Elon Musk is failing to cut American spending(economist.com)
economist.com
Elon Musk is failing to cut American spending
https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2025/02/12/elon-musk-is-failing-to-cut-american-spending
15 comments
Because arbitrary, ignorant hack and slash "shock and awe"
is a smokescreen to conceal whatever it is they're really after.. privatization, emoluments, treason, and/or other arbitrary, political agendas.
Gave up after having solved 10 captchas and no access
AI summary:
The article challenges Musk’s bold claims that his “fiscal commandos” in the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are rapidly uncovering fraud and waste that will cut federal spending by as much as $2 trillion a year. It explains that while Musk’s team regularly announces contract cancellations and agency scrapping, a review of daily Treasury data shows that government outlays have actually risen—from about $26 billion a day under Biden to roughly $30 billion now—and the overall spending trajectory this fiscal year is nearly unchanged from previous years. In part, this is because nearly two‐thirds of the federal budget is committed to mandatory programs like Social Security and health insurance, with only a small fraction available for discretionary cuts (and much of that is devoted to defense, which is politically protected). Even if DOGE could eliminate all fraud—estimated by watchdogs to be between $233 billion and $521 billion annually—it would still fall far short of Musk’s ultra-ambitious targets. Moreover, many of DOGE’s actions, such as targeting diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility programs or cancelling multi-year contracts, represent only modest savings (totalling roughly $7–$45 billion a year, less than 1% of overall spending). While DOGE has already disrupted the lives of thousands of federal employees (with mass layoffs and leaves), its core mission to generate vast savings appears to be facing enormous structural and political limitations.
The article challenges Musk’s bold claims that his “fiscal commandos” in the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are rapidly uncovering fraud and waste that will cut federal spending by as much as $2 trillion a year. It explains that while Musk’s team regularly announces contract cancellations and agency scrapping, a review of daily Treasury data shows that government outlays have actually risen—from about $26 billion a day under Biden to roughly $30 billion now—and the overall spending trajectory this fiscal year is nearly unchanged from previous years. In part, this is because nearly two‐thirds of the federal budget is committed to mandatory programs like Social Security and health insurance, with only a small fraction available for discretionary cuts (and much of that is devoted to defense, which is politically protected). Even if DOGE could eliminate all fraud—estimated by watchdogs to be between $233 billion and $521 billion annually—it would still fall far short of Musk’s ultra-ambitious targets. Moreover, many of DOGE’s actions, such as targeting diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility programs or cancelling multi-year contracts, represent only modest savings (totalling roughly $7–$45 billion a year, less than 1% of overall spending). While DOGE has already disrupted the lives of thousands of federal employees (with mass layoffs and leaves), its core mission to generate vast savings appears to be facing enormous structural and political limitations.
1 month is really too early to say if it is failing or not.
If one month is too early to indicate failure, it's also too early to claim success. But that's not stopping doge and musk from touting how much the cuts and chaos have "saved".
If I sell my car on Friday, I might claim to have saved a $500 a month car payment. But what happens on Monday when I need to get to work?
The responsible course of action would have been to lay out the markers of success so their actions could be assessed against objective measures. That's not what we're seeing in practice.
If I sell my car on Friday, I might claim to have saved a $500 a month car payment. But what happens on Monday when I need to get to work?
The responsible course of action would have been to lay out the markers of success so their actions could be assessed against objective measures. That's not what we're seeing in practice.
Is it clear what is being attempted? If not how will we know whether it is failing or not?
How long will be enough to fairly evaluate success?
You know they'll say "we need to wait 4 years to fully appreciate the impact."
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Full 15 year presidential term.
In fact someone wants to even downvote this shows how fucked up we are now.
We should really reserve our judgements until we account the tax cuts and military aid they have planned, too.
Failing to cut, after claiming it was super-easy and that you've basically already solved everything by finding instantly finding something nobody else could find using your Ultra Smart And Stable brain: Worth condemnation and mockery.