As the second Trump administration prepares to take office next month, it is promising to fundamentally reduce the size of the federal government. That effort, led by businessmen Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, is already generating a lot of buzz on Capitol Hill, including among members of the Colorado delegation.

GOP Rep.-elect Jeff Hurd said via email that the county is in serious financial distress and he fully supports any effort to ensure a smaller federal government that is more responsive to its citizens.

“Our country is $36 trillion in debt, which means our children’s future depends on reducing deficit government spending,” Rep.-elect Gabe Evans said via email. “As a U.S. Army veteran, I believe supporting our troops means reducing wasteful spending and improving efficiencies so we can direct critical resources where they will benefit our warfighters most.”

Musk and Ramaswamy were on Capitol Hill last week to make their pitch for the Department of Government Efficiency. Despite its name, DOGE will not be a government department, but will act as an advisory body with a direct line to President-elect Trump.

The two men, who have never served in government, have discussed dramatically reducing federal staff, dismantling entire agencies like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and cutting $2 trillion in federal spending.

Republican Representative Lauren Boebert is enthusiastic about the idea and already sees many possibilities for cuts.

“We can start by allowing government employees to continue working from home. This is one area. With COVID funding and more, we could address waste, fraud and abuse. I mean, within the Department of Education, within the Department of Energy, with the rules and regulations that we have,” she told CPR News.

She added that this work was originally supposed to be done by Congress, “but unfortunately it didn’t happen. “So now we have Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy at the helm, and hopefully the Republicans don’t get in their way.”

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Many of the duo’s recommendations will likely require congressional approval, and they have already begun to win some high-level Republican support.

“Let me be blunt: The government is too big, it does too many things, and it does almost nothing well,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said before meeting with the two men last week.

While Republicans are working hard to cut federal bureaucracy, Democrats in Colorado are skeptical of the initiative.

“Good luck,” quipped Democratic Rep. Diana DeGette, who has seen many funding battles during her time in Congress. “I think these outside billionaires have no idea how the federal budget works.”

She added that cuts at the level DOGE is talking about would mean eliminating programs that are “sacrosanct to the vast majority of Americans, Democrats and Republicans alike.”

“There is not $2 trillion in waste, fraud and abuse just sitting around. “It would mean significant cuts to Social Security, Medicare and defense spending,” she said.

For comparison, $2 trillion is nearly a third of total federal spending this year. The vast majority of government spending falls under mandatory spending such as Social Security, Medicare, and debt financing. When it comes to discretionary spending, Congress is in the process of passing a defense authorization bill that includes nearly $900 billion in spending, almost half of what DOGE wants to cut. More specifically, earlier this year, Congress passed government funding bills totaling nearly $1.7 trillion.

That financial reality is why Democratic Rep. Joe Neguse, who also serves as House Democratic co-leader, has his doubts.

“Given the limited information I have so far about this particular initiative, I’m not particularly optimistic about its efforts,” he told CPR News. And he said Democrats would fight any attempt to cut programs that Coloradans rely on every day.

Andrew Harnik/AP Photo

Neguse and other Democrats say they agree with the goal of running the government as best as possible. However, he believes this should be done through cross-party discussions and collaboration with local stakeholders.

“I don’t think there’s anyone who doesn’t support trying to make things more efficient,” Democratic Rep. Brittany Pettersen told CPR News. “I think who’s going to run it, what direction, what their approach is going to be, I think there’s a lot of concern about that.”

Pettersen is particularly concerned about Musk’s conflicts of interest; His companies hold billions of dollars in government contracts and benefit from a range of tax incentives. They are also subject to numerous regulations that he may now want to eliminate.

To support the advisory body, DOGE caucuses have been established in the Senate and House of Representatives. And while it’s largely a Republican effort so far, some House Democrats, like Jared Moskowitz of Florida and Greg Landman of Ohio, have also signed on.

Colorado Senator John Hickenlooper, who had not heard from the Senate group, did not entirely reject the idea of ​​joining it and said he would look into it.

In general, the idea of ​​a leaner, more efficient government is nothing new for Hickenlooper. He recalled when he first ran for mayor of Denver as a businessman intent on making the city’s operations smaller and more efficient.

Hart Van Denburg/CPR News

This experience informs his advice to the men who run DOGE: To have a well-functioning government, the people who work in it must feel respected.

“I hope they understand that morale is very important in city and state government and in the federal government,” Hickenlooper told CPR News. He said when he was governor, his administration went through all the rules and regulations of the state government and looked for things that could be eliminated. But he also emphasized the importance of public service and the value that public servants have in the everyday lives of citizens.

“I don’t mind making government more efficient and cutting red tape,” he said. “It’s hard, but I did it and I think it’s worth it. But I also think their morals are important.”

How much DOGE can actually achieve depends on what Musk and Ramaswamy propose and how willing members of Congress – particularly in its Republican majorities – are to make tough cuts that could affect their constituents or their districts.