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DOGE is claiming to have saved $55 billion so far. The NYT calls bullshit:

“The math that could back up those checks is marred with accounting errors, incorrect assumptions, outdated data and other mistakes…. Some contracts the group claims credit for were double- or triple-counted. Another initially contained an error that inflated the totals by billions of dollars. In at least one instance, the group claimed an entire contract had been canceled when only part of the work had been halted.”

Kevin Drum turns his hand to estimating the actual figure. His conclusion?

“My best guess is that DOGE has saved about $22 billion, almost all of it from firing federal workers. If this is close to accurate, it comes to 0.33% of the total federal budget.”

Most of the “savings” that Trump/Musk are claiming in order to justify tax cuts for the 1% and corporations are really just deferred costs for someone else to worry about. When you fire a bunch of essential federal employees, less money is spent in the short term, but long-term costs go up. Stopping spending on science? Costs the US money in deferred discovery. Cutting food safety inspectors? Billions in medical bills and lost work. Cutting FEMA? Depressed local economies because communities don’t recover. Cutting foreign aid? Lost jobs in American farming and manufacturing. Cutting IRS? More rich tax cheats, higher taxes on working people.

The fake accounting of DOGE

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