4 Ways Elon Musk and DOGE Saved Americans Money
Written by
Peter Burns
Edited by
Cory Dudak
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In the early hours of May 29, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, posted on his platform X that his time as a special government employee was coming to an end. For 130 days, Musk had led the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in reducing inefficiency and boosting productivity across government agencies.
Initially, Musk claimed he would lead DOGE to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget of $7 trillion, which would drastically lower the national debt. However, as time went on, he reduced his goal. When media outlets scrutinized his “wall of receipts,” they found mistakes and accounting errors.
In the end, Musk’s hunt for fraud, waste and inefficiency throughout the government resulted in a claim of $170 billion saved by the time he left the Trump administration, averaging out to $1,056 per taxpayer.
Here are four ways he and DOGE were able to save Americans money.
Downsizing
One of the most controversial moves Musk’s DOGE tackled was trimming down the government workforce. The department spurred 284,044 planned layoffs of federal employees and contractors working with federal agencies, according to Fox Business.
In the early days, DOGE sent an email with the subject line “Fork in the road” to over two million government employees, urging them to take a buyout and leave their positions. The number of layoffs increased on February 13 as the Trump administration forced government agencies to get rid of probationary workers with less than a year under their belts by the thousands.
DOGE then began cutting other workers in the 18F digital services agency and the Department of Health and Human Services, per The Guardian. These layoffs and buyouts reduced payroll costs and minimized what the government will spend on pensions and liabilities in the future.
Recovering Funds
Another way that DOGE saved Americans money is by recovering misplaced funds. Musk’s department posted on X that it found $1.9 billion for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. HUD Secretary Scott Turner confirmed that DOGE recovered the funds, claiming they were misplaced by the Biden administration.
DOGE took its interaction with HUD a step further and launched a review to guarantee the efficient spending of all the taxpayer money used by the department. Turner lauded the move and claimed that DOGE helped find an additional $260 million that could be saved.
Cancelling Contracts
Musk also canceled nearly 10,000 contracts, according to HigherGov. Many of these originated from the U.S. Agency for International Development, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio claiming 83% — or approximately 5,200 — of USAID contracts would be stopped. According to DOGE’s “Wall of Receipts,” the department saved $34 billion in contract terminations, with the largest contract totaling $2.9 billion alone.
Discovering Fraud
DOGE also claimed to have found fraud in the form of Small Business Administration loans. According to Musk (via Breitbart), his department identified $330 million in loans given to children, including a nine-month-old who received $100,000. To prevent future SBA loan fraud, DOGE put an in initiative in place where the SBA would require applicants to provide a date of birth to receive loans. Applicants outside the age range of 18 to 120 years old would no longer be eligible for a loan.
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