No shit. DOGE cost the government billions of dollars and an immeasurable amount in soft power.
fortune on
In its early days, the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) bragged it could cut up to $2 trillion from the U.S. federal budget. In December, Musk conceded the special advisory only saved $200 billion in “zombie payments” for cancelled contracts or fraudulent unemployment claims.
But a recent estimation of DOGE’s overall impact indicated any savings it found did little, if anything, for the deficit.
In a deposition video from January, which recently went viral, DOGE employee Nate Cavanaugh said cost-cutting efforts fell far short of its original $2 trillion goal. The deposition was part of a larger lawsuit filed by the American Council of Learned Societies, a nonprofit consortium of scholarly institutions, alleging DOGE used OpenAI’s ChatGPT to identify and then cancel more than $100 million in diversity, equity, and inclusion grants.
“You don’t regret that people might have lost important income…to support their lives?” one attorney asked Cavanaugh regarding the grant cancellations.
“No. I think it was more important to reduce the federal deficit from $2 trillion to close to zero,” said Cavanaugh, who is also the founder of AI-powered accounting firm Flow Finance.
DOGE was not there to find actual waste. DOGE was created to take money that regulated companies or provided safety and stability to the public. And of course to steal information.
Spottswoodeforgod on
Well, it’s the taking part that counts… or possibly the destruction of government agencies and the theft of private data. It’s one or the other.
JaVelin-X- on
Conservatives always whine about government waste when mostly there is none. there are too many people whose job it is to not waste money and they have people to answer to,,, you know who doesn’t? politicians
CT_Phipps-Author on
They did kill 600,000 children.
Again, I don’t think this gets brought up EVER because if it did then maybe we could understand that we’re past the point of being a dictatorship and are responsible for a nations worth of deaths.
cpod_the_elder on
1. Go to Washington
2. Destroy people’s work and lives
3. Leave in disgrace
4. Have the guy you were working for slashing people’s work and lives spend a shitload more money than you saved or claimed to save
WallNumerous3230 on
Almost like it was never about that. It was about purging the government of people who would stand up to an administration full of incompetent clowns and stealing as much data as they could.
MourningRIF on
They were also 20 year olds who were in charge of killing grants that were deemed DEI, but they couldn’t define DEI. They said the Holocaust was bad because of DEI, but couldn’t elaborate on what they meant by that. They also claimed they were qualified even though they had no experience with grants, peer review, or government procedures. When asked why they were qualified, the answer was that, “you don’t have to have experience doing the job if you, like, read books on it.” So they were asked which books they read. The answer? “I didn’t read any books.”
No_Cantaloupe_4149 on
They just came and cared to steal the data and getting paid for it. Grifters everywhere you turn with no consequences.
Caraes_Naur on
It was never about money, that was just the pretext to get in the door.
DOGE was a data heist.
wha2les on
really now?
totally didn’t noticed the failure.
Now tell us how much of our private data they stole.
2HDFloppyDisk on
It successfully lined Elon’s pockets with more government contracts
Ineverseenthat on
DOGE eliminated the agencies that conducted government oversight.
TheWebCoder on
DOGE went in to sow chaos and steal the SS database . In those ways it was successful
FormerUsenetUser on
It was all about Musk getting free access to every American’s private data. Duh.
DistractedPhoenix on
Even if DOGE did save billions, Trump would have burned through that in a week
faith_apnea on
Well let’s see.
The preliminary federal budget deficit for January 2025 (DOGE formed) was approximately $127 billion to $129 billion.
From the beginning of the fiscal year to February, deficits were $1.004 trillion.
aflyingsquanch on
They did drive out many of the most qualified and senior folks the govt haf though…losing decades upon decades of institutional knowledge that will forever be lost.
TechnicalScheme385 on
[ Removed by Reddit ]
raiansar on
From the article: federal spending actually *increased* nearly 6% during DOGE’s existence — from $7.135 trillion to $7.558 trillion.
They promised $2 trillion in cuts. Spending went up $423 billion. And under oath the guy literally said “No, we didn’t” reduce the deficit.
Eastern_Statement416 on
No shit…so sloppy and ideologically motivated. Then the orange atrocity added billions to immigration and defense, effectively wiping out any cuts…so stupid, smartest man in the world got played by the dumbest man in the world
Redtex on
It wasn’t meant to reduce the deficit. It was meant to remove, delete, and introduce new programming into the system.
J-the-Kidder on
Well fucking duh. We can easily see the math was never going to math. Plus, besides the obvious data theft and investigation killing operational goals, they never even targeted a department, like defense, to do anything with. So yeah, we knew what this was, and it was a success for the South African Nazi.
Smart-Response9881 on
So much shit has happened in-between I had completely forgotten about DOGE
zapitron on
“Who said we’re terrorists?” – Hans Gruber
TheAskewOne on
Stop calling it a cost cutting agency. It never was, it was engineered to operate in bad faith from the start. It was a grift, designed to break government services full within and to make a few people richer. One more example of the media whitewashing the administration.
MoveOn22 on
Doge was a front to access data
scottiedagolfmachine on
How Elon Fraud Musk is still not behind bars amazes me.
He bullshits on so many issues he has no F ing idea about.
😂
Own-Librarian-9699 on
I quit my federal job when doge started harassing me but I just collected unemployment so the feds saved money while the state lost it. Never cooperate with tyrants.
Powerful_Evening8798 on
That wasn’t their actual objective.
caliboy559 on
Bc it was a lie for Von Shitzinpants to win the presidency
blingybangbang on
Welp, at least they stole every Americans most sensitive data and killed like a million people worldwide by gutting usaid, so that’s…good?
PubesOnTheSoap on
That was never the point , just dismantle our country and declaw things that would inhibit their corruption
keep-i on
So… can we get our money and personal data back then, or?
everything_is_bad on
You mean they were only there to do racist shit?
fjordwich on
Musk for prison 2026
HeadPaleontologist40 on
Remember what Musk said about the democrats coming after him if they won in 2024. He said he’d be fucked. That is why he bribed Trump and took on DOGE to get rid of investigators and lawsuits.
Bubba_Gump_Corp on
It was a data heist… that’s it
Johnthewolf66 on
They just cut all the stuff people needed so “The peace president can start all these wars “
CDBoomGun on
Duh
blackakainu on
Yea make elon repay every dollar cut
DAS_BEE on
Well no shit. They cut fractions of a penny on the dollar and then “spent” more doing it. Meanwhile the value the services of those institutions provide are just fucking gone and we “saved” less than nothing while losing all of the value those services gave us
It was a fucking robbery for billionaires who now have our private data – more than they ever did before and now with less oversight
Simplehoaxes on
How much did Doge charge the government for their services????
44 Comments
No shit. DOGE cost the government billions of dollars and an immeasurable amount in soft power.
In its early days, the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) bragged it could cut up to $2 trillion from the U.S. federal budget. In December, Musk conceded the special advisory only saved $200 billion in “zombie payments” for cancelled contracts or fraudulent unemployment claims.
But a recent estimation of DOGE’s overall impact indicated any savings it found did little, if anything, for the deficit.
In a deposition video from January, which recently went viral, DOGE employee Nate Cavanaugh said cost-cutting efforts fell far short of its original $2 trillion goal. The deposition was part of a larger lawsuit filed by the American Council of Learned Societies, a nonprofit consortium of scholarly institutions, alleging DOGE used OpenAI’s ChatGPT to identify and then cancel more than $100 million in diversity, equity, and inclusion grants.
“You don’t regret that people might have lost important income…to support their lives?” one attorney asked Cavanaugh regarding the grant cancellations.
“No. I think it was more important to reduce the federal deficit from $2 trillion to close to zero,” said Cavanaugh, who is also the founder of AI-powered accounting firm Flow Finance.
Read more: [https://fortune.com/2026/03/16/doge-employee-deposition-lawsuit-federal-deficit-elon-musk-spending/](https://fortune.com/2026/03/16/doge-employee-deposition-lawsuit-federal-deficit-elon-musk-spending/)
[](https://www.reddit.com/submit/?source_id=t3_1rvlaw8&composer_entry=crosspost_nudge)
DOGE was not there to find actual waste. DOGE was created to take money that regulated companies or provided safety and stability to the public. And of course to steal information.
Well, it’s the taking part that counts… or possibly the destruction of government agencies and the theft of private data. It’s one or the other.
Conservatives always whine about government waste when mostly there is none. there are too many people whose job it is to not waste money and they have people to answer to,,, you know who doesn’t? politicians
They did kill 600,000 children.
Again, I don’t think this gets brought up EVER because if it did then maybe we could understand that we’re past the point of being a dictatorship and are responsible for a nations worth of deaths.
1. Go to Washington
2. Destroy people’s work and lives
3. Leave in disgrace
4. Have the guy you were working for slashing people’s work and lives spend a shitload more money than you saved or claimed to save
Almost like it was never about that. It was about purging the government of people who would stand up to an administration full of incompetent clowns and stealing as much data as they could.
They were also 20 year olds who were in charge of killing grants that were deemed DEI, but they couldn’t define DEI. They said the Holocaust was bad because of DEI, but couldn’t elaborate on what they meant by that. They also claimed they were qualified even though they had no experience with grants, peer review, or government procedures. When asked why they were qualified, the answer was that, “you don’t have to have experience doing the job if you, like, read books on it.” So they were asked which books they read. The answer? “I didn’t read any books.”
They just came and cared to steal the data and getting paid for it. Grifters everywhere you turn with no consequences.
It was never about money, that was just the pretext to get in the door.
DOGE was a data heist.
really now?
totally didn’t noticed the failure.
Now tell us how much of our private data they stole.
It successfully lined Elon’s pockets with more government contracts
DOGE eliminated the agencies that conducted government oversight.
DOGE went in to sow chaos and steal the SS database . In those ways it was successful
It was all about Musk getting free access to every American’s private data. Duh.
Even if DOGE did save billions, Trump would have burned through that in a week
Well let’s see.
The preliminary federal budget deficit for January 2025 (DOGE formed) was approximately $127 billion to $129 billion.
From the beginning of the fiscal year to February, deficits were $1.004 trillion.
They did drive out many of the most qualified and senior folks the govt haf though…losing decades upon decades of institutional knowledge that will forever be lost.
[ Removed by Reddit ]
From the article: federal spending actually *increased* nearly 6% during DOGE’s existence — from $7.135 trillion to $7.558 trillion.
They promised $2 trillion in cuts. Spending went up $423 billion. And under oath the guy literally said “No, we didn’t” reduce the deficit.
No shit…so sloppy and ideologically motivated. Then the orange atrocity added billions to immigration and defense, effectively wiping out any cuts…so stupid, smartest man in the world got played by the dumbest man in the world
It wasn’t meant to reduce the deficit. It was meant to remove, delete, and introduce new programming into the system.
Well fucking duh. We can easily see the math was never going to math. Plus, besides the obvious data theft and investigation killing operational goals, they never even targeted a department, like defense, to do anything with. So yeah, we knew what this was, and it was a success for the South African Nazi.
So much shit has happened in-between I had completely forgotten about DOGE
“Who said we’re terrorists?” – Hans Gruber
Stop calling it a cost cutting agency. It never was, it was engineered to operate in bad faith from the start. It was a grift, designed to break government services full within and to make a few people richer. One more example of the media whitewashing the administration.
Doge was a front to access data
How Elon Fraud Musk is still not behind bars amazes me.
He bullshits on so many issues he has no F ing idea about.
😂
I quit my federal job when doge started harassing me but I just collected unemployment so the feds saved money while the state lost it. Never cooperate with tyrants.
That wasn’t their actual objective.
Bc it was a lie for Von Shitzinpants to win the presidency
Welp, at least they stole every Americans most sensitive data and killed like a million people worldwide by gutting usaid, so that’s…good?
That was never the point , just dismantle our country and declaw things that would inhibit their corruption
So… can we get our money and personal data back then, or?
You mean they were only there to do racist shit?
Musk for prison 2026
Remember what Musk said about the democrats coming after him if they won in 2024. He said he’d be fucked. That is why he bribed Trump and took on DOGE to get rid of investigators and lawsuits.
It was a data heist… that’s it
They just cut all the stuff people needed so “The peace president can start all these wars “
Duh
Yea make elon repay every dollar cut
Well no shit. They cut fractions of a penny on the dollar and then “spent” more doing it. Meanwhile the value the services of those institutions provide are just fucking gone and we “saved” less than nothing while losing all of the value those services gave us
It was a fucking robbery for billionaires who now have our private data – more than they ever did before and now with less oversight
How much did Doge charge the government for their services????