Speaker Johnson sets eyes on cutting government spending, vows to take a 'blowtorch' to the 'regulatory state'

House Speaker Mike Johnson said he "would like to" cut spending for Planned Parenthood and PBS as Republicans look for ways to trim the fat of government spending through the newly-created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Johnson, R-La., told Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum Wednesday on "The Story" that Republicans are "very committed" to saving American taxpayers money and vowed to take a "blowtorch to the regulatory state."

"This is a core principle for us. Government is too big. It does too many things, and it does almost nothing well, and we need to scale it back down," he said.

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Johnson added that the creation of DOGE is a "generational opportunity" to bring about transformational change within the administrative state and limit wasteful government spending.

President-elect Donald Trump tapped Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk in November to lead DOGE, writing on his Truth Social account that the two would "pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies — Essential to the 'Save America' Movement."

Musk suggested at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally in late October that the U.S. budget could be cut by "at least" $2 trillion. 

Johnson said he invited Ramaswamy and Musk to Capitol Hill on Thursday. He wants all Senate and House Republicans to come together and hold a "brainstorming session" to formulate plans for the new Congress.

"We've got a long list of areas where we know there are waste, fraud and abuses, and [the] Oversight Committee's been doing a lot of aggressive work on that. We'll end the Oversight Committee in the House. We've just created a new subcommittee that will be laser-focused on that, finding the places for the easy cuts. And then it's about scaling back the regulatory state," he said. 

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"We have the ingredients. We have the conditions right now to actually be able to make really dramatic change."

Johnson added that along with eliminating wasteful government spending, priorities for the U.S. House come January include extending the Trump tax cuts and passing legislation with regard to border security and energy policy.