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lisa gilbert
'No Kings' Rallies Against Trump Authoritarianism Could Be 'Largest Protest in US History'
"On October 18 and everyday, we’ll show the world what democracy looks like," said one union leader. "No thrones! No clowns with crowns! No kings, just working people united in power to defend our democracy."
Oct 16, 2025
Amid President Donald Trump's unprecedented and accelerating attacks on US democracy, millions of Americans in every state and beyond are preparing to take to the streets Saturday for a second wave of No Kings rallies.
In what organizers and participants say might be the "largest protest in US history" in a single day, No Kings demonstrations are set to take place in more than 2,500 communities across the nation, from its biggest cities to small towns like Burns, Oregon—population 2,700—and Bryson City, North Carolina, with 1,500 residents.
The first round of No Kings rallies, held on June 14, drew an estimated 4-6 million participants to over 2,100 demonstrations. Organizers say that the October 18 protest could be even bigger, as Americans are more alarmed than ever by the assault on democracy by Trump and Republicans.
"What we’re seeing is truly unprecedented," Lisa Gilbert, co-president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, told Common Dreams. "What we’re seeing from this administration is authoritarian slip. We are seeing them attack judges, attack nonprofits, trying to attack the media, stifle First Amendment protected speech, and arrest sitting members of Congress for doing their oversight of [Immigration and Customs Enforcement]."
"The list, unfortunately, is very long and what we want is what we’ve seen in other countries that have successfully resisted authoritarianism—to hold on to our democracy and to create and protect the checks that we have against that kind of executive overreach," she added. "It’s a lofty goal, but it starts with us exercising our right to peacefully protest."
On October 18th, millions of brave Americans will stand up and peacefully protest against the authoritarian disease metastasizing under Donald Trump.No Thrones. No Crowns. No Kings. @gtconway.bsky.social
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— Home of the Brave (@ofthebraveusa.bsky.social) October 13, 2025 at 5:01 AM
As Republicans including US House Speaker Mike Johnson (La.)—who called Saturday's pro-democracy demonstrations "hate America" rallies—attempt to smear the No Kings movement, organizer Sarah Parker of 50501 and Voices of Florida said during a Thursday press conference that "we have a saying in the South: A hit dog will holler, and I’m hearing a lot of noise from Washington, DC right now."
"And with that said, on October 18 millions of people just like me... are going to take the streets peacefully and say there will be no kings in America," she continued.
"These are everyday Americans coming together to organize," Parker said. "These are faith leaders, teachers, veterans, small business owners who are being impacted by extremely dubious tariffs. These are people that are seeing their friends and family members be kidnapped off the streets. These are everyday Americans that are struggling to put groceries into their fridge, and these are Millennials and Gen Zers who were promised a beautiful and free America."
"They are rising to this moment because they feel… it is their obligation to joyfully and peacefully push back against authoritarianism like the generations that came before us," she added.
We bow to no kings in America. Text NOKINGS to 63033 to find the location of your closest peaceful No Kings protest this Saturday!
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— Stand Up America (@standupamerica.com) October 15, 2025 at 8:32 AM
Jamie Contreras, the executive vice president of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) 32BJ who is also a US Navy veteran and former undocumented immigrant, told the press conference that "America belongs to the people—working people—not to billionaires or a few politicians who think they can rule like kings."
Addressing the Trump administration's designation of leftist protesters as "terrorists" and its ominous threat to take the "same approach" to them as to the alleged drug traffickers it is extrajudicially assassinating on the high seas, Contreras said that "the real threat to this country isn’t peaceful protesters, it’s politicians shutting down our government to protect billionaires and corporate greed."
"What’s ironic to me is, you call peaceful protesters terrorists, but then the [January 6 insurrectionists] patriots," he added. "That’s so ironic and so far from the truth."
Attend "No Kings" to protest the pro-kings.
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— Mark Jacob (@markjacob.bsky.social) October 14, 2025 at 5:18 AM
The federal government shut down at the beginning of the month, and as Democrats and Republicans continued to spar over the GOP's healthcare cuts, Johnson warned this week that it could be the longest shutdown ever.
Indivisible co-founder Leah Greenberg told the press conference: "Republicans are blaming and smearing millions of Americans who are peacefully protesting because they have run out of excuses for their own failures. Republicans understand that Americans are blaming them for the shutdown, Americans are blaming them for out-of-control healthcare prices, and a rising affordability crisis."
Greenberg continued:
They are blaming them for the fear and chaos gripping the country. They are panicking and they are flailing and they are searching for anything, literally anything, to distract from their governing failures. And in their desperation they have decided to go with smearing millions of Americans who are coming out to peacefully, directly assert our rights. It is both ridiculous and outrageous. It is ridiculous because it is transparently false, it is outrageous because it is an attack on the First Amendment and on all of our right to free speech.
Parker said Republicans "are refusing to accept the fact that the American people are pissed, by the millions. They are refusing to accept the fact that their actions are harming our beloved country. They are refusing to look in the mirror and accept the fact that they are destroying America."
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— Physicians for a Healthy Democracy (@physiciandemocracy.medsky.social) October 13, 2025 at 4:39 PM
ACLU chief political and advocacy officer Deidre Schifeling said during the press conference that "President Trump and his allies are abusing their power and attempting to scare their own citizens away from exercising our rights and freedoms."
"What we have seen so far is as troubling as it is illegal," Schifeling continued. "The Trump administration has directed ICE to kidnap people including journalists and students off the street, ripping them from their families and deporting them without due process."
"Their allies are attempting to undermine fair elections at President Trump’s direction by redistricting voting maps and further gerrymandering states," she noted. "And they are attempting to limit our First Amendment rights and use the federal government to attack political rivals, stifle dissent, and undermine checks and balances on presidential power."
"The Trump administration has even deployed armed agents and troops into American cities, including my home of Washington, DC, turning our streets into militarized zones and threatening to do so again to quash Saturday’s protests," she said.
"You have to ask: Why are they so afraid of their own citizens?" Schifeling said. "Well, they know that their agenda of selling fear, division, misinformation, lawbreaking, and violence is deeply unpopular. Millions of Americans will peacefully protest on Saturday to tell the Trump administration that we are a country of equals, we are a country of laws that apply to everyone, of due process, and of democracy."
"We will not be silenced," she added. "If we stop exercising our rights, our First Amendment freedom of speech out of fear, we forfeit our power in advance. The best way to protect our freedom is to act free."
Sanders: Saturday, millions of people are going to come out on a No Kings day. Speaker Johnson said this is a hate America rally because people are coming out expressing their concerns.. It’s not a hate America rally, it's a love America rally.
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— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) October 15, 2025 at 7:40 PM
Gilbert told Common Dreams: "I think we can turn this around. I think we wouldn’t be doing this if we couldn’t. We are still in a democracy today, we’re having this free and fair conversation right now, you and I… and we have a set of protections we can exercise and we need to remind people what democracy is supposed to look like."
As Contreras said, "When working people stand together, no king, no billionaires, no politicians can stop us."
"On October 18 and everyday, we’ll show the world what democracy looks like," he added. "No thrones! No clowns with crowns! No kings, just working people united in power to defend our democracy."
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'Blatant Extortion': Healthcare for Millions Hangs in the Balance as GOP Plows Toward Shutdown
“Congressional Republicans would rather risk a government shutdown than reverse course and preserve healthcare tax credits millions rely on," said one critic.
Sep 26, 2025
As the White House threatens mass layoffs of federal workers in the event of a looming GOP government shutdown, healthcare and consumer advocates warned Friday that millions of Americans would either lose insurance coverage or see their premiums spike—and some critics say that's exactly what Republicans want.
On Wednesday, the White House Office of Management and Budget directed federal agencies to prepare to fire large numbers of employees if the government shuts down on October 1, a move that critics say OMB Director Russ Vought is using as leverage to force the hand of Senate Democrats who last week blocked advancement of a stopgap spending measure passed in the House.
Democrats are seeking to negotiate bipartisan legislation that includes an extension of subsidies under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), better known as Obamacare, which are set to expire at the end of the year. Legislation introduced earlier this month by House and Senate Democratic leaders offered a short-term fix for keeping the government running while permanently extending ACA subsidies, reversing Medicaid cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed by Trump on July 4, lifting the freeze on foreign aid, and restoring funding for public broadcasting.
"The president and Republican congressional leaders are doing nothing to address a looming, massive healthcare cost spike for more than 20 million people," Sharon Parrott, president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), said in a statement Friday. According to CBPP, that' roughly the number of Americans who will be affected if the ACA's premium tax credits are allowed to expire at the end of this year, which they will absent congressional action.
"This is how dictators and comic book archvillains behave."
Taking aim at the measure proposed by GOP lawmakers that would keep the government running through November 21, Parrot—who decried the mass firing threat as "blatant extortion"—said that "Republicans are claiming their short-term continuing resolution is business as usual, but nothing about this moment is normal."
Lawmakers introduced two dueling continuing resolutions earlier this month; both measures failed to pass. Congress must pass any continuing resolution by October 1, the start of the new fiscal year, to prevent a shutdown.
“The Trump administration is threatening to inflict massive harm on all of us unless Democrats in Congress surrender in the funding fight," said Lisa Gilbert, co-president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen. "A temporary lapse in funding does not provide grounds for an agency to fire federal workers indiscriminately—and really, this is just a threat to harm the public if Republicans don’t get their way."
“This whole saga demonstrates exactly who is to blame for a shutdown: Trump and Republicans in Congress," Gilbert added. "Instead of negotiating a funding deal in good faith like every White House and Congress in history has managed to do, Trump and Republicans are threatening the American people with ruin if they don’t get their way."
"This is how dictators and comic book archvillains behave," she said. "Congress must not back down in the face of this reprehensible and un-American threat against all of us.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) faced intense criticism in March for leading a small group of Democrats who helped end the last such standoff. At the time, he warned that a shutdown would be a "gift" allowing Republicans "to destroy vital government services at a significantly faster rate than they can right now.”
The evisceration of federal agencies—as pursued by the Trump administration and its so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—is a main objective of the far-right blueprint for a government overhaul known as Project 2025, whose executive policy section was authored by Vought.
Parrott noted that this time around, Republicans "have so far refused bipartisan negotiations to prevent families across the country already struggling to afford healthcare and other basics from taking this hit. Indeed, they have rejected bipartisan discussions on anything related to year-end spending bills, even as they need bipartisan support in the Senate to pass short- or long-term funding bills."
"Congressional Republicans and the president need to come to the table with Democrats to reach a deal that prevents healthcare cost spikes for millions of people and ensures the administration can’t unilaterally or illegally undo parts of bipartisan funding laws simply because the president dislikes them," Parrott added.
New polling published Wednesday by Impact Research shows that 72% of respondents want Congress to extend the healthcare tax credits, with 44% calling the issue "very important." More than half of those polled said that lowering the cost of monthly health insurance premiums would provide the biggest relief to their monthly expenses.
“This latest polling clearly shows that Americans are demanding lower costs and affordable healthcare, yet Republicans in Congress continue to ignore them in favor of millionaires and billionaires,” Unrig Our Economy campaign director Leor Tal said in a statement.
“Congressional Republicans would rather risk a government shutdown than reverse course and preserve healthcare tax credits millions rely on," Tal added. "We need our leaders to focus on lowering healthcare costs, not enriching the ultrawealthy.”
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Texas Republicans Advance Trump-Backed Plan 'to Rig Our Elections'
"Republican lawmakers in Texas should be ashamed," said one campaigner. "They are to blame for the gerrymandering arms race that we will now see across the country."
Aug 20, 2025
The GOP-controlled Texas House of Representatives voted Wednesday in favor of a plan pushed by US President Donald Trump to redraw the state's congressional map to create five new Republican districts ahead of next year's midterm elections.
Following seven hours of debate, Texas state lawmakers voted 88-52 to approve a rare mid-decade gerrymandering—redistricting typically occurs after the decennial census—urged by Trump as Republicans cling to just a three-vote margin of power in the US House of Representatives.
While the Republican Party of Texas hailed the House's approval what it called the "Big, Beautiful Map," the Texas Democratic Party lamented that, "at Trump's request, Texas Republicans voted to rig our elections."
"These maps drag us back to the 1950s, stripping minority communities of fair representation. Authoritarianism is here—and we're going to keep fighting like hell for our state and country," the party added.
Wednesday's vote followed a standoff between Texas Democrats who fled the state for two weeks to thwart a vote on the measure and their Republican colleagues, whose congressional allies asked the Federal Bureau of Investigation to help track down the absconding Democrats and force them back to Austin.
Such an outcome was avoided when the Democratic lawmakers returned to Texas of their own volition. However, the drama didn't end there, as House Speaker Dustin Burrows (R-83) informed the returning Democrats that they could not leave the Texas Capitol building without a law enforcement escort. On Monday, Rep. Nicole Collier (D-95)—who was forced to sleep in the Capitol—filed a lawsuit challenging the Legislature's authority to place lawmakers under police surveillance.
Democracy defenders decried Wednesday's vote, which sends the gerrymandering plan to the state Senate, where it is expected to pass during a Thursday evening session.
"Let's be clear: Today's vote on new congressional maps is nothing more than Texas Republicans openly colluding with President Trump to strip everyday Texans of their voice and representation in government and ensure political gain in the 2026 midterm elections," Taifa Smith Butler, president of the pro-democracy group Dēmos Action, said in a statement.
"Their extreme, divisive, and unprecedented actions have no place in our democracy and should be condemned by all," Smith Butler asserted. "These tactics, likely to spark copycat actions all around the country, should be called out and exposed for the malfeasance, corruption, and theft of the people's choice that they are."
Brett Edkins, managing director of policy and political affairs at Stand Up America, said the Texas GOP plan "isn't about fair representation, it's about entrenching Republican control for a generation and silencing Texans of color."
"It's a blatant attempt by Donald Trump, [Texas Gov. Greg] Abbott, and congressional Republicans to dodge accountability in the midterms for the fallout of their billionaire tax handouts paid for by cuts to Medicaid and other programs Texans rely on," he continued.
"Republican lawmakers in Texas should be ashamed," Edkins added. "They are to blame for the gerrymandering arms race that we will now see across the country."
Lisa Gilbert, co-president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, said: "The Trump gerrymander push is authoritarian, anti-democratic, and yet another tell of a wannabe dictator. We watch Texas today with the clear understanding that this is not an isolated push, but the beginning of a national power grab across multiple states to try and impact the 2026 midterm."
"The immediate impacts in Texas—depriving voters of fair representation, and the disparate impact on voters of color, as districts with majority or large populations of voters of color are broken up—will be mirrored throughout the nation," Gilbert added. "We cannot allow this to proceed. And if needed, California and other states must make offsetting gerrymanders of their own."
Republicans are also weighing plans for congressional redistricting in other states—including Florida, Indiana, Missouri, and Ohio—ahead of next year's midterm elections.
Governors and lawmakers in some Democrat-controlled states have vowed to respond in kind, with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul saying earlier this month that members of her party should "fight fire with fire." The office of California Gov. Gavin Newsom also announced last week that it would proceed with plans for retaliatory redistricting, starting with a special November ballot initiative.
Dēmos Action's Smith Butler also took aim at Republicans' treatment of Collier.
"It is nothing short of a disgrace that Republicans would escalate their reprehensible, anti-democratic actions even further by confining [Collier] in the Capitol," she wrote. "They are weaponizing law enforcement to silence and intimidate Collier, a Black woman leader fighting for her constituents, namely Black and brown voters whose political power is being erased."
"This is not just about intimidating or attacking one legislator; it is a blatant effort to curb Black political power, dismantle democracy, and silence every Texan who believes in justice," Smith Butler added. "Texas Republicans are pushing an extreme mid-decade redistricting that would entrench power at the expense of Black and Latino voters. We must defend Rep. Collier and her constituents, and reject these racist, authoritarian tactics."
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Public Interest Law Firm to Sue DOGE Within Minutes of Trump's Swearing In
Other critics of Trump's Department of Government Efficiency have also argued that it runs afoul of regulations governing federal advisory committees.
Jan 20, 2025
The public interest law firm National Security Counselors says it will file a lawsuit in federal court challenging the "Department of Government Efficiency," a nongovernmental entity spearheaded by President-elect Donald Trump to help advise on cuts to government spending and regulation, within minutes of Trump's swearing in, according to The Washington Post.
The complaint alleges that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) meets the requirements to be considered a "federal advisory committee"—groups that are known as FACAs—and therefore must follow regulations outlined in a 1972 law governing how FACAs operate. FACAs must, for example, file a charter with Congress, keep regular minutes of meetings, and ensure meetings are open to the public. DOGE doesn't appear to have taken those steps, according to the Post.
The watchdog group Public Citizen has also criticized DOGE for failing to adhere to FACA requirements, which stipulate that "membership of the advisory committee [must] be fairly balanced in terms of the points of view represented and the functions to be performed by the advisory committee." To help remedy this, the co-presidents of Public Citizen—Lisa Gilbert and Robert Weissman—last week requested that the Trump transition team co-chairs appoint them to serve on DOGE.
"As things stand, DOGE's membership falls far short of satisfying FACA's fair-balance requirement," the two wrote. They also point out that the duo tapped to lead DOGE, billionaire and GOP megadonor Elon Musk and tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, both stand to potentially benefit financially from lessened federal regulation. CBS News reported Sunday that Ramaswamy is expected to depart DOGE and announce a bid for Ohio governor.
Kel McClanahan, the executive director of National Security Counselors who authored the lawsuit, told the Post that "we're not trying to say DOGE can't exist. Advisory committees like DOGE have been around for decades. We're just saying that DOGE can't exist without following the law."
Another source the Post spoke with, Sam Hammond of the Foundation for American Innovation—who has been a fan of DOGE's efforts—told the paper that until Trump actually treats DOGE as a FACA, it doesn't need to follow FACA reporting rules. "DOGE isn't a federal advisory committee because DOGE doesn't really exist. DOGE is a branding exercise, a shorthand for Trump's government reform efforts," he said.
But early January reporting from the Post indicates that DOGE is more than just a branding exercise. Citing anonymous sources, the outlet reported that aides with DOGE have spoken to staffers at more than a dozen federal agencies to "begin preliminary interviews that will shape the tech executives' enormous ambitions to tame Washington's sprawling bureaucracy." There has also been a hiring sprint. DOGE is aiming to have nearly 100 staff in place by Trump's inauguration, according to the paper.
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Hey Elon and Vivek! Here's What a Real 'Department of Government Efficiency' Would Do
A new report identifies what a DOGE "based on evidence, not ideology, would include—from slashing drug prices to ending privatized Medicare to reducing the wasteful Pentagon budget."
Jan 15, 2025
While the U.S. Senate on Wednesday held confirmation hearings for several of President-elect Donald Trump's Cabinet nominees, the watchdog Public Citizen sounded the alarm about a new commission and its billionaire leaders, who don't require congressional oversight but could significantly impact federal agencies, regulations, and spending.
Despite being called the Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE is not a government department. It is a presidential advisory commission that Trump announced after his November win. He has asked billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to co-lead it.
Public Citizen co-presidents Lisa Gilbert and Robert Weissman on Monday wrote to Trump's transition team, asking to join DOGE. While their group has concerns about the commission's "structure and mission," including potential conflicts of interest regarding Musk and Ramaswamy's financials, the watchdog leaders made the case that they could serve "as voices for the interests of consumers and the public who are the beneficiaries of federal regulatory and spending programs."
"There is nothing 'efficient' about hitting a pre-determined target for spending cuts, least of all one that is infeasible."
The pair highlighted that their appointment "would be an important step towards compliance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act," and outlined some ideas they have "to slash drug prices, end privatized Medicare, reduce the wasteful Pentagon budget."
Weissman expanded on the group's recommendations in a Wednesday report titled DOGE Delusions: A Real-World Plan to Reject Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy's Misguided Agenda, Crack Down on Corporate Handouts, Tax the Rich, and Invest for the Future.
"Every sign from DOGE suggests that it aims to use 'efficiency' as a cover to shrink government, benefit corporations by cutting regulations, and advance a predetermined ideological agenda," Weissman said in a Wednesday statement. "This report identifies what an efficiency agenda based on evidence, not ideology, would include—from slashing drug prices to ending privatized Medicare to reducing the wasteful Pentagon budget."
The report's introduction notes that Trump and Musk's suggestions that DOGE would cut $2 trillion in yearly spending, even though "many commentators have pointed out the effective impossibility of cutting $2 trillion annually from the federal budget, given that all federal discretionary spending—including the Pentagon budget and veterans' benefits—totals less than $2 trillion."
Musk even
admitted last week that $2 trillion is unlikely, after which experts said his lower target of $1 trillion is still "too large."
"Few would argue with the purported goal of 'government efficiency,' but there is nothing 'efficient' about hitting a pre-determined target for spending cuts, least of all one that is infeasible," Weissman wrote. "Nor is there anything 'efficient' about ideologically driven notions of shrinking government or corporate profit-driven plans to roll back regulatory protections."
"Additionally, 'efficiency' is not a primary value," he continued. "Whatever the government does, it should strive to do efficiently (mindful of other considerations), but the real question is what the government should be doing in the first place."
The 35-page report features sections on ending Big Pharma's price gouging, shutting down privatized Medicare, cutting Pentagon waste and curbing contractor greed, taxing the rich and corporations, taxing high earners and the wealthy, eliminating oil and gas subsidies, regulating efficiency, the costs of not regulating, investing in the care economy, and investing to avert a climate catastrophe.
Many of the proposals overtly conflict with the priorities of the incoming Trump administration and the new Republican-controlled Congress, which are expected to swiftly and aggressively pursue tax cuts for wealthy individuals and corporations, expansion of Medicare Advantage, and the Big Oil-backed president-elect's campaign pledge to "drill, baby, drill" for climate-heating fossil fuels.
The GOP has promoted additional fossil fuel extraction despite the costly and devastating impacts of the climate emergency, as seen with 27 U.S. disasters with losses exceeding $1 billion in 2024—the hottest year on record—and in Los Angeles, California, which is currently enduring what could be "the costliest wildfire disaster in American history."
The Public Citizen report points out that the monetary costs of climate inaction "will severely reduce the size of the global economy. Depending on how quickly we move and how severe we let climate chaos become, the insurance giant Swiss Re suggests the annual dollar costs could be 11% to 14% of total global economic output by 2050—amounting to around $23 trillion annually—and around 7% of North American economic output. These costs will compound and grow even worse over time."
The watchdog estimates that one of its related proposals—ending handouts to fossil fuel companies—would save about $20 billion annually. Ending privatized Medicare would save $100 billion each year, and modest cuts to the Pentagon budget would save $100 billion yearly. More serious defense cuts could save $200 billion, the same figure for measures to reduce prescription drug prices. The biggest savings from the group's recommendations would come from fair tax reforms, at $500 billion annually.
"If DOGE is interested in saving taxpayers and consumers money and making sound investments that will generate a positive return to the government and society," the report concludes, "there is a clear set of evidence-based measures for it to pursue."
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A Modest Proposal From Two Longtime Defenders of the Common Good: Let Us Join DOGE
"We can offer views that are untainted by the appearance of corruption or self-dealing."
Jan 13, 2025
Public Citizen co-presidents Lisa Gilbert and Robert Weissman on Monday requested to serve on U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency "as voices for the interests of consumers and the public who are the beneficiaries of federal regulatory and spending programs."
Shortly after Trump's November victory, the Republican announced that he asked billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to co-lead DOGE, a presidential advisory commission that he said would work "to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies."
Since then, numerous watchdog groups, Democratic lawmakers, and others have sounded the alarm about DOGE and its leaders, blasting the commission as a thinly veiled attack on federal programs—including Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security—connected to the GOP trifecta's effort to pass more tax cuts for wealthy individuals and corporations.
"Public Citizen has concerns about DOGE's structure and mission," the group's co-presidents wrote to Howard Lutnick and Linda McMahon, co-chairs of Trump's transition team. "In structure, an advisory committee led by individuals such as Messrs. Musk and Ramaswamy who hold financial interests that will be directly affected by federal budgetary policies presents substantial conflict of interest concerns that threaten to undermine public confidence in the committee's recommendations to the administration."
"Mr. Trump and OMB should take steps to ensure that DOGE's advice and recommendations take into consideration the viewpoints of the consumers and citizens who would be directly affected."
Musk, the world's richest person, has leadership roles at companies including Tesla, SpaceX, and X. He has often been at Trump's side in the lead-up to next week's inauguration. Ramaswamy, who ran for president in the latest cycle before ultimately backing Trump, has founded a pharmaceutical company and an investment firm.
Gilbert and Weissman wrote that DOGE's mission to advise the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) "on how to 'slash excess regulation' and 'cut wasteful expenditures' puts at risk important consumer safeguards and public protections, because it focuses only on eliminating rules and spending without considering the other half of the picture: more efficiently regulating corporations to better protect consumers and the public from harmful corporate practices, and making sound and efficient public investments."
"In light of the significant influence that DOGE is expected to have on the administration's fiscal and regulatory policy," they argued, "Mr. Trump and OMB should take steps to ensure that DOGE's advice and recommendations take into consideration the viewpoints of the consumers and citizens who would be directly affected by the regulatory and spending proposals that DOGE will advance, not only the viewpoint of wealthy businesspeople."
The pair made the case that their appointment to the commission "would not raise conflict of interest concerns."
Before Gilbert joined Public Citizen, she was an advocate at the U.S. Public Interest Research Group and worked as a campaign director to pass legislation on social justice and environmental issues for various organizations. Weissman previously directed the corporate accountability group Essential Action, edited the magazine Multinational Monitor, and worked as a public interest attorney at the Center for Study of Responsive Law.
"Unlike Musk, neither Rob nor I, nor Public Citizen, has a financial interest in federal government contracts and spending. In bringing the consumer and public perspective to DOGE, we can offer views that are untainted by the appearance of corruption or self-dealing," Gilbert said in a statement.
Weissman emphasized that "all signs suggest the nonrepresentative DOGE co-chairs aim to use 'efficiency' as a cover to drive a pro-corporate, anti-regulatory agenda, and an ideologically driven social service cuts program. This would constitute an anti-efficiency agenda."
"On the other hand, Lisa and I are prepared to offer a range of evidence-based efficiency proposals—to slash drug prices, end privatized Medicare, reduce the wasteful Pentagon budget—that would save American taxpayers and consumers hundreds of billions of dollars every year," he explained. "We also have recommendations for smart, efficient public investments—in human development and to address climate change—that will have a positive monetary return for the government and society."
As the letter highlights, Public Citizen—which "has worked to hold the government and corporations accountable to the people, including by focusing on research and advocacy with respect to regulation of health, safety, consumer finance, and the environment" since its founding in 1971—has already offered DOGE some recommendations.
"Consistent with Public Citizen's mission—and that of DOGE—Public Citizen on December 20, 2024, sent Messrs. Musk and Ramaswamy a letter proposing two measures that would save the government and taxpayers billions of dollars, while improving health and access to medicines: authorizing generic competition to anti-obesity medications and implementing the Medicare drug price negotiation and inflation rebate programs to lower drug prices," Gilbert and Weissman wrote.
They also noted that appointing them to DOGE "would be an important step towards compliance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), which requires 'the membership of the advisory committee to be fairly balanced in terms of the points of view represented and the functions to be performed by the advisory committee.'"
In addition to outlining concerns about Musk and Ramaswamy, they detailed that "DOGE member Katie Miller's background is in handling press relations for government officials. William McGinley worked as a lawyer for various Republican Party groups and big law firms. Other people reported in the media as connected with DOGE also appear to have corporate backgrounds. These individuals lack the consumer and public interest perspective needed if Mr. Trump expects DOGE to have any hope of complying with FACA."
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'Five-Alarm Fire': GOP Adds Over 200 Poison Pills to House Spending Bills
"We cannot allow policy that harms regular people, threatens our rights, hurts the environment, and does any number of other terrible things to ride along with the appropriations package," said Public Citizen's Lisa Gilbert.
Jul 17, 2023
A coalition of advocacy groups on Monday sounded the alarm on the more than 200 so-called "poison pill" riders attached by Republican U.S. lawmakers to House spending bills in recent weeks in a bid to block funding for a dizzying range of progressive policies and programs.
According to the Clean Budget Coalition—which is made up of nearly 260 advocacy groups—"at least 104 poison pill policy riders were added to appropriations bills drafted in the U.S. House over the past week."
"Prior to the July 4th recess, it took two months for House Republican appropriators to add more than 100 new poison pills to draft spending bills marked up in committee," the coalition noted. "In the past week alone, the previous total has doubled to more than 217."
"Most of these measures are special favors for big corporations and ideological extremists that have nothing to do with funding our government and could not become law on their own merits," the groups added. "Some of them attack women's health, some fuel political corruption, some harm our environment, and much more."
Some of the riders tracked by the Clean Budget Coalition include measures to block proposed transportation safety rules and prohibit funding for the World Health Organization, climate mitigation, gender equality programs, and criticial race theory education. Other riders target gas stove bans, funding for high-speed rail, pesticide warning labeling, wildlife protection, reproductive healthcare, and diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.
"The sheer volume of dangerous riders being included in these draft bills is an overreach and an emergency," Lisa Gilbert, executive vice president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen and co-chair of the Clean Budget Coalition, said in a statement.
"We cannot allow policy that harms regular people, threatens our rights, hurts the environment, and does any number of other terrible things to ride along with the appropriations package," Gilbert added. "We must put out this five-alarm fire by rejecting the inclusion of poison pills."
"The sheer volume of dangerous riders being included in these draft bills is an overreach and an emergency."
To that end, the Clean Budget Coalition is calling on lawmakers to "pass clean spending bills" by removing all poison pill riders and opposing passage of "any legislation that includes these unpopular and controversial special favors for big corporations and ideological extremists."
David Shadburn, senior government affairs advocate at the League of Conservation Voters—a Clean Budget Coalition member—said earlier this month that "House Republicans continue using the same tired playbook: They're hijacking must-pass bills with harmful poison pill riders that neither the public nor Congress support but benefit their polluter donors."
"Just as Republican leaders held the full faith and credit of the United States hostage to make it easier to pollute, now they are proposing riders to greenlight pipelines, block clean air and water regulations, stall clean energy deployment, and prohibit the federal government from addressing long-standing inequities," Shadburn added. "These must-pass spending bills are already loaded down with harmful poison pill riders that need to be removed—the last thing Congress should do is add more."
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