For decades, conservatives in Congress have talked about the need to cut government deeply, but they have always pulled back from mandating specific reductions, fearful of voter backlash.

Now, President Donald Trump’s administration is trying to make major cuts in government through the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, run by billionaire Elon Musk — an initiative led by an unelected businessman who’s unlikely to ever run for office and was appointed by a termed-out president who no longer needs to face voters again.

The dynamic of cutting government while also cutting out those who answer to voters has alarmed even some fiscal conservatives who have long pushed for Congress to reduce spending through the means laid out in the Constitution: a system of checks and balances that includes lawmakers elected across the country working with the president.

“Some members of the Trump administration got frustrated that Congress won’t cut spending and decided to go around them,” said Jessica Reidl of the conservative think tank The Manhattan Institute. Now, she said, “no one who has to face voters again is determining spending levels.”

That may be changing.

On Thursday, facing mounting court challenges to the legality of Musk ordering layoffs, Trump told his Cabinet that Musk could only make recommendations about government reductions. And there were more signs that Congress, after sitting on the sidelines for nearly the first two months of Trump’s administration, is slowly getting back into the game.

Senators said Musk had never heard of the process before. That was a striking admission given that it’s the only way for the executive branch to legally refuse to spend money that Congress has given it.

“To make it real, to make it go beyond the moment of the day, it needs to come back in the form of a rescission package,” said Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, a longtime advocate of spending reductions who said he introduced the idea of recission to Musk during the lunch meeting of the GOP caucus.

Of course, letting Congress have the final word may be constitutional, but it would open up the process to individual representatives or senators balking at cuts because of home-state interests or other concerns, as some have already. But Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former director of the Congressional Budget Office and an economist in George W. Bush’s administration, said that “messy” process is a superior one.

“There’s always this instinct in people to insulate decisions from politics,” Holtz-Eakin said. “It’s a mistake in a democracy. It’s really messy. You’re not going to get the cleanliness of a corporate reorganization.”

Riedl noted she has advocated for deep cuts for decades, but there’s a reason Congress has balked.

“If Congress won’t pass certain spending cuts, it’s because the American people don’t want it enough,” she said. “If I want spending levels to be cut, it’s my job to persuade the people of America to agree with me.”

Trump and his supporters argue they did just that in the last presidential election when he promised to shake up Washington: “The people elected me to do the job and I’m doing it,” Trump said during his address to Congress last week.

A corporate-style approach to government has long been the goal of conservatives, especially one segment that has recently called for a more CEO-style leader who is less tied down by democratic commitments to voters. Musk has embodied that, bringing the same disruptive, cost-cutting zeal he brought to his private companies. Some of his DOGE moves mirrored steps he took to slash the social media site Twitter, including the email offering buyouts, both times called “Fork in the Road.”

Don Moynihan, a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan, said the effort seems more destructive than just an attempt to shrink government in ways conservatives have long advocated.

“It is usurping the role of Congress on spending and program design, using cuts as a backdoor way to impound and close agencies created by Congress,” Moynihan said. “It is implementing an unprecedented scale of disruption.”

Grover Norquist, an anti-tax activist whose pledge to make government small enough to “drown it in a bathtub” has made him an icon for small-government conservatives, cheered the DOGE project. He said Congress has to authorize any real reductions, but hoped that DOGE’s cuts show the legislative branch that voters will not panic when government is shrunk.

“If we do something for three years, they’ll make it the law,” Norquist said of Congress. “They’ll see it’s safe, they’ll see it’s successful. They’ll come in and put their name on it.”

Norquist acknowledged that Congress has repeatedly balked at the level of cuts that he would like to see, even under unified Republican control. He asserted that “95%” of Republicans support such reductions but “that wasn’t enough to get it across the finish line” in an era where the majority party usually only has a razor-thin margin of control in either chamber.

The past nearly half-century of politics has been defined by conservatives pledging to cut government spending, only to see it continue to grow. Republican Ronald Reagan swept into the presidency in 1980 pledging to cut government, but when he left eight years later its size had increased. The trend continued through Trump’s first term and during Democrat Joe Biden’s presidency.

Now, however, Trump will not face voters again, despite occasional quips about seeking a constitutionally prohibited third term. He has been open about his grudge against the federal bureaucracy, which he blames for many of his troubles during his initial four years in office.

“I don’t think previous presidents have had the same animus towards the federal government this one has,” Holtz-Eakin said.

He noted that Trump has launched a second cost-cutting initiative through traditional channels — his own Office of Management and Budget, which asked agencies to prepare for mass layoffs. That, Holtz-Eakin said, makes those coming reductions likelier to stick than DOGE cuts.

Holtz-Eakin said there are initial signs of voter discontent over the pace, depth and chaos of the cuts. “The usual way you visit that on a president is you wipe out his party in the midterms,” Holtz-Eakin said. “You never evade the voters.”

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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.

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Before any guests showed up at the Rescuing the American Dream summit, U.S. Sen. Rick Scott stood in a ballroom at the Hyatt Regency in Washington, D.C. He spoke to staff as technicians conducted soundchecks and early presenters connected PowerPoint presentations for the event.

While invitations all billed Scott, a Naples Republican, as a “Special Guest” at the summit, it was clear from before the opening reception the night before that he served a greater role than that. Florida’s senior Senator served as the conservative gathering’s driving force, its ideological center.

The beginning of President Donald Trump’s second term also marked the first time since Scott, a former Florida Governor, took federal office that Republicans control the White House and both chambers of Congress. This wasn’t new information to the Senator when Florida Politics asked about the opportunity for conservative leaders.

“Don’t squander it, right?” Scott said.

Organizers for the two-day event in Washington hope to see the summit become a regular gathering, and announced intentions for a second event later this year in Florida. The goal of the first summit was to discuss how conservatives can best implement Trump’s agenda over the next 100 days. But the summit itself also served to put Scott at the center of the conversation on what conservatism means during Trump’s second term.

To Scott, the goals of the movement should be straightforward. “Get the fiscal house in order,” he said. “It’s the biggest thing.”

“If you look at what I did in Florida, you know, Florida had not lived within its means. We’ve got to get this budget balanced. We’ve got to dramatically, not a little bit, got to dramatically reduce regulation. We’ve got to get it easier to get a permit. To me, that’s the biggest thing we have to do.”

As much as anything, the summit also put Scott at the center of the conversation about the Senate’s direction. He moderated panels on energy with U.S. Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Dan Sullivan of Alaska and on budget reconciliation with U.S. Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Roger Marshall of Kansas, and split moderating duties with U.S. Sen. Bill Hagerty on a panel about digital currency.

Scott held a “fireside chat” with Shark Tank investor Kevin O’Leary.

He also introduced Senate Majority Leader John Thune for a short update to summit attendees on budget talks, an appearance the South Dakota Republican made months after winning a contest against Scott on who should lead the caucus this Congress. Thune praised Scott’s work as Governor and in the Senate as he addressed summit attendees.

“I remind him that when he was running for Governor in 2010, we campaigned together down in Florida, and he said I was the only Senator that campaigned for him in Florida for governor in 2010,” Thune said.

“But he’s been a great addition to the United States Senate, and the perspective he brings, having been successful in business and seeing things with that set of eyes is enormously important.”

At an opening reception for the event, Scott attracted such national figures as Attorney General Pam Bondi, Florida’s Attorney General during his entire tenure as Governor, to discuss Justice Department successes since her confirmation.

Former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, now a candidate for Ohio Governor, and U.S. Rep. John James, a Michigan Republican rumored to be considering a Senate run, also attended and gave remarks. So did U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody, Florida’s junior Senator.

At that reception, Lee said that Scott had put himself at the “epicenter” of the fight for conservative policy in Washington.

“When you need to know what’s happening in Washington, you look in the direction of Rick, and there’s a lot that’s going on there,” the Utah Republican said.

He noted that Scott had invited tech billionaire Elon Musk, the titular head of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, to a lunch for Senate Republicans earlier in the day and advanced the topic of government reform.

The most viral moment of the summit came the following day. During discussions of budget reconciliation, Scott suggested lawmakers cannot treat any programs as sacred from budget review. Too many lawmakers, Scott said, say “You can’t cut, you can’t cut, you can’t cut.”

“That’s all great but then you’re not worrying about any program you care about,” Scott said, “because Medicare is going bankrupt, Social Security is going bankrupt, you know inflation can’t go away, interest rates can’t come down. So, my belief is, we’re going to have to do this. Are we going to do it this year? Are we going to do it next year?”

Critics pounced on the remark as a reversal of promises not to cut Social Security. “Rick Scott is the biggest conman and criminal in the U.S. Senate,” posted Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, the Democrat who challenged Scott last year, on X. “I warned everyone, he lied straight to the faces of seniors, and now here we are. His push to cut Social Security is a betrayal of the people who rely on it most. Corruption in Washington must be defeated, and we must hold our leaders accountable.”

But Scott referenced in the same panel that he had won re-election, and voters on the trail were not regularly approaching him about protecting government programs. Rather, he heard a desire to cut taxes and reduce regulations.

Throughout the summit, he regularly touted the work of DOGE and Musk, saying someone needed to go through every line of the budget the same way every business owner or family does with their own finances.

Asked about whether that could threaten certain programs vital to Florida, Scott said he’s not worried. Florida Politics asked specifically about the firing of forecasters at the National Weather Service.

“My understanding is they are simply streamlining the process,” he said. “It’s what you do in business. The exact same thing.”

Scott in recent years also pushed for a replenishment of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Disaster Relief Fund, but he said that agency also needs financial review.

“I think the FEMA money ought to be very accountable. I think that we can’t be wasting either federal, state or local money. We ought to know exactly what the rules are. There shouldn’t be any surprises. So, I’m optimistic.”

He suggested state governments need to be following in the path of DOGE as well.

“Everybody’s got to do the same thing,” he said. “We’ve got to listen to our voters. We’ve got to reduce the regulatory environment, the permitting environment, reduce the cost of government, so everybody’s got to do the same thing.

“That’s what the voter wants.”

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