As I noted on Sunday, DOGE had promised “receipts” this weekend, but none had arrived. If one clicks the page now, one does get a list. While I am sure this list will impress some fanboys, just listing numbers is not, traditionally, what a receipt does (especially when deployed in the notion of “bringing receipts”). Some of the stuff is just a list. The fact that you can click through to some screenshots from the budget entries and see the amounts is contextless information.
Since someone will perhaps dispute my characterization, I would note that a receipt lists the costs, the expenditure, and the balance. A receipt tells you what has been paid and sometimes includes detailed payment information. What DOGE is providing is a list of costs and claiming that they have been canceled. That’s not proof of anything.
If I wanted a receipt to prove that my subscription to WaPo had been canceled showing someone the initial charge would not accomplish said feat.
A receipt in this context should let us see the savings. And, indeed, it is utterly unclear how canceling, say, a Politico Pro account leads to immediate savings. Is the government getting a refund? Or, like when a lot of people canceled their WaPo subscriptions a few months ago, does it simply mean that they won’t be renewed? If this is the case, and it almost certainly is (not that DOGE is explaining any of this), then these are actually future savings not a credit to the government’s accounts.
Further, there is no explanation as to why a given contract or expenditure was to be considered fraud, waste, or corruption. Really, just listing it doesn’t mean it has been canceled nor that money has actually been saved.
How much of this represents money already spent? How much does it represent money yet to be spent? These kinds of details are kind of important.
And then we have stuff like this via the NYT: DOGE Claimed It Saved $8 Billion in One Contract. It Was Actually $8 Million.
The Department of Government Efficiency, the federal cost-cutting initiative championed by Elon Musk, published on Monday a list of government contracts it has canceled, together amounting to about $16 billion in savings itemized on a new “wall of receipts” on its website.
Almost half of those line-item savings could be attributed to a single $8 billion contract for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. But it appears that the DOGE list vastly overstated the actual intended value of that contract. A closer scrutiny of a federal database shows that a recent version of the contract was for $8 million, not $8 billion. A larger total savings number published on the site, $55 billion, lacked specific documentation.
See, also the following.
- Via NBC News: USDA says it accidentally fired officials working on bird flu and is trying to rehire them.
- Via Wired: Not Even DOGE Employees Know Who’s Legally Running DOGE.
- Via Politico: Elon Musk expresses interest in sending out DOGE checks.
On that last bullet, let me note that if the goal here is to balance the budget, sending out checks doesn’t make sense. Moreover, since it is unclear how much is actually being credited back to the Treasury versus being future savings, there may not be a fund to use for such a process. None of it makes sense if you think about it for a few minutes.
And there there is the math of it all.
I would note that the projected FY25 budget deficit is $1.9 trillion.
You know, with a T.
That would be $1,900,000,000,000.
A trillion is a thousand billion.
Saving almost two thousand billion takes a lot of saving.
Assuming the $55 billion number (i.e., $55,000,000,000) listed on the DOGE page is accurate, that would mean they have reached 2.89% of their goal. If we go with the $16 billion numbers that the NYT appears to take as a more confirmed number that puts the savings at 0.84%. If we then take the $8 billion mistake into account, they have achieved 0.42% of their goal. And that assumes that there aren’t other errors on their current Wall! Of! Receipts! (think Don Pardo voice in honor of SNL’s 50th).
Put it in other terms: if you owe a very violent bookie $2000 and you find $8 in your wallet, you aren’t going to feel a wave of relief. If your friend gives you $8 more, your anxiety will shift not one whit. Get that number up to $55 you aren’t going to have the first line on your website proclaim “Let’s pay off that gambling debt!” as if you are on your way to keeping those legs from being broken.
I understand the bromide that a billion here and a billion there and soon you are talking about real money, but the math is the math. I can’t decide if they are truly dumb enough to think they can balance the budget this way or if they know they are fooling a lot of people who don’t understand the enormity of the math. Given long-term GOP rhetoric on this topic, I am pretty persuaded by the dumb thesis, TBH.
I mean, it’s only two trillion. Two isn’t much. Look! I can count on my fingers! One. Two. Easy-peasy!
I will conclude with some minor snark (recognizing the major snark in the preceding paragraph).* These guys are supposed to be Tech geniuses and yet their web page looks like something you would have seen on GeoCities back in 1997.
All of this would be a lot more dismissable as farce if people weren’t losing their jobs and if important federal functions weren’t being damaged.
*The more I think about all of this, the ridiculousness comes more and more into focus, and my brain shifts from trying to lay out the facts to snark to contempt. And every edit is just an excuse to get more and more snarky. So time to stop.
