Recently, on March 27th, Elon Musk was like that I’m still confident The Government Efficiency Office (DOGE), a cost-cutting initiative he unofficially headed, is that it can cut federal spending by $1 trillion a year. but, Cabinet meeting Two weeks later, Mask predicted that his savings will be Doge in 2026 Sunsetlike $150 billion.
Even the latter cannot trust a much smaller number. Because Doge is ambiguous about most of its alleged cuts, repeatedly exaggerating what it specified. And last week, when he returned to his business from Doge to his focus, Mask Recognised The reality that should have been clear from the start: serious attempts to deal with the country’s looming fiscal crisis require tough choices and parliamentary action.
Musk just before last year’s presidential election It was slightly estimated That Doge was able to cut federal spending annually by at least $2 trillion. Finance deficit In a press conference in February, he cut that target by 50%, and said Doge could “cut the budget deficit in half” by asserting “competence and compassion.”
That goal was always unlikely as we had to eliminate things like 63%. Discretionary expenditure. And while Musk said Doge would be “as transparent as possible,” the project’s documents on the work far exceeded that promise.
As of Tuesday, the Doge website I insisted From $165 billion “estimated savings” from “asset sales, contract/lease cancellation and renegotiation, fraud and improper payment removal, grant cancellation, interest savings, program changes, regulations savings, workforce reductions.” However, Doge’s “receipt wall” describes just $69 billion in spending cuts, accounting for 42% of the total.
News organizations have identified many issues with these “receipts.” Error includes contract It was not actually cancelled,contract end During the Biden administration, IFFY Estimation To save on contracts that have not yet been awarded, It was counted Multiple times, Confusing The contract cap with actual expenditures Included Estimates of future savings and past expenditures of excess expenditures contract and Grants.
Doge’s exaggeration is so broad that Jessica Reedle, a budget expert at the Manhattan Institute I’ll explain it The work as a “government spending theatre” says “most of what is allegedly a reduction in spending is merely an accounting error.” A little generously, Nat Malkus, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute; estimate The actual cut of Doge is about half the total billing.
“They are often just turning the wheels, citing exaggerated or false savings,” says Romina Boccia, director of budget and qualification policies at the Kato Institute. I said New York Times last month. “What’s most frustrating is that we agree with their goals, but we see them burning with achieving them.”
Doge numbers do not distinguish between one-off savings and repetitive savings, or total savings and annual savings. Some categories such as “workforce reduction” and “program change” are plausible but vague, while other categories such as “asset sales” and “regulated savings” do not seem to mean spending reductions at all.
President Donald Trump in early March I insisted Doge had already identified “a hundreds of millions of dollars of fraud.” That was clearly not true, but such savings are possible.
Last year, the government’s accountability department Estimated “The federal government could lose between $233 billion and $521 billion a year from fraud.” Still, that’s all they can achieve without dealing with. Key Components of federal budgets including healthcare, social security and military spending.
“We have to do something about this deficit,” Musk warned in February that the country is “insolvency.” At the time, he hinted that Doge was taking on the challenge. Recently, he has been singing another song.
“Really difficult” said the mask Recognised last week. He says the question is whether “there is enough political will in Congress and elsewhere.” Now he tells us.
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