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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe federal cost-cutting effort dubbed the Department of Government Efficiency says it has saved $55 billion in federal spending so far, but its website only accounts for $16.6 billion of that.
And that’s before factoring in an error in the data published on DOGE’s website that mislabels a contract as $8 billion, which was later corrected in the federal database to only be $8 million. That cuts nearly in half the total of DOGE’s itemized savings, including from contracts and leases, to about $8.6 billion.
Elon Musk—President Donald Trump’s close ally who has been the figurehead of DOGE—has pledged that the amorphous cost-cutting enterprise would provide “maximum transparency” and that “all of our actions are fully public.”
But DOGE’s accounting raises questions about the reliability of their self-reporting and their level of accountability. Despite its name, it’s not a department, but rather an office within the White House that operates outside the gaze of traditional federal watchdogs, including inspectors general.
Musk’s role in the enterprise has also raised conflict-of-interest questions. His company SpaceX has received billions of dollars in federal contracts. Trump has said Musk will police himself if there are conflicts related to the six companies he runs. The billionaire entrepreneur is required to file a federal financial disclosure, but it will not be made public.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. DOGE, on its website detailing the listed savings, says it’s working to upload all data “in a digestible and fully transparent manner with clear assumptions, consistent with applicable rules and regulations.” Some contract final termination notices may also have as much as a 1-month lag before being posted publicly, it said.
Musk, speaking to reporters in the Oval Office last week, said that some of the things he says “will be incorrect and should be corrected,” adding that DOGE would act quickly to fix errors.
DOGE has swiftly moved through the federal government canceling contracts and cutting thousands of employees across agencies—and at times moving to quickly re-hire employees who had just been terminated.
Their work has been largely shrouded in secrecy about who is involved and what they are doing. In a court filing this week the Trump administration asserted that Musk doesn’t work for DOGE, but instead reports directly to Trump, a move that would shield him from some transparency laws.
An itemized list
After criticisms from Democrats, federal unions and others about the lack of specificity in DOGE’s actions, the entity’s website has recently begun providing more detail, including an itemized list of about 700 canceled contracts with estimated savings as of Tuesday. An additional nearly $145 million in real estate-related savings were also listed.
The most expensive contract that DOGE claims to have slashed is $8 billion to D&G Support Services, LLC to provide services for the Office of Diversity and Civil Rights within US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, starting in late 2022.
Except the math doesn’t support an $8 billion contract value. In recent years, ICE’s entire annual budget hovered around $9 billion. The agency’s largest awarded contracts of the past three fiscal years, according to usaspending.gov, were $800 million for charter flight services and $787 million for transporting unaccompanied children and families.
A search of the Federal Procurement Data System for the contract ID number included on the DOGE website—70CMSD22A00000008—returns several documents. The original contract filing from September 2022 does, in fact, list $8 billion as the total contract value. Yet an update on Jan. 28 adjusted the total contract value to $8 million – the same day the DOGE site uploaded the contract as an $8 billion saving.
Two more filings show up, on Jan. 29 and Jan. 30, indicating first the partial and then full termination of the contract. Both of those show the $8 million total contract value. D&G did not immediately respond to a phone call and email requesting comment after business hours.
D&G Support Services, based in a suburb near Washington, describes itself as a “people-focused company” with fewer than 200 employees on LinkedIn. Its largest government contracts, according to usaspending.gov, were $16 million from the Air Force for staffing support and about $11 million from the US Coast Guard. Its average contract since early 2017 is valued at roughly $1 million.
‘Very Good Start’
On Tuesday, a federal judge denied a request to temporarily bar DOGE teams from accessing internal government systems and removing employees from US agencies, handing Trump a win on one of his signature initiatives.
The ruling rejected a bid for immediate court intervention from Democratic state attorneys general who contend Musk is exercising power to reshape the US government that is supposed to be reserved only for high-level, Senate-confirmed officials.
The Trump administration has praised Musk’s effort, and indicated far more is on the way.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent echoed claims that DOGE had found an estimated $50 billion savings so far, in an interview with Fox News Tuesday, and called it a “very good start.”
Trump, in a joint appearance alongside Musk with Fox News host Sean Hannity that aired Tuesday, said Musk’s effort is “finding billions—and it will be hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of fraud.” Musk, meanwhile, reiterated his overall goal to reduce the deficit by $1 trillion.
Yet it’s unclear how DOGE would get to those sums even with deep cuts, especially as Trump has pledged it won’t touch Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid programs.
US discretionary spending totals about $1.8 trillion annually, nearly half of which is military spending. DOGE is set to start looking at the Defense Department among its next targets for review.
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What??? Trusk and Mumps and the MAGAts and Muskrats are lying to us? Who would have seen that coming? Darn that pesky, irresponsible national liberal media for posting truths.
Gangs have a well-known liberal bias.
Just wait until DOGE starts going after veterans.
^^ Facts not gangs.
What is truly hilarious is that DOGE is nothing more than an elaborate dog-and-pony show to distract the public while the Trump administration in collaboration with the Republican stooges in Congress tees up *another* multi-trillion dollar tax give-away to the tech oligarchs who now run our government.
Musk is pretending to find “savings” to justify the enormous tax cut he will be getting AND the multi-billion dollar government contracts with NASA, DOD, FAA, etc. he is pursuing.
Trump is simply the front man for the tech oligarchs–even Musk’s little boy knows the truth, which is why he told Trump to get out of the President’s chair in the Oval Office. We are now serving Musk, Zuckerberg, Bezos, and the rest of their billionaire gang while they systematically dismantle our governmental institutions and rob the public treasury.
It is time for Americans to wake-up and band together to topple the tech oligarchy. We need to run the entire gang straight out of DC and take back our country.
Interesting that whenever these guys are spouting numbers its always through the Fox News portal or that bastion of truth, justice, and the American way, Sean Hannity. These entities don’t challenge the numbers or ask pesky questions about the accuracy of data being handed out. As we know any media or offical who dares to challenge these numbers is instantly labeled a “liberal” and un American.
The new thing that I’ve been seeing is that MAGAs are claiming that Trump has a 64% approval rating and climbing. My guess is that Fox News or Newsmax probably came up with some BS spin and they’re gobbling it up.
All talk with absolutely no proof. Have to laugh that Trump and Musk will self police themselves, they would steal candy from a baby given the opportunity.
Oh man the unvetted guy taking an axe to Congressionally-approved budgets and “self-reporting” without verification on the website that he owns is lying?
Whaaaaat? No way!
(I hope the sarcasm comes through, I’m laying it on pretty thick)
MAGA’s elected a Sleazy Slimy, Slutty documented serial LIAR adulterer who is now licking PUTIN’s boots and spewing Russian propaganda talking points on Ukraine while his PAL MUSK disrupts the stability of our Federal Government.
No, MAGA didn’t elect Tulsi or ex-Gov Noem. But the SSS seem to fit…
or were you talking about Mrs Trump?
How much would be saved by axing SpaceX contracts with NASA? The bazillionaire is rich enough to self-fund his own Mars rockets.
He can sell astronaut seats to other billionaires.
In fact, he should get on the first flight.
* DOGE claim – “we’ve saved 55 billion dollars” (which is being aped by a Yale educated Yale professor billion dollar hedge fund manager who saw his fund shrink from 5 billion to 500 million and institutional investor base decline from 180 to 20)
* The “show your work” reality – 16.6 billion dollars documented
* DOGE math error – $8 million contract presented as $8 billion
So, now we’re down to 8.6 billion. But, misleadingly, of course – that’s not annual savings, as that is the total value of contracts and leases.
Assume half is current year obligations (generous, probably) and half is remaining term of contracts and remaining term of obligated contracts being negated is average 3 years after this year – 8.6/2=4.3B+(4.3/3) = 5.7B / 154M tax returns = $37 average per tax return this year. That’s not nothing, obviously – the cost of MAGA hat is about $40.
By contrast, the annual cost of social security is 1.5T or $9,740 per tax return. The average rent in Dayton Ohio is about $985 a month, so equivalent of almost an entire year’s worth of occupancy expense, but, sure, go ham over that hat you lost. Now, granted, the work has not ended. But given this start, how credible should we see the future self reporting of this self-interested, conflicted, inexperienced team of 20-something Muskrats with no oversight?
And here’s the thing that always happens, opportunity cost or downside risk is glossed over. That $40 savings isn’t just fat and waste – it isn’t all just money foolishly going down the drain – there is value associated with it that we forfeit. Americans’ risk/opportunity cost is increased in this new regime by a death of a thousand cuts – public health, transportation safety, workplace safety, climate, law enforcement, fire protection, food safety, drug development, advancement of the sciences, national security, veterans support, mental health, education support, etc. Pretending otherwise is just willful ignorance.
And if anyone thinks that a significant portion of this “savings” won’t be hoovered up going forward by the self-dealing and cronyism of what will be the most corrupt administration in our history, I’ve got a bridge (or maybe a TrumpCoin) to sell you. As always with this kleptokakistocracy, watch the hands, not the cards. DOGE isn’t about efficiency or the deficit or delivering the will of the people over the bureaucracy – those are all fig leaves.
Comment from above – “Musk is pretending to find “savings” to justify the enormous tax cut he will be getting AND the multi-billion dollar government contracts with NASA, DOD, FAA, etc. he is pursuing.” – Facts. This hurts everyone but the 1%.