‘A bill can be big or it can be beautiful’: Musk trashes Trump spending plan as White House delivers fraction of promised multi-trillion DOGE cuts

The White House is preparing to submit a modest $9.4 billion spending cuts package to Congress next week, according to senior GOP officials who spoke with House Republicans on Wednesday. This development comes after weeks of internal discussions about formalizing cuts through Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency initiative.

According to  Politico, the proposed package represents only a fraction of the DOGE cuts, which have already fallen significantly short of Musk’s initial multi-trillion-dollar goals. The cuts will primarily target NPR, PBS, and foreign aid agencies that were previously reduced under President Donald Trump’s administration.

In a CBS News interview on Tuesday, Musk expressed his disappointment with Trump’s recent spending bill that narrowly passed the House. “A bill can be big or it can be beautiful,” Musk stated, “But I don’t know if it can be both.” He criticized the bill for increasing the budget deficit and undermining the DOGE team’s efforts.

White House faces resistance from key Republican figures over proposed cuts

The package’s success in Congress remains uncertain, with several Republican leaders expressing concerns about its viability. Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska showed hesitation regarding cuts to public media, stating that Nebraska public media “does a good job” and he was not inclined to support such measures.

Senator Susan Collins, the Senate’s top Republican appropriator, has indicated she wants her panel to review any clawback requests from Trump before implementation. She expressed having “considerable difficulties” with the package based on preliminary information.

The $9.4 billion in proposed cuts represents a minimal portion of the $1.6 trillion in yearly discretionary spending and falls far short of the $175 billion in savings that DOGE claims to have identified. This disparity has frustrated some Republicans, including Senator Rand Paul, who criticized both the White House and Congress for their handling of the situation.

House Speaker Mike Johnson has promised swift action on the package, though specific timing remains unclear. House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole revealed that Republican leaders have been engaged in “robust” negotiations with the White House regarding the package’s contents, focusing on finding different approaches to achieve their target numbers.