[Music] what's will you take a question Mr musk welcome everybody um what we're we're all excited I know you're all excited that uh Elon Musk and V ramaswami have joined us today this is an important day it's the beginning of a journey you've heard uh what doge is all about the department of government efficiency um it's a new thing and this is a new day in Washington and a new day in America we have long lamented the size and scope of the government that it has grown too large and let me be frank about this
government uh is too big it does too many things and it does almost nothing well and the taxpayers deserve better they deserve uh a more responsive government a more efficient government a one that is leaner and more focused on its primary objectives and that's the opportunity that we have here now we believe it's an historic moment for the country and these two gentlemen are going to help uh navigate through this uh exciting new day uh Elon and V don't need much of an introduction here in Congress for certain and most of the American people know
what they they're capable of and what they've achieved um both of these uh gentlemen have run very successful organizations they're innovators and uh they're forward thinkers and so that's what we need right now and so what you're going to have today is uh first is a a meeting that we'll have here with decision makers key figures in uh the Republican House and Senate who are chairs of Committees of jurisdiction who deal with the money and financing of government and the structure of government uh we'll have chairs of the new Doge caucuses that have been set
up in the Senate and the house and then after that we'll proceed to the Congressional Auditorium where all of the uh Senate Republicans and House Republicans have been invited and I think many of them will gather for this discussion so there won't be a lot of detail for the Press today and that's by Design because this is a brainstorming session it is the first again as I said of a long series of of meetings that will be held as we're laying the ground work for the new year and the new Congress and you're going to
see a lot of change around here and in Washington and the way things are run uh we need to make government more efficient and that is what this whole objective is that's what the Doge um effort will be about and you're going to see a by Camal cooperation and it will be by the way bipartisan over the last 24 48 hours you've seen a number of our Democrat colleagues both in the Senate and the house who have said you know what sign me up I want to be a part of this as well so we
welcome that it should be a bipartisan effort effort and I think we're going to do great things for the country so um I guess I'll take one or two questions but um you TR in Cut without cutting programs like Medicaid Social Security do you have confidence that you can find cuts to that level or will this meeting be an opportunity to level set to a more realistic number and second question do you support calling back federal funds that the Biden Administration is pushing out in the final days including to companies like ran a competitor of
Tesla um Let me let me answer these questions in reverse order we're very frustrated by what the Biden Administration appears to be doing right now and that is as you said shoveling money as as someone said on a hidden camera on a clip that I saw uh someone in the administration who's charged with uh Distributing the funds said we're we're it's like we're dumping gold bars off the Titanic here at the end um we take over in January and until then the big government Democrats are still in charge and they're spending money uh in our
view uh recklessly and so yes we've had a lot of discussions over the last couple of days about what our Authority would be to claw some of that back and to stop it um it's a it's a serious Challenge and we need to stop it and expose what's happening that's what this effort will be about going forward there is an enormous amount of waste Fraud and Abuse in the government and I think everyone knows that intuitively and so the efforts here both with our subcommittees that are being created here and with the Doge effort itself
will be to um to explore that to investigate it and lay it bare for the American people to see I think that's how we'll begin to bring about the change that we all need so this is a ongoing effort yes some labs are fve already sign contracts to try and get this that they could be able to work from home things like that your reaction to that well there was a report that came out today I don't know if you all seen it but um someone did a little survey of how many federal employees are
actually working in the office um by one estimate it may be about 1% if you don't count the security Personnel that are covering these buildings that is absurd and it's not something the American people would stand for and so one of the first things that I think you'll see is a demand from the new Administration and from all of us in Congress that federal workers return to their desks and get back to the work that they're supposed to be doing I think that is common sense what you're going to see here the overriding theme Here
is a return to Common Sense and a return to return to accountability and if efficiency in government I think that's going to serve the people well there'll be a lot there'll be a lot more to tell you all in the days ahead thanks for being here