Maxine Waters Admits Democrats’ Real Fears About DOGE: ‘We Don’t Know What All They Have On Us’

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) voiced her concerns over the influence of Elon Musk and President Donald Trump at a House Financial Services Committee hearing, pressing Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on whether he would allow Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) into the Fed’s systems.

During Tuesday’s hearing, Waters aggressively questioned Powell about Musk’s potential access to the Federal Reserve, suggesting a great fear among Democrats that Musk and Trump might wield undue influence over the nation’s financial infrastructure.

“When Musk comes knocking at the Fed’s door, are you going to let him in?” Waters asked.

Powell, appearing hesitant to engage with the line of questioning, replied, “I don’t have anything for you on that.”

Waters then pressed further: “Would you like to tell us today that you won’t let DOGE into the Federal Reserve or have access to the systems and the data?”

Powell remained firm in his refusal to speculate on the matter, saying, “So we don’t, I don’t have any, we’ve had no contact and I don’t really have, I have nothing for you to report today on that.”

“Well, you know what happened at Treasury and you know what happened over at the CFPB and the people of this country are being violated because all of our privacy is being taken up by Elon Musk and Trump and we don’t know what all they have on us, our bank accounts, everything in our lives,” Waters admitted.

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During the congressional hearing on Tuesday, Powell countered Musk’s allegations that the Federal Reserve has too many employees. “No, I would say that, you know, overworked maybe, not overstaffed. Everybody at the Fed works really hard,” Powell said during the hearing.

Musk has been vocal about his belief that the Federal Reserve is “absurdly overstaffed,” and has even suggested that DOGE should audit the Fed, adding to his previous criticisms of the Fed’s monetary policy decisions.

“When the pandemic hit kind of out of the blue and economies all over the world are shutting down, the U.S. Treasury market is stopping to function, companies can’t roll over their commercial paper, economists are writing about a depression. People at the Fed who went through the global financial crisis 10 years before stepped forward to say, ‘We got this,’” Powell said Tuesday.

“We know what to do. Here’s what we do with money market funds, here’s what we do with companies that can’t get any financing. The markets were closed, and companies were having maturing debt that they had to roll over.”

Regarding concerns about DOGE’s influence, Powell has clarified that neither Musk nor DOGE personnel have attempted to access the Federal Reserve’s secure payment systems. He assured that he would promptly inform Congress if any such attempts were made.

Powell is set to address the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday according to Fox Business. He will deliver his semiannual update on monetary policy and the economic landscape to House lawmakers.