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Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Could this politician from California be the future of the Democratic Party?
In the ever-changing jumble of names, titles and organizations that plagues the capitol, I'll be honest that I couldn't have told you who or what a 'Ro Khanna' was before perhaps Feb. 5 of this year, when noted oligarch and overgrown schoolyard bully, Elon Musk, tweeted 'Don't be a (expletive)' at him. The heated exchange came after Khanna, the state representative from California's Silicon Valley, missed a vote in the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to subpoena Musk over his ongoing, furtive changes to the federal government. (Oh, how clueless we were just three months ago!) Khanna had publicly said that, if he'd had enough notice, he would have voted yes, triggering Musk's tantrum. And while that was certainly an unconventional way to come on the radar, Khanna has since become a recurring character in early conversations, both overheard and participated in, about who the Democrats might run against the Republican Party in three years. (Please forgive us wonks for floating the topic so early; we are also annoyed with ourselves and wish we could stop.) At The Bee's invitation, Khanna recently sat down with me and California Opinion Editor Marcos Breton to discuss a wide range of topics. Nothing was off the record — a courtesy rarely given to journalists these days. My first impression of Khanna was to notice his undeniable charisma. It's something politicians either have or don't — and Khanna certainly has it — though I'm not sure yet if it's something that will translate from an in-person meeting to soundbites through a screen. He was relaxed and easy in conversation, serious when appropriate and clearly intelligent about a wide variety of topics. He spoke from memory, with no notes to aid him and no prompting from the one team member he brought to the meeting. He fielded questions from the board with ease, from housing and homelessness to the economy, Medicaid and even childcare costs. Could I see this man as president someday? Yes, I could. Would he admit he was in the early stages of a campaign? No, he would not. Khanna's greatest asset is perhaps his youth (he's 48), in a party where the average age of Democratic leadership in the House is a death-defying 72 years old. 'The Baby Boomers love to serve,' Khanna said. 'And I get it, but you know, there should have been a transition a few years ago….I think there is a new generation in Congress. My view is… you are going to see a new generation of leaders emerging in the party. It's sort of the last hurrah for the old guard.' So, too, would his vocal enthusiasm for taxing high-income earners be popular on the presidential campaign trail, should he pursue it. 'The argument is pretty simple: You can't be providing tax breaks for billionaires while gutting Medicaid,' Khanna said. '(Democrats) are the party that's going to uphold the Constitution (and the) rule of law, but also make sure that people don't lose their Medicaid or lose their Social Security, all for tax breaks for the billionaires. We need to have a more affirmative economic message of what we're going to do, but for right now, people are just angry at what they see as an assault on basic social protections.' 'People see the costs of child care, of health care, of college and they're struggling to get by. I don't think we addressed that well enough, empathetically enough, with a vision of how to solve it.' Khanna's ready and concise answers made for a compelling conversation, and reminded me of a quote from one of my favorite movies, 1995's 'The American President': '(People) want leadership. They're so thirsty for it they'll crawl through the desert toward a mirage, and when they discover there's no water, they'll drink the sand.' Life is never so neatly tied up in 129 minutes, but the point still rings true some 30 years later: The American people are truly desperate for leadership. We want it so much that we have once again attached ourselves to a caricature of a strongman — and now I fear we are drinking the sand. Call me naive, but the last time this country felt united was during the Obama campaign, when hope and optimism were the order of the day. Perhaps it's no coincidence that Khanna worked in the Obama Administration. Americans crave a youthful, energetic, smart leader to unite behind once more. I fear the lack of one will doom us to an impossible situation, like trying to climb out of a sand pit. I don't know if Khanna is the leader America needs, because no one is going to be perfect for the role. But as a child of immigrants, a man who can move and speak just as easily in a crowd of billionaires as he does among the working class, follows through on his promises to fairly tax high income earners, protect social programs, rebuilds America's factory towns and shows the Democratic Party that its future lies not in staid gerontocracy, but in idealism and hope? He at least has a fighting chance.
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Cox signs government efficiency order, says Utah did ‘DOGE' before it was cool
Utah leaders love to compare the state's operations to the dysfunction in Washington, touting the Legislature's productivity, bipartisan approaches to certain issues and — perhaps most importantly — Utah's balanced government budget. Unlike the U.S. government, Utah has limited money to allocate each year for social services, transportation and education, meaning many beneficial projects and programs don't get the money they request. Gov. Spencer Cox is asking each state agency to dig deeper to improve government efficiency, signing an executive order Friday to create a Government Reform, Innovation and Transparency initiative. As the so-called federal Department of Government Efficiency has made headlines in Washington, Cox insists Utah is well ahead of the curve when it comes to improving government and said his order is meant to further ongoing efforts in the state. 'DOGE is awesome, and we — I desperately want DOGE to work,' he told reporters at the Capitol Friday. 'We have a bloated federal government that is a disaster. We've been begging for something like DOGE for decades and I'm so excited that it is actually happening. Let me be very clear to people that are watching this: We do DOGE like six times a year in this state. Every single year we DOGE the hell out of our budget.' 'We were DOGE when it wasn't cool,' he added, 'and we will be DOGE long after it is cool.' Cox signed the order in the Capitol Board Room, flanked by a score of cabinet advisers, who, under his order, will be required to submit at least one efficiency improvement to the Governor's Office of Planning and Budget by July 1, launch at least one additional project per division or office, join a statewide learning network, take public feedback on improvements and report results on a public dashboard. The initiative was announced internally a week ago, and department heads are already working to streamline bureaucracy by building on existing programs. 'This is only the beginning,' said Sophia DiCaro, executive director of the Office of Planning and Budget. 'The GRIT initiative is going to enable us to wrap all of this under an umbrella and make a really meaningful difference.' She highlighted efforts to reduce wait times for walk-in appointments at the Division of Motor Vehicles and recruitment efforts within the Utah National Guard as examples of programs already ongoing within the state. A government efficiency dashboard on the state website will soon highlight the progress and changes made under the initiative. While Cox lauded the goals of the Department of Government Efficiency, he was quick to differentiate from the slash-and-burn tactics employed during the early days of Trump's second presidency — which have caused backlash from demonstrators, including in Utah. 'One of the concerns I have about DOGE is that there's slashing going on — which we desperately needed — but unfortunately, they're not looking at outcomes and sometimes you slash something and the thing gets worse,' he said. 'We want to make things more efficient and some of that is cutting time, right? Cutting wait times, processing things more quickly. Sometimes you actually have to add people to get the right outcome.' The state is also 'not looking at mass layoffs,' the governor said, adding that he is trying to 'empower' state employees to 'make things better,' not intimidate them. Some spending cuts may be necessary, but Cox said he's encouraging state leaders to find ways to allocate money to projects where it can make the most impact. 'There may be some changes that happen ... we may need to move some people in some other ways that will be better, where we find better ... processes, better ways to do these types of things better,' Cox said. Because Utah is already running a much tighter ship than the federal government, Cox said rooting out inefficiency will be much harder. 'We've done all the low-hanging fruit,' he said. 'With DOGE there's so much low-hanging fruit. ... We can find a billion here a billion there. It's going to be harder for us, for sure, but we know it can be done.' The initiative doesn't set a specific goal for the amount of money saved, but Cox said each agency will eventually identify targets. The order is effective immediately and expires on Jan. 19, 2029, after Cox's second term ends.
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Gov. Cox signs executive order to launch GRIT, Utah's take on DOGE
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox and his cabinet hold a news conference to announce GRIT, a new government efficiency initiative, at the Utah Capitol in Salt Lake City on May 9, 2025. (Courtesy of the Governor's Office) Gov. Spencer Cox signed an executive order on Friday launching a new government efficiency initiative called GRIT — Utah's take on DOGE. But when pressed on whether it will lead to employee layoffs, Cox said he didn't expect so because he sees the Government Reform, Innovation and Transparency project as yet another budgeting exercise on top of several that state leaders already practice to spend taxpayer dollars wisely in Utah's $30.8 billion budget. 'I'm not out there looking to just cut a whole bunch of jobs,' Cox told reporters during a news conference at the Utah Capitol, though he added, 'we may need to move some people in some other ways that will be better. … But we're trying to empower our employees to make things better, not trying to make our employees scared of their jobs.' Trump insists 'good people' shouldn't lose their federal jobs, despite mass firings But 'the short answer is yes,' Cox said when asked whether GRIT was Utah's version of the Department of Government Efficiency that was launched under President Donald Trump and Elon Musk to slash federal spending. However, Cox also said he hesitated to directly compare the two initiatives, because Utah leaders already do 'about 10 things every year that the federal government hasn't done in about 50 years' to audit government programs for efficiency. 'DOGE is awesome and I desperately want DOGE to work,' Cox said. 'We have a bloated federal government that is a disaster. We've been begging for something like DOGE for decades, and I'm so excited that it's actually happening.' But as far as Utah is concerned, he said, 'we do DOGE like six times a year in this state every single year.' 'We DOGE the hell out of our budget every single year,' Cox said, to chuckles from his cabinet leadership members standing behind him. 'We were DOGE before DOGE was a thing. We were DOGE when it wasn't cool, and we will be DOGE long after it is cool.' The Republican-controlled state already has several layers of yearly budgeting processes where both the executive and legislative branches hunt for cuts. The governor's office does it while preparing its budget recommendation to the Legislature. Lawmakers sitting on legislative committees go through their own process, line item by line item. Then legislative leaders on the powerful Executive Appropriations Committee make the near-final decisions, deciding what new funding requests get prioritized, what doesn't, and what should be cut. Then the Utah Legislature votes as a whole on the state's budget, which is balanced every single year. Finally, the governor can also use his pen to veto budget line items, if he wishes. Plus, legislative auditors also pick several agencies a year to find inefficiencies, which Cox likened to 'going to get your physical exam when you're 50.' So why GRIT? Cox said it's because 'the question I always have is, how can we be better?' 'You don't stay No. 1 by just doing the things that you've always done,' he said. 'We have to be constantly improving.' For 18th year, Utah ranks No. 1 for best economic outlook. What could threaten its top spot? That was one piece of praise that leaders from the 'limited government' think tank, the American Legislative Exchange Council, offered to Utah when they ranked the state's economic outlook No. 1 for the 18th year in a row last month. Cox pointed to that ranking — and the U.S. News & World report ranking Utah the No. 1 best state in the nation for a third straight year earlier this week — as evidence that Utah is the 'best managed state.' '(ALEC) said if we had just stopped 18 years ago, where we were when we were first No. 1, we would now be 22nd or 23rd,' the governor said. 'So we've been able to maintain that by constantly reinventing ourselves, looking for ways to do things better.' Through Utah's existing fiscal conservatism, 'we've already done all the low-hanging fruit.' 'That's the difference between this and DOGE,' he said, saying the federal government has 'so much low-hanging fruit,' while Utah will have to reach higher. 'It's going to be harder for us, for sure, but we know it can be done.' Pressed on whether GRIT could mean cuts to services — including social services — Cox said that's not the aim. 'It's not (about) reducing services. It's improving services,' he said, adding that he'd like to see any savings found to be recommitted toward making programs better, like perhaps moving people up on social services' wait lists. 'That's ultimately what we're trying to do, is not to just cut back what's already working and helping people,' Cox said, 'it's so we can help people more and fill some of those gaps that are already out there and broken.' Cox called GRIT 'a comprehensive effort to make Utah's government more efficient, more accountable, and more responsible to the people that it serves.' The governor said GRIT will have a 'bottom-up' approach, involving state government employees to ask 'tough questions about what is actually working, what's wasting time and money, and what needs to be rebuilt from the ground up.' 'If something isn't delivering value to the citizens of this state, we should stop doing it, and do something else with those limited resources that we have,' he said. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX With GRIT, 'we are really going to empower even more our cabinet members and our employees — every one of our employees.' 'We're expecting them to bring real solutions,' he said. 'And we'll be holding them accountable to doing exactly that.' Additionally, Cox said state leaders will welcome feedback from Utahns about what is and isn't working for them. Under Cox's executive order, all state agencies will be required to: Submit at least one efficiency improvement project to the Governor's Office of Planning and Budget no later than July 1. Direct each division, office or bureau to independently launch at least one additional internal efficiency project. Participate in the state's Efficiency and Process Improvement Collaborative, an advisory committee made up of representatives from state agencies that is tasked with fostering a culture of continuous improvement. Use public feedback gathered from the state's Customer Experience Initiative, a program the Legislature created in 2020 that collects feedback from Utahns' experiences with state employees and issues annual reports for improvement. Report 'measurable results related to cost savings, time savings, and improved service delivery,' according to the governor's office. The governor's office encouraged Utahns to participate in the initiative by using QR codes that will be posted on receipts and in government buildings across the state, wherever Utahns engage with state services. They can also submit feedback online. For transparency, Cox also said the state will be 'standing up dashboards' to show the initiative's progress, 'how much money we've been able to save, and how much time we've been able to shave off.' Cox said state leaders have 'purposefully' not set a firm dollar amount of how much taxpayer money they'd like to save through the GRIT process because he said he wants to let agencies go through the exercise first. 'We will eventually get to a goal, but I want to hear the best ideas,' he said, though while looking around at his cabinet members he added 'we want this to be uncomfortable for the people standing behind me.' 'That's how you sharpen the saw.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Gov. Cox signs executive order launching ‘GRIT,' an initiative to improve government efficiency
SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — Gov. Cox signed an executive order on Friday launching a statewide initiative called 'GRIT,' a move the Utah governor says will 'improve efficiency and deliver better results for the people of Utah,' a press release from the governor's office states. GRIT, or Government Reform, Innovation & Transparency, orders every state agency in Utah to self-evaluate. Not dissimilar to the Dept. of Government of Efficiency, this executive order requires all state agencies to do the following: Submit at least one efficiency improvement project to the Governor's Office of Planning and Budget (GOPB) by July 1, 2025. Independently launch at least one additional internal project per division, office, or bureau. Participate in a statewide professional learning network known as EPIC (Efficiency and Process Improvement Collaborative). Actively use public feedback gathered through the state's Customer Experience Initiative Report measurable results related to cost savings, time savings, and improved service delivery. 'Utahns deserve a government that listens, adapts, and delivers,' said Gov. Cox. 'We're not here to maintain the status quo — we're here to make things better. GRIT is about building a culture where every employee is empowered to solve problems, and every taxpayer sees the results.' 2025.05.09-Efficiency-EODownload This announcement comes after Utah was named #1 Best State in the Nation by U.S. News & World Report, ranking first in the country in the 'fiscal stability' category. In addition to launching GRIT, Cox looks to expand Utah's EPIC network, bringing state agency representatives together for collaboration, training, and shared learning, the release states. The governor says the public is encouraged to participate by submitting feedback online or through QR codes posted on receipts and in government buildings around the state. 'The new executive order empowers cabinet members and state employees to identify inefficiencies and fix them, while giving Utahns more opportunities than ever to share feedback on their interactions with government,' the statement from the governor's office reads. 'The GRIT initiative calls on every state agency to evaluate how government works — and how it can work better.' What to know for race weekend at Kansas Speedway Gov. Cox signs executive order launching 'GRIT,' an initiative to improve government efficiency Utah House Majority leader resigns to take new role in Governor's Office Trump taps Martin for DOJ pardon attorney, 'weaponization' role Retired Supreme Court Justice David Souter dies at 85 Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
