Maybe the real Department of Government Efficiency is the friends we made along the way. Elon Musk’s DOGE came as a welcomed surprise to fiscal conservatives and everyone else who cares about the economic future of the nation. Even the most casual observers of the actions of the federal government understand that the books are rife with waste, fraud, and abuse, and since neither party has attempted to reduce spending in almost three decades meaningfully, the mercurial billionaire’s new project was viewed by many as our last, best hope to bring fiscal sanity to the halls of government.
Over-promising on the campaign trail is a tale as old as democracy, and Musk’s pledge to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget was always extraordinarily unlikely to come to pass.
“I think we could do at least $2 trillion,” Musk said at a Madison Square Garden campaign rally in November. “At the end of the day, you’re being taxed. All government spending is taxation. … Your money is being wasted, and the Department of Government Efficiency is going to fix that.”
After President Donald Trump’s inauguration, Musk revised that figure down to a more realistic $1 trillion, which still came as music to the ears of overburdened taxpayers. But Musk’s latest revision leaves more questions than answers.
During Thursday’s Cabinet meeting, Musk revealed that the new goal of DOGE is to eliminate $150 billion in spending.
“I’m excited to announce we anticipate savings in [fiscal] ’26 from a reduction of waste and fraud of $150 billion dollars,” Musk said. “And some of it is just absurd, like, people getting unemployment insurance who haven’t been born yet. I mean, I think anyone can appreciate — I mean, come on, that’s just crazy.”
Yes, that is crazy. Even crazier is the federal deficit, which the Congressional Budget Office estimates to be a whopping $1.9 trillion in fiscal 2025. Congressional Republicans are in the midst of attempting to give the president his “big, beautiful” spending bill through budget reconciliation, which would extend the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, along with additional tax cuts. But as of now, they have yet to explain how the cuts will be offset.
Fiscal libertarian Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) voiced concerns that the March continuing resolution funds many of the initiatives targeted by DOGE for elimination. This is presumably true of the current bill, which includes a $160 billion increase in military spending that would effectively erase the hypothetical DOGE cuts in terms of total spending. And that is assuming the numbers provided by the mistake-filled department are accurate, which is far from certain.
It is always moral and worthwhile to ease the burden placed on the taxpayer. If Musk and company can root out waste, cancel unnecessary contracts, and the like, they should be commended, but it is becoming clear that the talk of massive spending cuts and balanced budgets was nothing more than a ploy to appease economy-minded voters.
TRUMP SAYS DOGE WILL CONTINUE ITS MISSION POST-MUSK
Trump never pretended to be a fiscal conservative, and his first administration’s overspending is a major contributor to the current inflationary cycle plaguing the economy. With the bulk of both Trump and the GOP’s political capital going up in flames at the altar of the most ridiculous trade war in American history, it is unlikely that Congress will even attempt to empower DOGE, even if Musk hadn’t reduced the project’s goals down to what is essentially a rounding error in the federal budget.
Unfortunately, once again, we’ve been sold a bill of goods. DOGE lacks teeth, and aside from Massie, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), and a handful of economically literate outliers, Washington lacks the political will to do anything about the ticking time bomb that threatens future generations.
Brady Leonard (@bradyleonard) is a musician, political strategist, and host of The No Gimmicks Podcast.