In fact, DOGE became a major part of President Trump's campaign and led to his overwhelming victory in November. Every day Americans go to work. They run businesses. They have to earn their paycheck. No one guarantees it. And if they don't do a good job, they get fired. They also have to pay their bills, credit card debts, balance their checkbooks, and scrap and save every penny they can in order to plan for that rainy day and hopefully retirement one day.
Private businesses only survive on hard-earned income by serving their customers so well that their customers pay them for the services and products they consume. If that business fails, its employees lose their jobs and paychecks and the owners lose their business and everything they risked along with it. Many go bankrupt in this process and lose everything. No one bails them out. They only survive by excellent customer service and smart financial management. This is the real world that most Americans live, work, and survive in every day. This is the pursuit of happiness, and this is how you pursue the American dream. However, the federal government, government employees, and unelected bureaucrats do not live by the same rules as the great American people and private businesses. The federal government's income is the American people's hard-earned tax dollars, their literal blood, sweat, and tears. And taxes are collected by law at gunpoint.
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