Politico has a strong piece on the DOGE’s make-believe ‘savings’….
Their math seems to fuzzy, or outright deceptive….
Their whole buzz-saw program cuts where said to amount over $50 Billion….
But a close examination by Politico points to saving of about $1.$ Billion
Hmmmmm?
And?
The results for the Trump admin cuts were so bad?
The guy who started the whole thing is mad about it …..Breaking up with Trump, and may form his own political party, aimed at making the cuts his DOGE op NEVER accomplished….
Like other things with Donald Trump?
The truth tends to be something left in the dust on the side after everyone has brought a ticket from Trump….
The Trump administration’s claim that it is saving billions of dollars through DOGE-related cuts to federal contracts is drastically exaggerated, according to a new POLITICO analysis of public data and federal spending records.
Through July, DOGE said it has saved taxpayers $52.8 billion by canceling contracts, but of the $32.7 billion in actual claimed contract savings that POLITICO could verify, DOGE’s savings over that period were closer to $1.4 billion.
Despite the administration’s claims, not a single one of those 1.4 billion dollars will lower the federal deficit unless Congress steps in. Instead, the money has been returned to agencies mandated by law to spend it.
DOGE’s latest figures on contract cuts ticked up to $54.2 billion in an update posted on Tuesday.
POLITICO’s findings come on top of months of scrutiny of DOGE’s accounting, but the magnitude of DOGE’s inflated savings claims has not been clear until now.
Even so, President Donald Trump claimed hundreds of billions of dollars had already been used to reduce the federal deficit. The former head of DOGE, Elon Musk, initially promised the organization would reduce the deficit by $2 trillion. Many in Trump’s Cabinet have also celebrated DOGE’s efforts, including his secretaries of Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs and Agriculture.
DOGE’s savings calculations are based on faulty math. The group uses the maximum spending possible under each contract as its baseline — meaning all money an agency could spend in future fiscal years. That amount can far exceed what the government has actually committed to pay out.
Counting this “ceiling value” gives a false picture of savings for taxpayers….
…
DOGE’s list is filled with exaggerated savings claims across the federal government. Some contracts included on DOGE’s termination list have only been modified and not canceled; others have been removed from the list without explanation….
…
In reality, the ultimate savings from terminations are nearly impossible to predict.
DOGE’s calculations, for instance, don’t account for expenses that come from ending contracts prematurely, like payments for outstanding leases, subcontractors, or work already performed, which can add up quickly.
“There’s no certainty because we haven’t finished understanding termination costs of anything,” Tillipman said. That can take years to untangle. Until then, “we don’t know any of it,” she said, referring to savings.
Plus, even drafting a contract costs money….
….
By law, agencies are still required to spend any funds Congress appropriated to them, including money they claw back from individual projects. They have some discretion to change how they spend it — perhaps to negotiate a better deal or to align it with the administration’s priorities. Failing to spend appropriated dollars could violate the Impoundment Control Act, a law Trump’s budget director, Russell Vought, has repeatedly said is unconstitutional…
…
The same is true of Trump and Musk’s relationship. After leaving DOGE, Musk declared war on Trump’s megabill, which the president signed into law on the Fourth of July. The two took their breakup to X, lobbing insults on the world’s stage.
“What the heck was the point of @DOGE if [Trump]’s just going to increase the debt by $5 trillion??,” Musk wrote on X in July, referring to the deficit increase. The law will increase the national debt by $3.4 trillion, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Now, Musk has committed to starting a third party with the same goal as DOGE: reduce government spending….