Musk cuts back on DOGE savings predictions

When Elon Musk first stated that he thought he could trim $2 trillion in savings via DOGE, I said he was overshooting considerably.

When Musk cut that number down to $1 trillion, I stated on these pages that I thought he would be lucky to see $500 billion, and it turns out, even I was being generous.

Dialing It Down

That $2 trillion number by Musk was nothing more than campaign fodder, in my opinion. There is simply no way he was going to be able to trim that much from the budget.

After the election was over, Musk immediately started to downplay the savings.

When directly asked if that $2 trillion was achievable, Musk stated, “I think we’ll try for $2 trillion. I think that’s the best-case outcome. But I do think that you kind of have to have some overage. I think if we try for $2 trillion, we’ve got a good shot at getting 1.”

I honestly don’t even think Musk realized how much of our spending is protected by Congress, nor do I think he knew that most agencies are also protected by Congress, so the cuts he wanted to make were not even realistic.

Must Cuts DOGE Forecast Again

This week, Musk announced his new projects for savings by DOGE, and it was far less than even I thought.

Musk still tried to play the savings up, stating, “I’m excited to announce we anticipate saving in FY ’26 from a reduction of waste and fraud a reduction of $150 billion dollars.

“And some of it is just absurd, like, people getting unemployment insurance who haven’t been born yet. I mean, I think anyone can appreciate — I mean, come on, that’s just crazy.”

That is 85% less than his revised number, a literal drop in the bucket compared to the savings were promised, which would make DOGE an unmitigated failure.

Disappointing

Musk has made a lot of claims about fraud, but he has yet to actually prove anything.

As far as waste goes, there is a ton of it, but Musk is now learning that much of that waste is actually protected spending because Congress approved it in a previous budget, so there is nothing he can do to stop the spending.

They are running into the same problems in regard to terminating employees, as most of them are protected by government rules or their unions, leading to even more frustration, which has disappointed Musk.

Overpromising… I warned about it time and again during the election, as these over-promises will all turn into campaign ads for Democrats. It sure would help if people knew what they were talking about before they opened their mouths.