The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is conducting mass firings and ripping up norms, its proponents say, for the Republican dream of cutting government spending. But what if that's not true?
A new analysis from the Associated Press found that nearly 40 percent of the cuts allegedly enacted by DOGE are not expected to save the government any money. It turns out that, based on data that DOGE made available on its own website, some 790 of the more than 2,200 allegedly canceled contracts have not produced any savings. The AP attributes this to the fact that the government is legally required to spend the funds or may have already done so.
As I wrote in my coverage of the report:
The data undermines Trump officials’ near-constant refrain that the DOGE bros are cutting “waste, fraud, and abuse” across government. Some of the canceled contracts were for agency subscriptions to media outlets and academic journals, which federal workers say they need to stay informed, the data shows; others were for software, training, research studies, and office furniture and cleanings, the AP reports.
So, what is DOGE actually doing? Well, their webpage claims the cuts have produced an estimated $65 billion in savings—but those cuts have unleashed chaos across the government, as my colleagues and I have covered. As Noah Lanard highlights in a new piece out today, even veterans have not been spared.
If not savings, then what is the aim of DOGE? My colleague Alex Nguyen makes a good argument: It's the old Republican attempt to attack the poor.
—Julianne McShane
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