WASHINGTON — After allowing Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to rescind billions of dollars’ of congressionally approved spending, House Republicans now want to slash funding for key independent government watchdogs nearly in half.
On the one hand, Democrats fear Republicans’ latest attack on the Government Accountability Office (GAO), which supervises multiple watchdogs, will interfere with dozens of investigations.
“You've got Republicans now who are not interested in getting objective, factual information,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) told Raw Story. “They just want information that's fed through their propaganda machine.”
On the other hand, Democrats say Republicans are further empowering President Donald Trump while undermining their own branch of government, through attacking nonpartisan watchdogs and thereby institutionalizing misinformation.
“If you don't like good facts, doesn't mean you cut their budget,” Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) told Raw Story. “They're trying to cut out anybody who just gives you good, impartial data. We need more good, impartial data.”
‘Don't ask me to get in their heads’
The GAO is home to Washington's referees. Its inspectors are known for being nonpartisan, outside observers, focused on streamlining government.
Nonetheless, House Republicans are advancing a spending measure that cuts 49 percent from the GAO’s $800 million budget, bringing it to just $415 million.
Capitol Hill is currently focused on the GOP’s “Big Beautiful Bill”, containing Trump’s tax and spending priorities and passed by the Senate on Tuesday. But the GAO cut is tucked inside the annual legislative branch appropriations bill, which funds everything from the Capitol Police to the Library of Congress. In all, the measure contains a 5 percent cut championed by House Republicans who say they’re acting in the vein of DOGE.
“While we had to make a number of tough choices in this bill, we believe that as the legislative branch, it is our responsibility to lead by example and make responsible funding decreases where appropriate,” Rep. David Valadao (R-CA), who chairs the Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee, said before the measure passed out of committee in June.
But the GAO helps identify clogs in the federal government — including the waste, fraud and abuse Musk and DOGE claimed to be weeding out — which is why Democrats say cutting the watchdog’s budget almost in half runs counter to the GOP’s own rhetoric.
“Totally counter to it,” Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) told Raw Story. “If the whole idea of DOGE and my Republican friends is to make government leaner, meaner, more efficient — get rid of the fat or get rid of the waste, fraud abuse — why would you get rid of the one entity whose responsibility is nonpartisan?”
Other Democrats shrug off GOP mixed messaging.
“Don't ask me to get in their heads,” Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA) told Raw Story. “They're ignoring and actually disputing every non-partisan piece of expert advice that we're getting.”
“Would you call that misinformation?” Raw Story pressed.
“Oh, there's no question about it. At some point you've got to agree to agree on something, you know, whatever it is,” Thompson said. “You have to have a starting point, right?”
By gutting the GAO, Republicans are further blurring reality on Capitol Hill at a time when the two parties increasingly consume more hyper-partisan news and are guided by ideologically divergent think tanks, all driven to extremes by ever more tribalistic talking heads.
Historically, the GAO has served to tether both parties to reality.
“I see GAO as one of the most important protections we have for the government running well,” Beyer said. “I've never seen a hint of partisanship. There's no partisan upside on that either. It’s not like they're getting rid of Democrats. I don't understand.”
‘Anything he wants, they do’
Congress established the GAO in 1921, with the mandate of producing dispassionate, “fact-based” reports on the use of taxpayer dollars by the executive branch.
By gutting the GAO, Republicans are undermining their own rhetoric, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.
“It demonstrates the weakness of their position that they have to undermine the regular order,” the San Francisco Democrat told Raw Story.
Republicans control Capitol Hill, but Democrats are astounded that their opponents are ceding so much power to the White House.
“You have to start with the surrendering of the constitutional authority of the legislative branch of government,” Rep. John Larson (D-CT) told Raw Story. “So it just seems to me, overall, there's a submission to the executive branch of government,” meaning Trump.
“I mean, this is just getting right beyond the pale, and anything he wants, they do.”
While some on the left laugh off Trump as a buffoon or deride his former sidekick Musk as a political novice, Larson says Democrats need to see clearly.
“They're not fools at all,” Larson said. “You don't get to be president of the United States twice if you're dumb, you don't get to be the wealthiest man in the world if you're dumb. These people are very clever, and Trump has a strain of populism and the ability to take it on the media. He's become a hero, right?”
Democrats have gotten more unified in their messaging but the perch Capitol Hill provides is far weaker than the power of the bully pulpit Trump wields, to the joy of millions of Americans.
“They look, they see Congress, they see constant fighting, nothing getting done — even though, one would argue, there's a lot that gets done here — but not what they need or what they want,” Larson said.
“Trump's smart enough to play that. It's wild.”
The GAO has some 40 ongoing investigations into the Trump administration’s alleged misuse of funds allocated by Congress — which is why Democrats argue defending the watchdog is vital.
“It's disgraceful. GAO has been a non-partisan organization that is providing important information to Congress,” Sen. Van Hollen told Raw Story. “You have this pile-on from Republicans who obviously are prepared to surrender all of their constitutional duties.”
