The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is a short-term initiative created by Donald Trump in his second presidential term aimed at cutting federal spending to reduce costs, reduce waste and reduce fraud within our federal government. One thing all people on every side of the political spectrum can agree on is that the United States has created an unprecedented amount of debt and that we are running out of time before we can do anything about it. So, to most people, an audit of the government sounds like a great idea. But DOGE feels like a last grab at straws to salvage our tanking economy. On November 12th, 2025. President Trump appointed oligarch Elon Musk to head the department with the hopes that Musk would dismantle wasteful expenditures in government and restructure federal agencies with the program being scheduled to end July 4th, 2026. One of the pillars of DOGE is being “cost effective.” The Musk led initiative is aimed at ensuring transparency with federal contracts, federal grants, federal loans and overall efficiency and productivity with technology used by the government and federal workers. The argument then becomes who benefits from this initiative? Pro-DOGE supporters would argue that this government audit will lead to lower taxes for taxpayers, better uses of public funds and a cleaned-up image for the government. This trio of positives sounds amazing until you breakdown what’s going on and why it is a SCAM.
The federal government spends money on a variety of goods, programs, and services to support the American public and pay interest incurred from borrowing. In fiscal year (FY) 2024, the government spent $6.75 trillion, which was more than it collected (revenue), resulting in a deficit. The United States has been in a deficit for 23 years straight meaning the government has spent more money than they have collected for over 2 decades now. To save money, the current administration says that they do not have many more options other than the DOGE initiative. I call bullshit on this statement. Tesla (Elon Musks automotive and clean energy company) has been rewarded with over 38 billion dollars of taxpayer money since 2010. He is quite literally the biggest welfare recipient in the history of the world. But it doesn’t stop there, on top of receiving this “welfare” from the government, Tesla has turned around and laid off 10% of its workforce, approximately 14,000 workers. The same thing that occurred at Tesla will happen around the country at every major company if they allow this trend to continue. CEO’s and heads of departments will have increased revenues and incomes but will turn around and fire fractions of their workforce in the name of “efficiency.” How does this play out and help the average worker? This is giving uncontrollable leverage to the high-ranking elite business class members. Our taxpayer money is being given directly to oligarchs.
The Scam is being played out right in front of us and unfortunately, many Americans have been on the side of Musk… Newsflash to Musk supporters. If billionaires were going to come save America… they would have already done so. Elon Musk is a liar. When DOGE was started, Musk promised that he would trim 2 trillion dollars off the federal budget. This sum literally constitutes more than congress has in discretionary spending (1.8 trillion). Musk is CLEARLY LYING. That 2 trillion-dollar trim would defund the entire executive branch, which is responsible for military, national security and all federal agencies. We know that Musk is not serious about controlling the debt because of the federal defense budget spending. In 2024 the Federal defense budget spending was 886 billion dollars. Trumps administration projects that in 2025 this number will be 850 billion. In the grand scheme of things, not that much money. Instead of making serious cuts to the Federal defense budget or cutting the budget for Musks own companies, DOGE has already cut over 200,000 federal workers, defunded national institutes of health and fired roughly a 10th of its workforce, defunded Medicare, has laid off 6,000 IRS workers and slashed 900 million dollars worth of funding for the department of education. With all these cuts occurring, the numbers still do not add up for Trump, Musk and their compadres. Once again, Musk guaranteed he would trim over 2 trillion dollars, that number was soon walked down to 1 trillion, later walked down to 150 billion and now optimistically the number is 63 billion (if I’m being nice). The current administration gave Elon Musk full access to the country’s money and people’s personal info, which is a violation of rights, and nothing he promised has occurred. Things have only gotten worse. The debt is skyrocketing and hundreds of thousands of people are out of work. I personally don’t believe that Musk and Trump are that stupid, I believe this was all intentional. Many renowned economists begged and pleaded for Trump and Musk not to go through with this, and they did it anyway. Because they clearly don’t have the best interests of the public in mind.
On top of being an attention craving liar, Elon Musk is in a world of trouble now with DOGE. The heat is on, and all his moves are being criticized, rightfully so. Many people like myself, believe that Musk even getting the opportunity to run DOGE is a constitutional crisis and conflict of interest. Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 of the Constitution mandates that individuals holding “offices of the United States” must be appointed by the President with the “Advice and Consent of the Senate.” This clause ensures that significant executive branch officials are subject to Senate confirmation, providing a system of checks and balances. A coalition of 14 states have filed lawsuits arguing that Musk’s appointment and DOGE’s actions violate the U.S. Constitution’s Appointments Clause. The states claim that Musk’s role has led to “chaos and confusion” in federal operations. Critics feel that Musk has been given access to sensitive information and that because he has access to this info Musk and DOGE have faced lawsuits alleging unauthorized access to sensitive federal data. These cases have raised significant concerns about privacy violations and breaches of the Federal Information Security Modernization Act. How are we supposed to know as citizens if Musk is trustworthy? How does Musk get to oversee and defund critical programs, but he gets to keep Tesla and SpaceX? This is a clear conflict of interest. SpaceX, Tesla and other Musk companies, for instance, have won at least $18bn in federal contracts from Nasa, the defense department and other agencies during the last decade. Because of his appointment to DOGE, Musk is now a federal officer. In the US code of ethics 18 U.S.C. § 208 prohibits an executive branch employee from participating personally and substantially in a particular Government matter that will affect his own financial interests, as well as the financial interests of certain individuals with whom he has ties outside the Government. Because Musk owns stock in Tesla, he cannot and should not be legally allowed to gut agencies like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which has investigated complaints about the car company’s debt collection and loan policies. This is clearly a violation and obviously shows that Musk will benefit financially.
Trump isn’t the first president to make deep cuts to the government. In 1993, Democratic president Bill Clinton tried something like what Musk and Trump are trying to do now. The only difference is the Clinton administration cut fat, and the Trump administration is cutting muscle. Bill Clintons “reinventing of the government” was an authorized BIPARTISAN legislation that took years to identify inefficiencies and re-imagined what work looked like for federal workers. There was no constitutional crisis. It was a 400-personed staff recruited from existing workers within the federal agencies. They set about making the government more efficient and focused on customer service, introducing private sector-style metrics such as performance standards for workers. The Reinventing Government team also pushed the workforce to embrace a brand-new technology — the internet. Many governmental web sites and programs, including the electronic filing of income taxes, date back to the Reinventing Government initiative. This liberated employees in many ways and improved workplace conditions and metrics. The Clinton campaign saw federal employees as good guys, the Trump campaign looks at federal workers in a negative light. The Republicans who control Congress today have allowed Musk to move ahead with his changes without them, even though the Constitution states that the legislative branch approves spending and federal law prohibits the president from cutting programs Congress has authorized without its permission.
The public perception has weighed down on Musk. Boycotts to Tesla has dropped its stock and overall value, endless memes on the internet and a bad public image have caused Elon to step down from DOGE as of April 23rd, 2025. His future remains unclear with DOGE. The heist has already begun so I am not saying that it is over. His influence and ideas have already given way to an entirely dangerous rhetoric and way of thinking and operating. DOGE employees are now ingrained within federal agencies and more than likely in upper administrative roles with access to the critical and important data. They are going to be working with Trump and other political appointees who share their deep hostility towards agency missions and to career civil servants. In many parts of the government and managerial level positions that normally might push back against DOGE and its efforts of government restructuring, these employees are scared and silenced in fear of losing their jobs and will do whatever higher level DOGE staffers tell them to do. They no longer need Musk and his supervision. This slash and burn campaign that we are currently living through is dangerous, it doesn’t make sense and most importantly it is a scam that transfers wealth from the hands of many to the hands of very few. The Class war is only beginning, and it is going to take all of us to make the country go in the right direction of powering the people.
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