Republicans have big plans for spending cuts next year, but some Republican lawmakers doubt Congress can muster the momentum for meaningful change.

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, whom President-elect Trump has tapped to lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an advisory body on spending cuts and the national debt, were on Capitol Hill on Thursday for a series of meetings with lawmakers about how the Congress and the Administration Should Work Together The White House can work together to achieve this goal.

And while this advisory panel’s main focus is on what executive actions Trump might take, lawmakers acknowledge that significant, lasting change must be made through legislation. And some Republicans are skeptical they can get there.

“The problem is in this room,” said Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., referring to other Republican lawmakers who met with Musk and Ramaswamy.

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“These people talk really tough,” but they didn’t vote in a way that he believed showed they were serious about spending cuts.

“You don’t see much of it. When does that start? “Is it just going to start because Elon and Vivek talk to us?” Burchett asked. “I’m just worried that we’re losing momentum. … We have to have courage and people have to hold us accountable.”

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Outgoing Rep. Dan Bishop, R-N.C., told Fox News that “many members” stood up during Thursday afternoon’s brainstorming session with Republicans and the DOGE duo to suggest ways to “save money.”

“One would think that more of them would have been willing to come out and cast their votes on the floor of the House of Representatives to do these things early,” Bishop added.

The DOGE discussions have reopened long-standing wounds within House Republicans, whose members spent a significant portion of the 118th Congress bickering among themselves over how to handle government funding and other tax issues.

The national debt recently exceeded $36 trillion.

A senior House GOP aide expressed optimism about the new target, but added that Musk and Ramaswamy are “shooting for the fences.”

“The hard part is that once they find the material that they need to cut, I think Congress has to do the actual cutting, right?” the aide said.

Another senior GOP adviser said: “DOGE’s mission is worthy and absolutely necessary, but nothing will change. We’re not going to cut spending as much as we need to to get our finances in order, and we’re not doing that.” “We’re not going to reduce waste significantly.”

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Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, also skeptical, told Republicans at Thursday’s meeting that they would have to “grow a spine” to actually pass meaningful spending cuts.

“I said to my colleagues, ‘If you can’t print money, if it were literally banned today, what would you do?’ You would do what you do for your home budget. They would say, “Well, we can’t vacation here, I can’t get a fancy new car because I need braces for my kid,” WMAL radio host Larry O’Connor.

“We never do that, and until we do, all the DOGE waste reduction measures in the world will be of no use. We have to do both. We need waste prevention, but we need Congress to grow a spine.

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Some Republicans are skeptical of Musk and Ramaswamy’s leadership.

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“They didn’t have a game plan – a wish list that they’re giving to Santa Claus and the American people that will never come close to being fulfilled,” a Republican lawmaker, who was granted anonymity to speak freely, told Fox News Digital about the Meeting on Thursday.

The Republican lawmaker called DOGE a “magical division built from nothing” and noted that the logo was heavily inspired by a cryptocurrency called “Dogecoin” that Musk supports.

“They are “We’re going to hit a wall that says, ‘Members of Congress who know how to do our jobs,'” the lawmaker said.