Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna has signaled that he is open to “bipartisan cooperation” with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
The California congressman, who says he has known Musk for over 10 years, told Martha Raddatz on ABC’s This Week about his recent conversations with the billionaire on his mission to cut government spending in Donald Trump’s second administration.
“I think when it comes to defense, getting better defense for value and cutting costs, there can be huge bipartisan cooperation,” Khanna said.
Raddatz asked the Democratic lawmaker to share what the “back and forth” with Musk has been like.
Khanna was quick to praise Musk for previously having worked with former President Barack Obama on Space X.
“There’s one area Elon Musk was brilliant in that he worked with President Obama and Ash Carter to have Space X and that disrupted Boeing and Lockheed,” Khanna said. “We were getting ripped off the American people and putting satellites up to space. And President Obama, under his leadership, Ash Carter’s leadership, they said, Elon, with Space X, you can bid on launching these rockets.”
Khanna hinted that he agreed with Musk that there was an argument to be made for reducing costs.
“I made the case to [Musk] that Tesla and SpaceX have been funded by the Obama government and let’s have a role for government,” Khanna said. “But let’s look at what you did with SpaceX. Why can’t we do that with other parts of the five primes too, to reduce costs?”
The Silicon-Valley-based Democrat did, however, warn that DOGE should “not touch a penny of social security” and “should not touch medicare.”
While Khanna is one of a handful of Democrats who has shown a willingness to engage with the SpaceX CEO, others are more skeptical.
“I highly doubt that one of the largest defense contractors in the United States — and by that, I mean Elon Musk — is going to opt for the federal government to cut the money that he is receiving directly from them,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has said. “He relies on the federal government to give him money.”
Musk holds billions of dollars in government contracts through his companies SpaceX and Tesla.
Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the entrepreneur and former GOP presidential candidate who will head up DOGE, met with legislators on Capitol Hill last week.
The two billionaires have been tasked with firing federal workers and cutting government programs and federal regulations. Republican Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a fierce Trump ally, is set to chair a new House Oversight subcommittee to oversee DOGE.
Attempts to slash the federal government have been resisted in the past as Americans grapple with cuts to programs they know and trust. Millions of Americans depend on these programs for jobs, health care, security, and other needs.
Trump has appointed people to his administration hellbent on slashing the size of the federal government, such as Russ Vought, the former and next head of the Office of Management and Budget.
