{"id":38947,"date":"2025-02-25T02:31:22","date_gmt":"2025-02-25T08:31:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=38947"},"modified":"2025-02-25T02:31:36","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T08:31:36","slug":"after-heated-town-halls-republicans-seek-more-information-and-compassion-from-doge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=38947","title":{"rendered":"After heated town halls, Republicans seek more information \u2014 and compassion \u2014 from DOGE\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 After facing blowback from constituents<\/a>, several House Republicans are returning to Washington this week on a mission to demand both more information and a more considerate approach from the Elon Musk-led effort to downsize the federal government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga., who was confronted during a testy town hall<\/a> in his deep red district last week, said he plans to reach out to Musk and urge him to show more compassion amid the Department of Government Efficiency’s execution of federal budget cuts and layoffs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McCormick also said he wants to use a previously scheduled meeting at the White House on Tuesday to \u201cbend\u201d President Donald Trump\u2019s ear on the issue. The entire House Republican sophomore class is meeting with Trump on Tuesday, according to McCormick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf we have layoffs at the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention], some people are going to be affected. The question is, do we give people time to adjust to their lives? And I think that\u2019s my biggest concern, is that we\u2019re being compassionate,\u201d McCormick told NBC News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIronically, the first time I ever met Elon Musk, he was asked, \u2018What could Republicans do better?\u2019 And his response was \u2026 \u2018I think you guys could come across as more compassionate.\u2019 So I\u2019m going to use his own words when I talk to him,\u201d McCormick said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Republicans have started to feel the heat from constituents who are impacted by the cuts and layoffs, some lawmakers have spoken out more publicly about DOGE and encouraged the Trump administration to take a more delicate approach. While they want to remain loyal to Trump, they also want to protect the voters who elected them to Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adding to the frustration: Congressional Republicans have been given little heads-up about DOGE\u2019s moves, let alone given any sort of messaging guidance, which has at times left them flat-footed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Wis., whose voters demanded answers about DOGE’s cost-cutting effort during a town hall last week, said he promised his constituents that he would try to get more information from the Trump administration about exactly what is being cut and who would be impacted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt would be better, I think, for members to have real specific information. Because we don\u2019t have it. I don\u2019t have it,\u201d he told reporters. \u201cWe don\u2019t know what they\u2019re looking at, and we don\u2019t know what the numbers are. \u2026 I\u2019m learning about this when I see a broadcast as much as anyone else right now, because we haven\u2019t been briefed on it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But other House Republicans brushed aside concerns about the contentious town halls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rep. Kevin Hern, R-Okla., who faced tough questions<\/a> about federal budget cuts during an event in his district last week, said his constituents are still supportive of DOGE’s broader mission, but have an issue with Musk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve not heard anyone say they don\u2019t want to cut anything. It\u2019s just that they don\u2019t like Elon. That it\u2019s,\u201d Hern told NBC News. \u201cWe\u2019re moving forward with the cuts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hern added that he\u2019s \u201csticking\u201d with his support of DOGE, despite the concerns from some of his constituents, but will continue to hear them out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re continuing to move forward. We\u2019ll continue to answer questions. I took questions for over an hour from my constituents back home last week, and y\u2019all listen, we represent everybody. I\u2019m gonna take questions,\u201d Hern said. \u201cBut I still think the right thing to do is to get our government under control. We\u2019re $37 trillion in debt and growing. It\u2019s not gonna get better if we keep doing same thing the same way we\u2019ve always done it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Rep. Mark Alford, R-Mo., said that he was \u201cnot surprised\u201d by the crowded event he had with constituents Monday morning in Missouri where voters expressed concerns about federal workers losing their jobs and actions by DOGE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe unfortunate thing was, is that this was organized protests, I think from some outside agitator groups,\u201d he said. \u201cThere were some constituents there who I wanted to hear from, and I could not hear from them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alford said that his \u201cdistrict is firmly behind what President Trump is doing and what DOGE is doing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He acknowledged \u201cvalid concerns about the speed that this is happening. But the ship heading towards a reef, we don\u2019t have much time before we hit that reef with $36 trillion worth of debt.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nbcnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 After facing blowback from constituents, several House Republicans are returning to Washington this week on a mission to demand both more information and a more considerate approach from the Elon Musk-led effort to downsize the federal government. Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga., who was confronted during a testy town hall in his deep red district last week, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":38948,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[31218,3353,1330,22779,32456],"class_list":["post-38947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-doge","tag-federal-government","tag-musk","tag-republican-party","tag-town-hall-meeting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38947"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38949,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38947\/revisions\/38949"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}