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(WATCH) DOGE
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By every admission, the federal government routinely loses billions of our tax dollars to waste, fraud, and abuse. But until now, it seems, there’s never really been a serious push for a sea change. Lisa Fletcher digs into the new Trump administration’s DOGE efforts, headed up by Elon Musk.
The following is a transcript of a report from “Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson.”
Watch the video by clicking the link at the end of the page.
F35 fighter jets might be the cornerstone of American airpower, but they’re expensive, at around $100 million apiece. And overall, the F35 program is now $183 billion over budget.
Problems with the jet recently caught the attention of Elon Musk, who called it the worst military value for money in history.
The billionaire poured hundreds of millions of his own money into president Trump’s election.
Now he, and biotech billionaire and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy are heading what’s known as the department of government efficiency — or DOGE.
Howard Lutnick: How much do you think we can rip out of this wasted $6.5 trillion Harris/Biden budget?
Elon Musk: We can do at least $2 trillion.
The US government spent $6.75 trillion dollars in the last fiscal year, so $2 trillion in savings would represent around a 30% cut in federal spending.
DOGE won’t be an official government department like justice or treasury. Its small staff will look for savings and efficiencies and then recommend spending cuts and policy changes to the White House and Congress.
As we’ve reported before, government waste is everywhere: whether it’s $6 million to boost Egyptian tourism; $477,000 for the forced feminization of male macaques; or $10,000 for an air force toilet.
To get a sense of how much could be saved we talked with John Hart, CEO of ‘Open The Books’ a non-profit that focuses on tracking government spending and identifying waste.
Lisa: Elon Musk is claiming they can cut $2 trillion. Is that even possible, and if it’s possible, where does it come from?
John Hart: Yeah, it absolutely is possible, and again, it comes from those sections of duplication, it comes from Pentagon waste, it comes from improper payments in Medicare, and that’s where you start to get the big three, four, five hundred billion dollars in waste.
Those improper payments to medicare cost taxpayers $100 billion in 2023. In terms of Pentagon waste, it’s hard to know how much could be saved because the DOD doesn’t know how it spends the money it gets.
Watch video here.
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