Republican members of the Senate DOGE Caucus are working on a series of budget proposals to defund welfare for millionaires in Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.” Senate DOGE Caucus Chairwoman Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) is leading the initiatives that will turn off the spigot for wealthy individuals and politicians, saving billions of taxpayers’ dollars from wasteful spending.
“We have a ‘big, beautiful’ opportunity to reduce reckless spending and save billions of dollars,” Ernst told Fox News Digital.
“Defunding welfare for politicians, stopping bogus payments and ending unemployment for millionaires are just the start of my commonsense solutions to continue rooting out waste, fraud and abuse. Washington has lived high on the hog for far too long, and now is the time to tighten the belt,” she added.
Touted as the ELECT Act, it will claw back nearly $17 million by eliminating “tax dollars for political campaigns and reduce cushy benefits for former presidents.” In coordination with other actions, it would deny former presidents certain benefits, such as taxpayer-funded office spaces and some non-critical staff.
In February 2025, $400 million was sitting in the politicians’ slush fund, up from more than $320 million diverted to the Secret Service last year.
“This Presidents’ Day I am fighting for the integrity of the office because the last thing we need to spend tax dollars on is more attack ads and cushy perks for politicians,” she promised.
“The Presidential Election Campaign Fund uses tax dollars to fund the candidacy of longshot and fringe candidates running for the White House,” the Iowa Republican tweeted in November. “Tax dollars shouldn’t be financing the failed ambitions of politicians – let’s save $16.6 million.”
The DOGE Caucus is also working on another package to accompany Trump’s BBB, preventing people earning over $1 million per year from receiving government support after losing their jobs. Ernst noted that roughly 15,000 million collected over $200 million in unemployment in 2023.
“Nearly 15,000 Americans earning a million dollars in income collected $213 million in unemployment last year,” she lamented.
The DOGE Caucus is also working on the Delivering On Government Efficiency (DOGE) in Spending Act, which requires the federal government to account for every penny. DOGE had previously raised alarm over $160 billion in suspicious payments without tracking codes, making auditing impossible.
“Requiring the government to answer basic questions before spending tax dollars will save billions over the next decade,” said Ernst. “Enacting safeguards to spending has been one of the Trump administration’s and DOGE’s greatest triumphs, and I am determined to codify it and make it permanent.”
GOP lawmakers from the House Freedom Caucus have also sponsored the Protecting Taxpayers’ Wallet Act, which prevents powerful and often politically connected unions from misusing government resources and official time.
“It should shock American taxpayers that federal employees are being paid to work substantial hours in support of public sector unions instead of the agency operations, missions, and programs they were hired for in the first place. This bill would discourage overuse and abuse of ‘official time’ by federal employees,” said Caucus chair James Comer.
In November, Ernst proposed over 22 measures to prevent wasteful spending, which she said would save nearly $2 trillion.
“I will be hard at work putting waste on the chopping block and carving up Washington’s bloated budget,” she said.
Trump is already working to cancel $9.4 billion in wasteful spending approved by Congress. However, Democrats falsely claim that the cuts are inhumane and aimed at benefiting millionaires.
