Despite respecting Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, former White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney has been candid about his opinions regarding the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led by the two men, stating that the department "isn't a real thing."
Mulvaney, who had been serving as director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) before he was asked to serve as Chief of Staff during Donald Trump's first presidential term, revealed his thoughts in an interview with NewsNation's 'The Hill' on Monday.
"Look, I have nothing but respect for what these gentlemen are trying to do," said Mulvaney.
"I was the last person in charge of government restructuring, and I failed miserably," Mulvaney continued. "I hope they do much, much better than I did, okay?"
"But DOGE isn't a real thing," Mulvaney added. "I mean, the Department of Government Efficiency? It's a PR campaign. There's no statutory authority. They'll have the ability to sort of shine the light on abuses and problems within the bureaucracy, and God bless them for that."
DOGE is newly formed to operate during the President-elect's second term in office, and aims to "dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies."
It will have representative commissions in the upper and lower houses of Congress, led by Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), respectively.
However, pointing out that DOGE has no real decision-making authority of its own, Mulvaney pointed out that the commission must enlist the help of Congress or the OMB if it hopes to make tangible change.
"Number one, then they can go to, they can try to put pressure on Congress to change the laws, to change civil service rules so you can fire people," Mulvaney said. "And then also, and this is absolutely critical, they can work through the Office of Management and Budget, which controls the flow of money out to all those federal agencies."
"So everybody talks about Vivek Ramaswamy, Elon Musk. I get that. Those are the big names. The most important name in this bureaucracy project is going to be Russ Vought, who's been tapped to be the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, the most important person in Washington that no one knows," he concluded.
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