With Democrats fiercely raging against the efforts of the newly-created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), House Republicans are calling on Former President Ronald to explain to Americans why scrutinizing government spending is so crucial.
Outside the U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday, Democrat lawmakers and pro-waste activists protested the Elon Musk-led DOGE, shouting hateful, threatening, incendiary rhetoric.
On Wednesday, House Judiciary Republicans responded by posting a video clip from then-President Reagan’s April 24, 1985 “Address to the Nation on the Federal Budget and Deficit Reduction” on Musk’s X.com (formerly Twitter) social media platform.
In the video, Reagan takes politicians to task for their reckless wealth distribution tactics and frivolous use of Americans’ hard-earned money.
“You know, sometimes the big spenders in Congress talk as if all that money they spend just kind of magically appears on their doorstep, a gift from the Internal Revenue Service,” Reagan says in the video.
“They talk as if spending were all giving and no taking” – but, that’s not how it works, Reagan explains:
“Well, there is no magic money machine.
“Every dollar the government spends comes out of your pockets. Every dollar the government gives to someone has to first be taken away from someone else.”
Reagan calls it “our moral duty to make sure that we can justify every one of your tax dollars, that we spend them wisely and carefully and, just as important, fairly” - which is precisely what DOGE was created to do.
“Unfortunately, hardly anyone could honestly call federal budgets wise, careful, or fair,” Reagan noted in his 1985 speech, rhetorically addressing the issue of fairness:
“Is it fair to ask one small business to help subsidize its competitors?
“Is it fair to ask workers in the private economy to pay for civil service pensions that are much more generous than the retirement benefits they receive?
“Is it fair to ask low-income families to help pay for the college education of children from families with incomes as high as $100,000 a year?
“Is it fair to ask taxpayers to help pay billions for export subsidies to a handful of America's biggest corporations?”
Why DOGE is so important: pic.twitter.com/HPVbkAUSHy
— House Judiciary GOP 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 (@JudiciaryGOP) February 5, 2025
“Well, it isn't fair, and you know it,” Reagan said, calling for DOGE-like scrutiny of government spending:
“The time has come to decide what benefits we can properly expect from the federal government for ourselves, our neighbors, and those in need; and what government can take from us in taxes without making everyone worse off, including those who need our help.”
“The one thing we cannot do is stay on the immoral, dead-end course of deficit spending,” Reagan cautioned.
Reagan then cited statistics to back up his dire warning – which, 40 years later, pale in comparison the nation’s current fiscal plight:
“Today our national debt amounts to nearly $8,000 for every man, woman, and child in America.” – It’s currently $108,000.
“Our debt has grown and grown and grown until now it totals $1.7 trillion.” – at the end of FY2024, it was $35.5 trillion.”
$1.7 billion is “a number so big that it's nearly unimaginable,” because “A single billion is 1,000 millions; a trillion is a million millions,” Reagan noted at the time.
Watch Pres. Reagan’s full April 24, 1985 address to the nation below on the Reagan Library’s YouTube channel below:
Thursday was the 114th anniversary of Reagan's birthday. Ronald Wilson Reagan was born on February 6, 1911 and died June 5, 2004.