Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk and former 2024 Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy announced on Wednesday that they are planning to reduce federal spending by cutting government funding to “progressive groups like Planned Parenthood” as part of the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under President-elect Donald Trump’s upcoming administration.
In a joint op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, Musk and Ramaswamy wrote, “Skeptics question how much federal spending DOGE can tame through executive action alone. They point to the 1974 Impoundment Control Act, which stops the president from ceasing expenditures authorized by Congress.”
Musk and Ramaswamy explained that the president-elect has suggested that the 1974 law is “unconstitutional” and argued that the U.S. Supreme Court will “likely side” with Trump on the issue.
Musk and Ramaswamy added, “But even without relying on that view, DOGE will help end federal overspending by taking aim at the $500 billion plus in annual federal expenditures that are unauthorized by Congress or being used in ways that Congress never intended, from $535 million a year to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and $1.5 billion for grants to international organizations to nearly $300 million to progressive groups like Planned Parenthood.”
Wednesday’s joint op-ed written by the two leaders who are expected to play a major role in making the federal government more efficient, unveiled “The DOGE Plan to Reform Government” and the Trump administration’s commitment to “reverse a decades long executive power grab.”
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Musk and Ramaswamy noted that most of the “government enforcement decisions and discretionary expenditures” are not authorized by the president or by his political appointees but by “millions of unelected, unappointed civil servants within government agencies who view themselves as immune from firing thanks to civil-service protections.”
Musk and Ramaswamy’s plan to cut funding from “progressive groups,” such as Planned Parenthood, comes as Planned Parenthood’s 2022-2023 annual report revealed that the organization is currently the largest abortion provider in the United States, performing 392,715 abortions from 2021 to 2022.
The Daily Wire reported that Planned Parenthood also offers a significant number of “gender-affirming” services. The outlet noted that 45 affiliates of Planned Parenthood offered “hormone therapy” services in 2022.
Discussing Planned Parenthood’s “gender-affirming services, National Center for Transgender Equality Executive Director Mara Keisling previously told The Daily Beast, “It’s possible they’re the largest provider of trans health in the country. We don’t know for sure. But it’s certainly among the biggest, if not the biggest.”
According to The Daily Wire, Planned Parenthood’s annual report revealed that the organization has roughly $2.3 billion in net assets and $670.4 million in funding from the government.
