Elon, Vivek Will Cut Funding For ‘Progressive Groups’ Like Planned Parenthood

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy said Thursday that they plan to stop federal overspending by taking aim at sums being used in ways Congress never intended — including money going to the nation’s largest abortion provider.

“Skeptics question how much federal spending DOGE can tame through executive action alone,” Ramaswamy and Musk wrote in a joint Wall Street Journal op-ed. “They point to the 1974 Impoundment Control Act, which stops the president from ceasing expenditures authorized by Congress. Mr. Trump has previously suggested this statute is unconstitutional, and we believe the current Supreme Court would likely side with him on this question.”

“But even without relying on that view,” they added, “DOGE will help end federal overspending by taking aim at the $500 billion plus in annual federal expenditures that are unauthorized by Congress or being used in ways that Congress never intended, from $535 million a year to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and $1.5 billion for grants to international organizations to nearly $300 million to progressive groups like Planned Parenthood.”

Their joint op-ed focused on “The DOGE Plan to Reform Government,” which promises that following the guidance of the Supreme Court, Musk and Ramaswamy want to “reverse a decades long executive power grab.” Trump recently announced that the two businessmen will lead a new “Department of Government Efficiency” in his next administration.

“Together, these two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies,” Trump said when he announced their appointment.

(Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

Planned Parenthood boasts of being the nation’s largest abortion provider, performing 392,715 abortions between 2021 and 2022, according to its 2022-2023 annual report. It is less well known for its “gender-affirming” services — 45 Planned Parenthood affiliates across the United States offered “hormone therapy” in 2022. The Daily Wire has previously reported on how Planned Parenthood helped an 18-year-old girl obtain testosterone to begin an attempted gender transition after a brief visit to a Chicago-area Planned Parenthood facility.

“It’s possible they’re the largest provider of trans health in the country,” Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, told The Daily Beast in 2017. “We don’t know for sure. But it’s certainly among the biggest, if not the biggest.”

Planned Parenthood reported $2.3 billion in net assets in their last annual report, as well as $670.4 million in government funding — up from $633.4 million the previous year, according to a Heritage Foundation report — and $1.9 billion in total revenue.

“Abortion clinics in pro-life states have stopped doing abortions or moved to abortion-friendly states,” the Heritage Foundation’s Melanie Israel noted in a June 2023 piece on the Planned Parenthood numbers. “Planned Parenthood’s national office has announced layoffs—to the tune of about 100 employees—coming this month. Planned Parenthood has also revealed its game plan going forward. It will increase funding for things like sexually transmitted disease testing, contraception, and so-called gender-affirming care.”

On Wednesday, President Joe Biden honored former Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, praising her for her “absolute courage” and stating that she “fearlessly leads us forward to be the America we say we are.”

“Through her work to lift up the dignity of workers, defend and advance women’s reproductive rights and equality, and mobilize Americans to exercise their power to vote, she has carved an inspiring legacy,” Biden said in an X post.

According to the Washington Stand, Richards increased the number of babies Planned Parenthood was aborting each year by almost 70,000. The publication credits Planned Parenthood, under her leadership, with the deaths of over four million unborn babies.

Today, I had the honor of awarding Cecile Richards the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

With absolute courage, she fearlessly leads us forward to be the America we say we are – a nation of freedom.

Through her work to lift up the dignity of workers, defend and advance women’s… pic.twitter.com/IayCTAFK4N

— President Biden (@POTUS) November 20, 2024

Planned Parenthood did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Daily Wire.