DOGE Subcommittee Chairwoman Greene Opens First Hearing with a Vow to Fight the War on Waste

WASHINGTON—Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency (DOGE) Chairwoman Marjorie Taylor Greene delivered an opening statement at the Subcommittee’s first hearing titled “The War on Waste: Stamping Out the Scourge of Improper Payments and Fraud.” Subcommittee Chairwoman Greene began her remarks with a critique of the soaring national debt, which has now reached a staggering $36 trillion. President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, Subcommittee Chairwoman Greene explained, was created to fight against unnecessary government spending that will further indebt the American people. The DOGE Subcommittee will work “shoulder to shoulder” with President Trump, Elon Musk, and the Department of Government Efficiency to ensure taxpayer dollars are spent more effectively and efficiently. Today’s hearing marks the launch of the “War on Waste” with an investigation into the hundreds of billions of taxpayers’ dollars wasted on improper payments every year.

Below are Subcommittee Chairwoman Greene’s remarks as prepared for delivery.

Good morning. Today we begin the first hearing on the Oversight Subcommittee on DOGE. This committee will be laser focused on bringing full transparency to the waste, fraud, and abuse within the federal government and presenting the plans to fix the tremendous problems we expose.

We as a country are $36 trillion in debt.

That is such a stunning amount of money it’s absolutely staggering to even comprehend how we as a people, we as a country, found ourselves here.

This is not a Democrat problem. This is not a Republican problem. This is an American problem. 

To make it clear for everyone, not only are we $36 trillion in debt, but the compounding interest on our debt is also growing out of control. Even if we decided to defund the entire federal government, we cannot escape our debt and the compounding interest owed on our debt, which grows bigger and bigger every year.

In 2025, interest payments are projected to be $952 billion, which is more than our entire military budget.

In 2026, it will be $1 trillion.

And by 2035, $1.8 trillion dollars.

Over the next decade, total interest payments are projected to be $13.8 trillion. 

These interest payments don’t serve a single American. They don’t build a bridge, a road, provide disaster relief, or fund a single part of the behemoth that is the federal government.

These interest payments pay our masters who own our debt, and the American people are in debt slavery to everyone who owns our debt.

Our crippling national debt and massively growing interest on our debt will destroy us. Not destroy one political party or the other. It will destroy all of us together. 

It drives inflation, making life unaffordable for Americans struggling to financially survive. It is crippling small businesses struggling to be successful. 

Our massively growing debt and interest are the chains and shackles harnessed on every American, and their children, and every generation to come.

But first let us be brutally honest about how this massive debt came to be in the first place. 

It came from Congress, and from elected presidential administrations.

And I believe enslaving our nation in debt is one of the biggest betrayals against the American people by its own elected government.

The American people’s anger over this betrayal is what gave birth to the concept of DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency. In fact, DOGE became a major part of President Trump’s campaign and led to his overwhelming victory in November.

Every day, Americans go to work. They run businesses. They have to earn their paycheck, no one guarantees it, and if they don’t do a good job, they get fired. They also have to pay their bills, credit card debts, balance their checkbooks, and scrap and save every penny they can in order to plan for that rainy day and hopefully retirement one day. 

Private businesses only survive on hard earned income, by serving their customers so well that their customers pay them for the services or products they consume. If that business fails, its employees lose their jobs and paychecks, and the owners lose their business and everything they risked along with it. Many go bankrupt in this process and lose everything. No one bails them out. They only survive by excellent customer service and smart financial management.

This is the real world that most Americans live, work, and survive in every day. It is the pursuit of happiness. It is the American dream.

However, the federal government, government employees, and unelected bureaucrats don’t live by the same rules as the great American people and private businesses.

The federal government’s income is the American people’s hard earned tax dollars – their literal blood, sweat, and tears. And taxes are collected by law at gunpoint. Don’t pay your taxes and you go to jail. The federal government does not have to provide excellent customer service to earn its income, it takes your money whether you like it or not. And federal employees receive their paycheck no matter what, whether veterans receive their benefits or not, whether your mail shows up or not, and whether your tax dollars are used to help Americans in need or are sent to foreign countries for foreign people for foreign causes. No matter how bad the federal government fails the American people, it still takes your money, it still pays its own federal employees, and it never goes out of business. There are no consequences for bad customer service, total failure, and for enslaving the American people against their will in the ever growing and future all-consuming national debt.

Congress has a dismal approval rating that ranges between 12-20% and I don’t blame the American people one bit for their sentiment and disgust.

The American people will be watching this committee and how we tackle one of the biggest problems of our time. 

While we are a committee made up of the opposite far reaching corners of Congress, we were each elected to serve and represent the American people and how their hard-earned tax dollars are spent. We as Republicans and Democrats can still hold tightly to our beliefs, but we are going to have to let go of funding them in order to save our sinking ship. 

This is not a time for political theatre and partisan attacks. 

The American people are watching. The legislative branch can’t sit on the sidelines. In this subcommittee, we will fight the war on waste shoulder to shoulder with President Trump, Elon Musk and the DOGE team.

This week we turn our attention to improper payments by the federal government, including in Medicaid and Medicare. I’m looking forward to what we find out and how to solve this crisis.

I now yield to the Ranking Member, Ms. Stansbury, for her opening statement.

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