INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Congressman Marlin Stutzman says cutting government waste and abuse should provide enough savings to eliminate any need to cut entitlements. Stutzman, a Republican who represents northeast Indiana, serves on the House Budget Committee and is involved in negotiations fo r the next budget, which Congress must approve by Sept. 30. In an interview with News 8 for All INdiana Politics, Stutzman said he doesn’t believe there will have to be cuts to Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security. He said Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has already flagged hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of potential savings. “I view this as being like a company that had bad management and you have to clean up all the garbage bills and the slush fund that somebody had, things that weren’t necessary for the business,” he said. “A lot of this cleanup can be done first, and should be done first, before any kind of cuts to Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security. That doesn’t need to happen.” Earlier this week, the Pentagon announced it plans to eliminate up to 60,000 civilian jobs. DoD civilians include people working in jobs ranging from human resources and payroll processing to acquisition and public safety. The Defense Finance Accounting Service, which processes all military paychecks, is headquartered in Lawrence. Stutzman said it’s too soon to tell how the Pentagon will carry out its cuts but he suspects most of them will be in Washington rather than at DoD operations outside the capital. Stutzman has already filed his first bill of the new Congress, a measure he calls the Restoring Checks and Balances Act. The bill would require all federal rules and regulations to automatically sunset after five years unless Congress votes to renew them. There are exceptions for military or foreign affairs matters, internal department policies and rules needed to enforce federal criminal laws. The bill has been referred to committee but has not yet received a hearing. “Too many times, these regulations come in and are enacted and they’re there for years and years and are not even necessary or important to whatever industry that they may be part of the regulatory agency,” he said. All INdiana Politics airs at 9:30 a.m. Sunday on WISH-TV. ...read more read less