The Department of Government Efficiency ’s “ Wall of Receipts ” is a litany of failure . According to report from the Associated Press , a full40 % of the federal contractswon’t save America any money at all . The AP ’s theme come the same day the Government Accountability Office , a 103 - year - old institution , publish its own reporton the places Washington could trim the budget and save up money .
GAO is an former business office that eff how Washington work , knows its player , and lease the time to make careful and well - researched recommendation about how to save the U.S. taxpayer money . DOGE is only a few calendar month old and more interested in meme and social - medium hysteria than actual disbursal undercut .
The proof is in the result .
White House staff secretary Will Scharf (left), Elon Musk and his child X, and Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Feb 11, 2025.© Photo: Flickr / White House
Elon Musk made a big deal of DOGE being accountable to “ the people ” and that there would be plenty of receipts that show just how right his extra - governmental toll - saving endeavor is . He ’s write an enormous list of 1,125 declaration that DOGE has send away . In many of the cases list , the money is already spent and there ’s no getting it back . It ’s not so much a listing of preservation as an organized list of places the government is pass money , or has spend money , in agency Musk does n’t like .
According to the AP , 417 of the government contracts wo n’t save anyone any money . Musk and his DOGE cronies plainly do n’t know how to understand a authorities contract bridge . There’sa circle of that going around . It ’s also potential that they ’re simply lie .
The Wall of Receipts is a long and ever - updating leaning that contains simple description of what was cancel , the full note value of the declaration , and the amount the government saves by strike down it . It even contains a link to the contract ’s Sir Frederick Handley Page in theFederal Procurement DataSystem , an on-line database of government contracts .
A portion of the stuff and nonsense on DOGE ’s inclination is subscriptions to news service like Bloomberg and Politico that have already been pay , sometimes years ago . There ’s also training forsoftware licensesthat have already been purchased andtrainingthat ’s already been make out . In 2024 , USAIDpaid Winzip $ 20,472.38for computer software licenses . Also in 2024 , the Department of Agriculturespent $ 23,520for a Politico subscription . In both cases , the money is already drop . Yet both are on the DOGE list .
One of the thing that ’s so frustrating about DOGE and Musk ’s approach is that waste material , fraud , and abuse in the U.S. government is a real problem . Another contract on DOGE ’s cutting board is a USAID media labor that spent$227,392to make YouTube video recording about big cats and conservation issues around them . That seems like a lot of money to produce YouTube videos about hombre .
The Government Accountability Office ( GAO ) is a inquiry mathematical group that works for Congress . Every yr it publishes a “ High - Risk ” list of place in the Union budget that are prone to waste , dupery , and ill-usage . This twelvemonth ’s study is 303 - pages - long . It highlights 38 areas that D.C. should probe if it need real savings .
The GAO has a prove track disk . “ Over time , progress on our List has led to about $ 759 billion in rescue — but there ’s still more on the table , ” the GAO said in its account . By its own reckoning , the GAO has help save U.S. taxpayer $ 84 billion over the last two age .
So what does the GAO see as the handsome disbursal problems ? The increase act of catastrophe due to climate change , back revenue enhancement due to the IRS , mishandle real - estate holdings , payment fraud , and out - of - control spending at the Pentagon .
Of these issues , the Pentagon is at the top of the list . It ’s the trillion - dollar monster that spends more money than most other government agencies combined . DOGE and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth promise that gash are come up , but the purpose $ 50 billion is a pearl in the pail of the almost trillion dollar spend it makes every year . And a lot of the DoD ’s most pricey program are on anexemption list , including a $ 1.7 trillion upgrade of America ’s nuclear intercontinental ballistic missile .
The other issues in all likelihood wo n’t meliorate under Trump . The giving medication has geld employees from the Federal Emergency Management Agency ( FEMA ) and the IRS . That ’s depart to make it harder to manage the disasters that arrive from clime change and collect taxes owed to the government .
Another important tool to fight government wastefulness , fraud , and abuse is the power of the Inspectors General . These independent agencies within the politics run complex probe into the various leg of governance and constantly turn up waste , faker , and abuse .
Trump fired 17 of them .
DOGE , Trump , and Musk ’s gash to federal spending are performative . There ’s no plan here and no real goal . The U.S. federal government spend too much money , it ’s true , but Trump and Musk are enkindle all the people who have it off where the body are sink . They could go through long and complicated report card and work with congress to slash real spending to a lot of expensive and unnecessary government broadcast .
Instead , they ’re doing what looks good online . They ’re posting a big tilt on a dumb site named after a meme - dog . A inclination that let in their uncounted failure .
DOGEDonald TrumpElon MuskGAO
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