Last 1 December, Sen. Bernie Sanders made it know that he supports the plans of MAGA billionaire Elon Musk’s to rein in defense spending as part of his mission to find ways to slash government spending.
"Elon Musk is right," tweeted Sanders. "Last year, only 13 senators voted against the Military Industrial Complex and a defense budget full of waste and fraud. That must change."
That makes Sanders, a democratic socialist who twice came in second for the Democratic Party presidential nomination, a strange bedfellow with Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the two hyper-capitalist MAGA bros President-elect Trump has tapped to take a chainshaw to federal government spending.
Elon Musk is right.
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) December 1, 2024
The Pentagon, with a budget of $886 billion, just failed its 7th audit in a row. It’s lost track of billions.
Last year, only 13 senators voted against the Military Industrial Complex and a defense budget full of waste and fraud.
That must change.
The two are set to lead a commission—dubbed the "Department of Government Efficiency" or DOGE—that will examine how to massively slash government spending and report back to Trump within two years.
In recent days, both have alluded to halting or increasing defense spending, with Ramaswamy arguing against "just reflexively increasing the magnitude."
Defense is the federal government’s largest area of discretionary spending, with the Pentagon budget in fiscal year 2024 set at US$ 841 billion, or about 12.5 percent of the total federal budget.
It has also struggled with allegations of waste and cost overruns. Sanders noted that the Pentagon recently failed the seventh consecutive audit of its now US$ 4.1 trillion in assets and US$ 4.3 trillion in liabilities.
Last year, the Defense Department admitted it could only account for just half of its assets.
Lucrative contracts handed out to private corporations also means billions in taxpayer money is passed on under a regime with subpar oversight.