More than two-thirds of U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett’s constituents present during a telephone town hall said they don’t approve of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
Barrett ran surveys between taking questions during his first telephone town hall Monday evening. 70% of the participants indicated they do not support the department’s mission, which was presented as being "to streamline the federal government and reduce spending."
The first-term member of Congress defended the department earlier in the call.
“It seems like every single person prefaces a lot of their, even disagreement, by saying, ‘Hey, I know there's a lot of waste and fraud in federal spending, and we’ve got to rein that in, but this is wrong for this or that reason,’” Barrett said. “So, it seems like we've kind of accepted the premise that there's a lot of problems.”
Barrett, who narrowly flipped a district previously represented by now-U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin, a Democrat, said his office has received numerous calls about Musk’s role in the federal government.
But he said the amount of power Musk has to make decisions about the federal government as a special government employee in the Trump Administration is being misconstrued.
“DOGE is making recommendations to agency heads,” Barrett said. “It's up to them to do the best implementation of achieving what every American should expect, that the tax dollars they send to Washington, D.C., are being used prudently for the right things, for the right purposes, and not being abused, wasted or spent on things that shouldn't be done.”
While Barrett said cuts are necessary, he said they should not be made in an “undisciplined fashion,” arguing that staff reductions at federal agencies should be based on merit rather than seniority.
Barrett previously sent a letter to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs asking him to reconsider the dismissal of thousands within the department in probationary or non-mission critical roles, including dozens of Michiganders.
Copyright 2025 WKAR Public Media
