Musk's trillion-dollar savings plan under scrutiny
Elon Musk stated that within the American Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), he aims to find a trillion dollars in savings in the U.S. budget. Despite these grand proclamations, DOGE is far from achieving such savings.
On Wednesday, Trump and Musk led the first meeting of the new U.S. government's ministers. The billionaire appeared in a T-shirt with the words "Tech support" and a black hat with the inscription MAGA (Make America Great Again).
- We simply cannot sustain as a country $2 trillion deficits. Just the interest on the national debt now exceeds the Defense Department's spending," Musk told department heads assembled around a large wooden table in the Cabinet Room. "If this continues, the country will become de facto bankrupt - Musk argued.
The billionaire hoped the Department of Government Efficiency would find 1 trillion in unnecessary or illegal budget expenses. Together with Trump, he also suggested that in the name of savings, there should be more mass layoffs of federal employees.
Musk seeks savings. Data may be exaggerated
Despite Musk's grand announcements, DOGE is far from achieving savings in the range of 1 trillion. The official team website mentions saving 65 billion dollars by canceling contracts, but according to media analyses, these figures are significantly exaggerated.
According to an Associated Press analysis, 40 percent of canceled contracts did not involve any savings for the budget. As "The New York Times" reported, the five supposedly most significant savings were quietly removed from the DOGE site due to glaring errors.
The team claimed, for example, that they saved 8 billion dollars on one contract, though it was 8 million. Other savings were counted twice, three times, or even four times.
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