14 key points raised by the DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) team, led by Elon Musk

The DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) team consists of private-sector experts, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Boring Company CEO Steve Davis, and Airbnb co-founder Joe Gabbia. Under President Trump’s directive, the DOGE team aims to reduce the federal deficit by $1 trillion and cut annual spending from $7 trillion to $6 trillion—a 15% reduction. Their goal is to eliminate waste and fraud in the federal government in real time without affecting core services, targeting savings of $4 billion per day.

In an exclusive interview with Fox News on March 29, they explained that they are working as special government employees for 130 days, aiming to achieve most of their objectives within this period, and have made their results public on doge.gov and X.

Musk highlighted the staggering scale of government inefficiency, noting, for instance, that a 10-question survey doable for $10,000 on SurveyMonkey cost the government $1 billion. The team adopts a “measure twice, cut thrice” approach, carefully reviewing processes and quickly correcting mistakes. They discovered that maintaining 50-year-old IT systems at agencies like Social Security and the IRS costs $100 billion annually, and the lack of inter-agency database communication has enabled widespread fraud.

Specific plans include digitizing 400 million paper documents stored in a Pennsylvania mine to reduce pension processing times from months to days, and combating fraud at Social Security (e.g., 40% of direct deposit change requests are fraudulent) to ensure legitimate beneficiaries receive more. According to the DOGE team, absurd errors like 15 million people registered as over 120 years old are also being corrected. At HHS, they plan to allocate more NIH grants to researchers and consolidate 700 incompatible IT systems across 27 centers. The Treasury could apply corporate financial standards to a single $800 billion account to cut $500 billion in annual fraud and improper payments.

Additionally, they can address issues like the IRS overstaffing 1,400 employees to distribute laptops and phones, and issuing 4.6 million credit cards to 2.4 million employees. Reviewing the Interior Department’s $830 million survey contract and halting SBA loans to infants and the deceased are also part of their efforts. Despite legal pushback from NGOs and D.C. courts, they view their work as a patriotic duty to safeguard America’s fiscal health.

List of Fraudulent Situations Identified by DOGE

1. $1 Billion Survey Waste: A simple 10-question online survey (e.g., “Do you like the national park?”) cost the government nearly $1 billion, compared to a $10,000 commercial equivalent, with no feedback loop or actionable outcome.

2. $830 Million Interior Department Survey: Another exorbitant customer service survey contract, identified by Tyler Hassan, lacked oversight and could’ve been done at a fraction of the cost.

3. Social Security Fraud via Phone Calls: 40% of calls to change direct deposit information are from fraudsters, who redirect retirees’ payments to criminals, ultimatelycosting legitimate recipients their benefits.

4. 15-20 Million Fraudulent Social Security Numbers: Over 15 million individuals listed as alive are over 120 years old (oldest American is 114), enabling fraudulent disability and unemployment claims since at least 2008.

5. $300 Million SBA Loans to Minors: Small Business Administration loans given to individuals under 11, including a 9-month-old, often leaving children with ruined credit due to identity theft.

6. $300 Million in SBA Loans to Deceased Individuals: Loans were issued to individuals over 120, exploiting outdated Social Security data, as the oldest verifiable American is 114.

7. $2 Billion to Stacey Abrams’ NGO: An NGO that “barely existed” received $2 billion with no clear justification, flagged as a potential fraudulent allocation.

8. $500 Billion Annual Treasury Fraud: The Treasury’s single account disperses funds without verification, contributing to $500 billion in yearly fraud and hundreds of billions in improper payments, which remain untraceable due to alack of auditability.

9. $12 Billion Missing Navy Funds: Senator Collins allocated $12 billion for submarines, but the Navy delivered zero submarines and couldn’t account for the funds.

10. Pennsylvania Mine Retirement Process: 400 million paper documents in 22,000 filing cabinets slow retirement processing to 8,000 per month, with frequent errors, costing efficiency and accuracy.

11. NIH Overhead Waste: Of a $100 NIH grant, only $60 reaches researchers, with universities taking $40; DOGE aims to shift this to $85/$15, losing millions to overhead.

12. Excess Government Credit Cards: 4.6 million credit cards were issued for 2.4 million employees, with poor tracking and a suboptimal rewards program, resulting in a reduction to 4.3 million so far.

13. IRS Overstaffing: 1,400 employees dedicated to provisioning laptops and cell phones could equip the entire IRS monthly, indicating gross inefficiency.

14. The Pentagon’s Lost Billions: The Pentagon loses $20-30 billion annually, unable to account for it, and consistently fails audits.