DOGE Wasted Tens of Billions While Chainsawing the Government in the Name of 'Efficiency': Senate Report [View all]

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https://www.commondreams.org/news/doge-wasted-tens-of-billions

DOGE Wasted Tens of Billions While Chainsawing the Government in the Name of 'Efficiency': Senate Report

A new report found that in just six months, Elon Musk's cost-cutting agency wasted more than $21 billion. Other estimates have found that the cuts will cost more than they save in the long run.

STEPHEN PRAGER
Jul 31, 2025

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Musk is already known to have wildly exaggerated the amount that his initiative was saving the public. Government spending in 2025 has been higher than previous years despite Musk's dramatic cuts.

Meanwhile, some analyses after the fact have estimated that the initiatives might actually cost taxpayers money in the long run by slashing funds for tax collection and other forms of spending that increase economic activity.

The staff report released by the office of Sen. Richard Blumenthal (Conn.)—the ranking Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI)—only focuses on waste by DOGE that can be quantified in the here-and-now. It finds that in just six months of operation, DOGE wasted more than $21 billion.

This comes at "the very same time," Blumenthal said, that "the Trump administration is cutting healthcare, nutrition assistance, and emergency services in the name of 'efficiency' and 'savings,'" via the recently passed "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," which itself is projected to add $3.4 trillion to the federal deficit over the next 10 years. Blumenthal said his investigation shows that "DOGE was clearly never about efficiency or saving the American taxpayer money."

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(Running our government like a bankrupt t business.)