'That's 70 percent for no': Republican's DOGE poll backfires

Rep. Tom Barrett asked his constituents during a virtual town hall meeting whether they support tech billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency task force — and did not get the result he likely hoped for. “It seems like every single person prefaces a lot of their, even disagreement, by saying, ‘Hey, I know there's a lot of waste and fraud in federal spending, and we’ve got to rein that in, but this is wrong for this or that reason,’” said Barrett. “So, it seems like we've kind of accepted the premise that there's a lot of problems.” He added: “It's up to to do the best implementation of achieving what every American should expect, that the tax dollars they send to Washington, D.C., are being used prudently for the right things, for the right purposes, and not being abused, wasted or spent on things that shouldn't be done.” Republican lawmakers have faced a steady stream of fury at town halls over the last few weeks, not just in battleground districts but Republican-dominated areas, with lawmakers including Reps. Rich McCormick and Keith Self being shouted down by constituents when they tried to defend the Trump administration's moves to dismantle the federal government. The situation has become so tense that National Republican Congressional Committee chair Richard Hudson has advised fellow House members to stop doing town halls altogether — which, when this message was leaked, put Democrats on the offensive, with suggestions some could travel to GOP districts to do town halls in their place.