DOGE savings might only be a fraction of what was claimed, report says

A new in -depth politico report determined that the Ministry of Government (AKA DOGE) in fact saved much less than it claimed. Thus, despite spending the last six months to cancel the research subsidies, federal contracts and the dismissal of federal employees across the country, Doge fell behind the economies promised by Elon Musk.

So far, Doge has claimed $ 205 billion in total savings since the inauguration of President Donald Trump, according to his public “receipt wall”.

However, Politico reports that the reception wall is sorely lacking, well, some important receipts.

DOGE says it allowed taxpayers of $ 52.8 billion in canceled contracts, but Politico could only verify $ 32.7 billion in contracts. What is worse is that, by politico, the real and tangible savings of these cancellations are closer to 1.4 billion dollars. This is because Doge uses creative accounts to “exaggerate” total savings. We will get there in a minute.

In other words, Politico reported that Doge had only saved 2.6% of his demands claimed from canceled contracts. Above all, as Politico pointed out, none of these money can be removed from the federal deficit (which Doge is supposed to reduce) without intervention by the congress, because these dollars have just returned to the agencies.

The long politico report is worth digging, because it has all the technical details of the way Doge uses “defective mathematics” to offer these figures. When calculating savings, DOGE reports the maximum amount of possible expenses of each contract, not actual or planned expenses.

This has actually been a known problem with DOGE’s accounting since February. Often, experts use the analogy of a credit card limit to explain the limits of this approach. If you cancel a credit card with a limit of $ 1 million, this does not mean that you saved $ 1 million.

The Politico report said that the alleged economies of DOGE are “radically exaggerated” and that “the magnitude of the swollen savings of Doge has not been clear so far”.

The Trump administration told Politico in response to their history that the agency had produced “historical economies for the American people” and that the public list of Doge savings is correct and “real -time update according to current information”.

These questions about Doge’s exaggerated figures may not surprise anyone who follows with Musk’s shenanigans since January. Musk, who officially left his post in Doge earlier this year, initially said that the agency would save 2 dollars of the government before quickly revising this target to $ 150 billion in April.

Doge cuts have undoubtedly been effective in closing certain government services, reducing foreign aid and reducing $ 125 million in funding to support LGBTQ health initiatives.