Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) has clearly had enough of Elon Musk and his DOGE initiative.
A day after the mega-billionaire declared that federal employees must justify their jobs or get fired, the veteran senator pushed back at Musk.
“Our public workforce deserves to be treated with dignity and respect for the unheralded jobs they perform. The absurd weekend email to justify their existence wasn’t it,” Murkowski tweeted.
Giddy after their Election Day romp in November, which included winning full control of Washington, Republicans now have to deliver on President Donald Trump’s agenda. That includes delivering on Trump’s promise to extend his 2017 tax cuts, the biggest legislative achievement from the first term.
Yet this time, Trump and Hill Republicans are facing a much dicier economic landscape than eight years ago. Their margins of control aren’t nearly as big. The national debt is nearly twice as large, with the deficit already running at a staggering $1.9 trillion annually. To extend the 2017 tax cuts without further blowing up the deficit or the U.S. government’s fiscal outlook, Republicans may be forced to make huge cuts to Medicaid, food stamps and other social safety net programs. That will come with a steep political price for vulnerable GOP lawmakers.
On top of that is DOGE, the scale and speed of which wasn’t anticipated during the campaign.
Murkowski joins a handful of other Senate Republicans who have objected – at varying levels — to the oftentimes chaotic DOGE rollout. Beyond Murkowski, GOP Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), John Curtis (Utah), Katie Britt (Ala.) and Bill Cassidy (La.) have also raised concerns publicly about what’s happening.
Lawmakers are only finding out what Musk is up to on X, formerly known as Twitter, or media reports, which only makes them more unsure about how to respond. While this has worked for Musk and the White House to help keep Democrats off balance, GOP lawmakers and aides are operating largely in the same information vacuum.
For instance, House and Senate authorizers and appropriators still don’t have a clear picture of what’s happening to $40 billion in annual U.S. foreign aid after USAID was absorbed into the State Department and nearly 10,000 employees were laid off.
DOGE and Medicaid protests – some organized by progressive groups including Indivisible and Moveon.org – took place across several swing House districts during the Presidents’ Day recess. Lawmakers ranging from Reps. David Valadao (R-Calif.), Tom Barrett (R-Mich.), Don Bacon (R-Neb.), Tom Kean Jr. (R-N.J.), Ryan MacKenzie (R-Pa.), Jen Kiggans (R-Va.), Scott Perry (R-Pa.), Ken Calvert (R-Calif.) and others faced complaints at town hall meetings, outside their district offices and events during this period.
Even House GOP lawmakers in safe red districts have faced some protests. This included Republican Reps. Pete Sessions (Texas), Rich McCormick (Ga.), Glenn Grothman (Wis.), Scott Fitzgerald (Wis.) and Morgan Griffith (R-Va.).
Rep. Troy Balderson (R-Ohio) said during a business group luncheon that some of Trump’s executive orders were “getting out of control,” according to the Columbus Dispatch.
“Congress has to decide whether or not the Department of Education goes away,” said Balderson, who represents an R +18 district. “Not the president, not Elon Musk. Congress decides.”
Balderson later posted a tweet appearing to walk back some of those comments.
