‘Not American’: Dem governors lash out at Elon Musk’s ‘cruel’ DOGE efforts

Democrats proved on Thursday during a press conference about protecting Medicaid that Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has become an inevitable policy discussion under President Donald Trump’s second term.  

Ahead of the National Governors Association’s winter meeting in Washington, D.C., this week, Democratic and Republican governors huddled within their respective parties to strategize and discuss policy. Democratic governors held a press conference on Tuesday, sounding the alarm on Trump’s threat to Medicaid and signaling a Democratic messaging priority. 

“This is a life-and-death situation for so many of our citizens in all of our states. I’m more worried about DOGE,” Gov. Ned Lamont, D-Conn., said. “I find the Department of Government Efficiency is leaking its way into HHS and everyplace else.”

DOGE headlines dominated Trump’s first month back in the White House as Democrats protested weekly and called his executive orders a “constitutional crisis.” When asked by Fox News Digital whether there’s a consensus among Democratic governors that its a “constitutional crisis,” Lamont said, “It’s a budgetary crisis.”

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Lamont said it’s impossible to plan for unpredictable and last-minute budget cuts, adding that cutting Medicaid would cost $2 billion. 

“It’s not DOGE. It ought to be called dodge, a way to just push the costs on to our people,” Lamont said. 

The Connecticut governor said he supports rooting out fraud in the federal government, but he said that if DOGE expects states to pick up the costs on things like Medicare or Medicaid, then it would put people at risk. 

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“DOGE is pretty cruel. Let’s be blunt about that,” Gov. Josh Green, D-Hawaii, added. “These are people in our states that have worked long careers, very dedicated servants, and they’re getting kicked out of their lives.”

Green said he launched an initiative in Hawaii yesterday to hire employees who have been fired by the federal government. 

“We’re hoping to bring good people into the fold and help them heal through this process, and we will hire them. But at the end of the day, if there are deep cuts in budgets, we will all suffer and struggle to do that. There’s a lot of great human capital out there, and this is just not the right way to go about things,” Green said. 

Fox News Digital asked the governors whether they had agreed on a messaging strategy to combat DOGE. 

“It’s just not American. Honestly, I don’t know how they came up with the plan to slash trillions of dollars in order to pay for tax breaks. Most Americans are going to be really upset when they lose fundamental services. My message is, we can be caring about our country and not just play to bombastic news moments,” Graham said. 

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, D-N.M., said that governors work to make government more efficient every day.

“I think another unified message is we all want efficient, effective government,” Grisham said. “I predict it will spend more on itself than it actually saves or finds cost savings or fraud. You know who finds fraud in health care and any number of other things? Governors do! And then we work with the federal government to make sure that we stamp that out across the country. If they were really interested in that, they would be working with us.”

The Democratic governors urged more Republicans to stand up against Trump’s agenda. In the meantime, Grisham said that Democratic governors will continue to hold them accountable. 

“They’re not telling us the truth. They’re using this effort to line the pockets of one or a few Americans and companies, and they have not found any significant waste or fraud. They have to keep correcting, or at least we’re going to hold them accountable, and correcting those numbers. You want help making government meaningful and effective and efficient? You’re looking at a team that delivers on that every single day,” Grisham said.