Republican Senators propose a budget review panel to make DOGE’s efforts stick. 

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By 

Kimberley A. Strassel

April 3, 2025 5:22 pm ET

ELON MUSK LOOKS ON AS PRESIDENT TRUMP HOSTS A CABINET MEETING AT THE WHITE HOUSE, MARCH 24. 

This GOP Congress is effusive in its praise of Elon Musk’s effort to cut waste and fraud. What they won’t say is that nothing fundamentally changes until their blab becomes a plan—and a work ethic to match that of the billionaire. The news: A handful of Senate Republicans have a plan for that, and the ear of Donald Trump. 

The party of “limited government.” The party of “fiscal sanity.” The party of “we don’t have a revenue problem; we have a spending problem.” The party that promises to balance the budget, that criticizes Covid blowouts, that revels in creative ways to visualize $36 trillion in national debt.

Words, words, words.

Love or hate Mr. Musk, his examples of government squander and ineptitude are a shocking reminder of how long it’s been since anyone bothered to scrutinize the federal jalopy. Those examinations are rightly Congress’s job—the power of the purse!—though it traded true oversight for the slogan long ago. Congress only cares about its spending power when someone threatens to block more—not when it comes to scrutinizing what’s already on the books.

And love or hate Mr. Musk, his efforts will prove temporary. He can cancel thousands of leases and grants—more, please—perhaps hit his $1 trillion in savings, perhaps make government more efficient. Once. At which point Congress will rubber stamp another omnibus that renews much of it, or roll his “savings” into different spending priorities. Because—this is basic—our Constitution gives Congress the spending power, not well-meaning special advisers to the president.

Enter those GOP senators. They are demanding that, as part of the continuing “reconciliation” effort, the majority engage in a formal process that is the equivalent of the Musk work, with an end goal of returning spending to prepandemic levels. Sen. Ron Johnson, flanked by Senate Budget Committee Republicans, on Wednesday briefed Mr. Trump on that proposal; Mr. Johnson reports the president “embraced a prepandemic spending level and a process to achieve it.”

Here’s how it’d work: Republicans would set up a review panel—populated by a representative span of GOP House and Senate members and the president’s budget team—tasked with reviewing the budget line-by-line. Executive branch officials would appear before the committee to explain each spending item. The panel would come up with its list of cuts or reductions—with a special emphasis on ending wasteful, duplicate or zombie programs, as well as spending that appeared since the pandemic. Republicans would make these cuts in reconciliation bills or votes on rescission packages sent by the president.

Call it the “one big, beautiful budget review panel.”

The eye-glazing term for this is “process,” but as Mr. Musk’s DOGE team is showing, it’s the only way to oversee a going concern—line-by-line. Politicians know process matters, too, which is why over the years they’ve devised the 1974 Budget Act, Simpson-Bowles, the 2011 Budget Control Act. Each had upsides, but none resulted in long-term budget “control.”

The process today? Congressional staff hand bosses a little sheet setting out the following cosmic choice: Vote to increase everything by 2% . . . or by 4%! That stumper is happily avoided when Congress instead passes a year-end omnibus that no one has read, that turbocharges all government and that is further slopped with parochial graft. That’s the extent of the “work” members put into the awesome “power of the purse.” And while many Republicans are currently bragging about their membership in new DOGE “caucuses,” these coalitions are mainly riding on Musk coattails.

The singular merit of the Johnson plan is that it would provide Republicans their best path to achieving what everyone claims to want: a pro-growth tax bill paired with spending sanity. The party keeps groping around for one or two big items it can tackle to realize large savings, which then inspires nervous Republicans to erect fences around priorities. It’s causing enough division to put a successful reconciliation in doubt.

A prepandemic spending level—accomplished by considered reductions and rescissions across hundreds of programs—would minimize (if not eliminate) pain, even as it adds up to a substantial number. As Sen. Johnson notes, simply returning to 2019 spending levels—upwardly adjusted for population growth and inflation—would result in a $770 billion spending reduction in fiscal 2025 alone. Compare this to the $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction over 10 years that Republicans are currently fighting about. And “prepandemic spending” is a strong political sell. Other than progressive voters, who thinks world-emergency spending levels ought to be the new normal?

The plan would take political will—the Trump team and GOP leadership would need to commit fully. And there’s no guarantee even a budget panel could overcome parochial interests. But this plan would at least require that Congress do the work, and publicly own its spending decisions. And it could cement Mr. Trump’s bold DOGE work. Bring on “one big, beautiful, budget committee.” 

Write to kim@wsj.com. 

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Appeared in the April 4, 2025, print edition as ‘Time for Congress to Musk-Up’.