“What kind of efficiency makes people hungrier? What kind of efficiency makes people poorer? What kind of efficiency makes people less safe?” 

“If Trump and Musk truly wanted to make government better, then they would turn to the actual efficiency experts at the Government Accountability Office. But this was never about efficiency.”

Video (YouTube)

WASHINGTON – In a House Oversight Committee hearing, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07) discussed what true government efficiency looks like and denounced Elon Musk and Donald Trump for utilizing DOGE to gut the essential services that keep people safe, fed, and housed. The Congresswoman called out DOGE as yet another Musk-Trump scam that enriches themselves at the expense of everyday people.

A full transcript of the Congresswoman’s exchange with Government Accountability Office Comptroller General Gene Dodaro is available below and the full video is available here.

Transcript: Pressley Slams Trump and Musk for Enriching Themselves Under Guise of “Efficiency”
House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
February 25, 2025

REP. PRESSLEY: Thank you to the Comptroller General for being here today. I’m grateful for your service, and you are a great reminder of the ways in which government does benefit people every day, but they’re often unaware.

Congress has a duty to ensure that government operates efficiently, effectively, and in the public interest. For any elected official, constituent services are our bread and butter. 

I know long before I was an elected official, I worked as a constituent services advocate, a Social Security liaison, advocating for our most vulnerable. 

If your grandfather can’t get an appointment at the VA or if your mom is stuck on hold with the Social Security Administration for hours, you should be angry, and we should be fixing it. 

But instead of fixing it, the Trump administration has turned over the keys to an unelected billionaire – Elon Musk – through the so-called Department Of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

Mr. Dodaro, can you define – so we’re operating with the same understanding and comprehension here – can you define government efficiency?

MR. DODARO: Efficiency is getting the best possible outcome with the least amount of resources. 

REP. PRESSLEY: Right. It’s not about slashing budgets for the sake of headlines, while weakening the very services that keep people safe, fed, and housed.

True efficiency is about making government work better for the people – protecting their rights, strengthening essential services, and ensuring tax dollars go to the public good, not private profits. 

By that standard, DOGE isn’t here to serve anyone other than Elon Musk.

But let’s take a step back. History is important. 

Mr. Dodaro, do you know how the term DOGE came about?

MR. DODARO: Not, not particularly. 

REP. PRESSLEY: It came from an internet meme featuring a Sheba Inu dog that went viral on Reddit. And that meme led to the creation of Dogecoin, a joke cryptocurrency. Eventually it caught the attention of none other than Elon Musk.

In 2019 – more than five years ago – Elon Musk started tweeting about DOGE, making jokes, and using the cryptocurrency for profit.

He was not interested in government efficiency – he only cared about making money. That’s why the actual creator of Dogecoin said that Elon – quote, “Was, and always will be, a grifter” – end quote.

Mr. Chair, I ask unanimous consent to enter into the record this article titled: “Dogecoin Co-creator Calls Elon Musk a ‘Grifter’ who had Trouble Running Basic Code.”

CHAIR COMER: Without objection, so ordered.

REP. PRESSLEY: Talk about didn’t earn it. 

So here we are, in 2025, and Elon Musk is still using DOGE to make money. This time, instead of pumping up a joke currency for his own profits, he’s using a meme-inspired agency to launch a hostile takeover of the federal government. 

DOGE has recklessly fired FAA employees and attacked the agency, all while Musk’s own aerospace business benefits from regulatory rollbacks. Make it make sense. 

DOGE dismantled the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a watchdog agency that returned $21 billion to victims of fraud – when he heard it was planning to investigate his company.

And just last week, in a moment of stunning incompetence, the Administration frantically tried to un-fire hundreds of employees they had to let go the day before. 

Why? Because those employees were overseeing our nuclear stockpile. Those employees were managing the bird flu outbreak. Those employees were providing not nice-to-have, but essential, must-have services that all of our constituents rely on. 

Mr. Dodaro, do firing workers and then trying to un-fire them sound like government efficiency to you?

MR. DODARO: It’s not a best practice.

REP. PRESSLEY: It sure doesn’t to me. What kind of efficiency makes people hungrier? What kind of efficiency makes people poorer? What kind of efficiency makes people less safe? 

If Trump and Musk truly wanted to make government better, then they would turn to the actual efficiency experts at the Government Accountability Office. 

But this was never about efficiency. Just like the DOGE meme, the lives of hard-working families are a joke to them.

I won’t stand for it. I know my colleagues won’t either. We’ll continue to fight for a government rooted in real efficiency, one that works for everyone, not just for billionaires. 

I yield back.

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