Elon Musk’s Office of Government Efficiency (DOGE) deliberately exaggerates the economic impact of his budget cuts, but the real success in saving government money is less.
The New York Times writes about this, citing sources and its own calculations, News.Az informs.
The publication notes that Musk initially promised to achieve a $1 trillion reduction in spending in the 2026 fiscal year (which begins in the US on September 28, 2025). However, last week he announced more modest plans and the task of reducing government spending by $150 billion in the same time frame.
According to the newspaper, the savings figures currently being announced by DOGE are exaggerated and contain many errors and inaccuracies. The list includes expenses, the reduction of which will not produce an economic effect in the next financial year, the cancellation of contracts that the government did not actually plan to conclude, overstatement of the cost of certain budget expenditure items, etc.
Specifically, when citing savings from cancelled government contracts, DOGE uses the initial maximum contract price, which is typically much higher than the actual actual cost. As the NYT points out, we are talking about errors in the billions of dollars.
Immediately after Donald Trump took office as US President, DOGE began a large-scale audit of US budget spending. In fact, at Musk’s instigation, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) was temporarily suspended for further reorganization.