House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-TX) is a big fan of former President Donald Trump’s endorsement of a so-called government efficiency commission.
Arrington, who has been in office since 2017 and represents a rural west Texas district, spoke to the Washington Examiner about the proposed reform, which aims to cut down on wasteful federal spending and government bloat. Trump, the 2024 Republican presidential nominee, has been vocal about his desire to prune the administrative state. The idea of an efficiency commission has gained more airtime ahead of the Nov. 5 election, when voters will choose between the former president and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee.
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who also owns X, first pitched the idea during a conversation with Trump. The former president embraced the idea publicly during a September speech before the Economic Club of New York.
Trump said the commission would perform “a complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government” if he wins a second, nonconsecutive term in the White House.
Arrington was the first member of Congress to endorse the concept and would presumably play a role in helping implement it should Republicans emerge victorious in November.
“I think it’s a great idea, and it’s long overdue for the federal government to do a deep dive and a deep cleansing on the waste, inefficiency, fraud, and other unnecessary spending, especially as we’ve now surpassed World War II levels of debt,” Arrington said in the interview.
Arrington said he thinks such a commission could find efficiencies and ways to help not only downsize the federal bureaucracy but also help right the country’s fiscal ship, which has increasingly fallen into a precarious position.
The Congressional Budget Office, during the second week of October, estimated that the federal budget deficit for fiscal 2024 rose to $1.8 trillion, the highest in three years. Specifically, the federal budget deficit increased by $139 billion more than last year’s shortfall. The government collected $4.92 trillion in tax revenue but spent more than $6.75 trillion, according to the CBO’s latest update.
As of Oct. 8, the national debt had risen to about $35.7 trillion. Meanwhile, the Medicare trust fund will be exhausted in 2036, and the combined Social Security trust fund will become insolvent in 2035, program trustees projected in May.
While details about what an efficiency commission might look like are unclear, Trump said the panel would also make recommendations for “drastic reforms,” including ways to reduce fraud in the federal government and improper payments. He claimed that his plan would “save trillions of dollars,” calling the savings “massive.”
A commission that reduces spending and waste could be seen as a counterbalance to some of Trump’s other proposals, such as eliminating taxes on Social Security and income taxes on tips, which would further drive up the debt and deficits.
“I think this is an idea that’s long overdue,” Arrington said about the commission, “and it’s great to hear that at least one of the presidential candidates is committed to reversing what got us into this mess in the first place, and that’s out of control and reckless and wasteful something in Washington.”
Arrington also took the opportunity to blast President Joe Biden’s administration for increasing federal spending. Many Republicans accuse Biden of being, at least in part, behind the crushing inflation that the country has experienced over the past few years.
They argue that federal spending as part of the partisan American Rescue Plan Act turbocharged demand and caused prices to rise. The Federal Reserve is just now beginning to get inflation under control. But after years of cumulative inflation, prices are, on average, about 20% higher than they were when Biden entered office in January 2021 — a serious strain for consumers.
Arrington pointed out that total government spending has increased from $4.4 trillion in 2019 to nearly $6.8 trillion now, a notable 55% increase in just a few years.
“The Biden administration’s spending spree added $7 trillion to the national debt, and that’s direct spending,” Arrington said. “It added another $5 trillion roughly in additional interest expenses because of inflation and net interest costs and interest rate hikes.”
When asked if he thinks the government efficiency commission is a priority for Trump, the House Budget Committee chairman said he does. Arrington said he has spoken to the former president on more than one occasion about his concerns about spending and the need to constrain it.
“We can’t keep overregulating small businesses,” Arrington said. “We can’t keep the hostile posture to our oil and gas industry, which is the lifeblood of our economy.”
Another proposal that Trump has floated that goes hand-in-hand with a government efficiency commission is slashing federal regulations.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
During his first term in office, Trump pushed the idea that for every regulation created, two others must be taken off the books. But this election cycle, and after a rash of rulemaking under Biden, Trump upped that to 10 cut regulations for each one added to the federal register.
“I’m proud to be the only president in modern history to achieve a net regulatory reduction during my term, and it was a substantial reduction,” Trump said.
Zach Halaschak is an economics reporter for the Washington Examiner.