DOGE progress discussion

[Edward64]

The DOGE dashboard ...

https://www.doge-tracker.com/

Top half is summary totals. Bottom half has list of "initiatives" where savings were found.

Note the dashboard says $2T is still the goal and 494 days remaining. It says $52B in savings so far. No doubt it'll jump as DOGE gets to the bigger budgets at Health and Human Services, Defense etc.

I do like the dashboard and the transparency it provides. We know there's been mistakes in some claims, and there's been challenges and corrections. But it does give the media & fact checkers something to verify and challenge; and this is good.

Bottom-line to me. An initiative to find waste & fraud is good. But the execution can be better (e.g. the past 3-4 days of confusion regarding listing what a person been doing or else, unnecessary friction with Agency heads who are already Trump loyalists etc.).

[Lathum]

They aren’t finding fraud. They are cutting programs so they can funnel money for their trillion dollar tax cuts. Its laughable anyone could actually think they want to reduce spending and have some altruistic notions.

[Edward64]

Fair enough re: fraud. I wasn't careful enough with my choice of words. From wiki

DOGE is a temporary organization under the United States DOGE Service (formerly the United States Digital Service). Its purpose is to carry out spending cuts and to "modernize federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity". DOGE is scheduled to end on July 4, 2026.

[JPhillips]

lol

It's already been shown they are inflating numbers and many of the canceled contracts have already been paid out. They aren't close to 52 billion, probably still under 10 billion.

And all of it's illegal horseshit. If they want to make cuts, do it through the legal channels.

[whomario]

"transparency"

[cuervo72]

Find another board for shit threads like this.

[whomario]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

lol

It's already been shown they are inflating numbers and many of the canceled contracts have already been paid out. They aren't close to 52 billion, probably still under 10 billion.

And all of it's illegal horseshit. If they want to make cuts, do it through the legal channels.

And what remains often is stuff agencies paid for to enable employees to effectively do their job, attract better employees, keep employees etc. To say it's not needed ... That's not something you figure out by having a 20 year old with no expertise looking at the title of a 'contract' going "eh, that sounds woke, be gone! Money saved!"

It's pretty shortsighted to treat this like there's no drawbacks to government agencies potentially not being in a position to provide services they are tasked with providing for cheap political points. Or Cult points.

[Atocep]

There would have been very little pushback from anyone if this had been done correctly. Elon and his gang have zero government experience, don't know the systems, don't understand the impact of what they're doing, don't see how certain things are connected to the funding they're cutting, and are misleading the public on what they are doing by inflating numbers and blatantly lying.

The people that have looked over the DOGE data that's on that website have put the real amount "saved" at less than 6 billion. You don't get to claim credit for the full amount of a contract that you cut when it's 4 years into a 5 year deal. There's also what's simply bad math where the numbers they claim don't add up.

The problem is the waste isn't where they and many other people are convinced it is and it's nowhere near the extent they wanted to see. So they're making shit up to justify their work and inflating the numbers because they started off with an absurd goal of $2 trillion.

[Mota]

Is there an FX rate calculator for DOGE? Instead of money saved, they should list how many people they have fired.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by Atocep

There would have been very little pushback from anyone if this had been done correctly.

Yes, I agree with you. The current process lacks rigor and is unnecessarily confrontational. It's his Congress for the next 2 years.

The people that have looked over the DOGE data that's on that website have put the real amount "saved" at less than 6 billion. You don't get to claim credit for the full amount of a contract that you cut when it's 4 years into a 5 year deal. There's also what's simply bad math where the numbers they claim don't add up.

There no doubt there's issues with DOGE accounting. I've seen $6B and < $10B tossed around.

Someone needs to create a "doge-tracker-corrections.com" that parallels it and come up with the details on why the savings is valid or not.

[Edward64]

Here's a sampling of inaccuracies ...

Just a moment...

But among the 1,100-plus contracts purportedly canceled, POLITICO found:

• Contracts that had not yet been awarded
• Instances where a single pot of money is listed multiple times — tripling or quadrupling the amount of savings claimed
• Purchase agreements that have no record of being canceled, but were instead stripped of language related to diversity, equity and inclusion
• Contract savings identified by DOGE that do not match with records they refer to in the Federal Procurement Data System
• Contracts where the underlying document is for an entirely different contract

[Lathum]

So if you know it isn't accurate why are you creating a whole thread dedicated to following it and posting the dashboard that is completely inaccurate?

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by Lathum

So if you know it isn't accurate why are you creating a whole thread dedicated to following it and posting the dashboard that is completely inaccurate?

Because (1) not all of it is inaccurate and (2) I'm interested in seeing what else DOGE finds.

Why don't you want to see what DOGE says they've found?

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by Edward64

Because (1) not all of it is inaccurate and (2) I'm interested in seeing what else DOGE finds.

Why don't you want to see what DOGE says they've found?

Because they lie about what they fine. Why do you care why someone who is a proven liar says?

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by Edward64

Because (1) not all of it is inaccurate and (2) I'm interested in seeing what else DOGE finds.

Why don't you want to see what DOGE says they've found?

This sounds a lot like being almost pregnant.

You realize 20 year old interns have zero clue about what they are actually finding in there?

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

Because they lie about what they fine. Why do you care why someone who is a proven liar says?

Because (1) not all of it are lies and (2) I'm interested in seeing what else DOGE finds

The biggest parts with Defense, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Health etc. are still to come.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by Edward64

Because (1) not all of it are lies and (2) I'm interested in seeing what else DOGE finds

The biggest parts with Defense, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Health etc. are still to come.

They have proven to be an incompetent group of liars. The fact you are admitting they are telling lies should make you question anything they publish.

Why would you think what they claim to find with the bigger programs would be accurate?

They shouldn't even have access to those databases let alone any authority to make changes or cuts.

[Fidatelo]

Jon Stewart nailed the DOGE situation this week. Most people are open to the premise, but the execution is laughable and the meaningful waste is not even being targeted: - YouTube

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by Lathum

They have proven to be an incompetent group of liars. The fact you are admitting they are telling lies should make you question anything they publish.

Why would you think what they claim to find with the bigger programs would be accurate?

DOGE will declare what they have found and saved. And that amount will be inaccurate.

However, MSM and fact checkers will verify DOGE claims (like they are now) and give us the accurate no. Right now, they say approx $6B out of $52B.

I want to know the accurate no.

[JPhillips]

Trump just made the DHS Sec. spend a couple hundred million to run commercials praising Trump for deportations. Sounds like waste to me.

[flere-imsaho]

On top of the flat out lying (that I'll echo from other posters here), I think we'll find that most of the "legit" savings are along the lines of:

"Hey, I stopped paying my mortgage and now I'm saving myself $2000/month!"

[dubb93]

It should have been a legit audit of every agency by actual auditors who know what they are doing. Instead it’s a Ketamine addict leading a bunch of internet dude bros snooping in things they have no idea about. It’s the ultimate government waste.

[flere-imsaho]

Look, I've worked with Private Equity guys who were actively involved in asset stripping a company they had bought who were being more circumspect about identifying and cutting expenses than DOGE.

[flere-imsaho]

Originally Posted by dubb93

It’s the ultimate government waste.

Exactly. Edward - are they tracking the cost of their mistakes, like when they fired key people and then had to re-hire them?

[flere-imsaho]

Originally Posted by Edward64

DOGE will declare what they have found and saved. And that amount will be inaccurate.

However, MSM and fact checkers will verify DOGE claims (like they are now) and give us the accurate no. Right now, they say approx $6B out of $52B.

I want to know the accurate no.

"I gave my car to a 5-year-old kid down the street and he completely disassembled it. The good news is that it's not making that rattling noise anymore. The bad news is that the real mechanic I just had look at it told me it'll cost me twice what I paid for it to put it back together again."

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by flere-imsaho

Exactly. Edward - are they tracking the cost of their mistakes, like when they fired key people and then had to re-hire them?

I doubt it.

Scanning through the "initiatives" in the website, it doesn't seem to contain the cost savings for the headcount reductions (e.g. letting the bunch of probationary people go). It may in the future, but don't know.

But even if they did, I'm pretty sure they won't track what you asked. I'm guessing the re-hires aren't really rehires, but cancellation of terminations. And if there really were re-hires (e.g. 3 months later), I'd think the nos. are relatively small to the no. terminated.


FWIW, government payroll is about $271B (2022). I've seen 5-10% staff terminations in my career, so using that rule of thumb, a swag of up $30B in annual savings. No idea if realistic but just a benchmark for myself if/when the termination savings $ are revealed.

[JPhillips]

And how many staff reductions are being replaced with contractors? Twenty years ago my wife was a contractor for the SEC. She cost them more than a staff paralegal, but they could point to the reduction in staffing and call it a savings.

[Danny]

Id be shocked if in the long run the whole doge reductions end up having a net savings of even $1

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

And how many staff reductions are being replaced with contractors? Twenty years ago my wife was a contractor for the SEC. She cost them more than a staff paralegal, but they could point to the reduction in staffing and call it a savings.

I wish I could tell you but no one knows, we'll have to wait and see.

Question to you - are you against an initiative of finding government waste, inefficiencies etc.? or are you for it, not just how DOGE is doing it?

[JPhillips]

I'm fine with making government more efficient. I just want it done with purpose and through legal means. This is neither.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by Danny

Id be shocked if in the long run the whole doge reductions end up having a net savings of even $1

If you mean savings as in the approx $2T annual deficit will be reduced, I share it.

As someone else mentioned (and I tend to agree), the found "savings" here will be redirected to "spend" somewhere else, and the net won't be $2T saved but $2T repurposed for other things like extension of Trump tax cuts.

[Edward64]

Meet your new DOGE overlord.

Why Trump doesn't just officially hire Musk in some sort of new department or cabinet position, I'm sure he'll get the votes in Congress.

Amy Gleason is the acting administrator of the US DOGE Service, the agency that houses the temporary Department of Government Efficiency, a White House official told CNN on Tuesday.

[Lathum]

Not a fan of the person assigned to "trim the fat" looking like she never orders the salad.

[larrymcg421]

Originally Posted by Lathum

Not a fan of the person assigned to "trim the fat" looking like she never orders the salad.

Um. What?

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by Edward64

We know there's been mistakes in some claims, and there's been challenges and corrections. But it does give the media & fact checkers something to verify and challenge; and this is good.

The good news and willingness to correct when challenged ...

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/25/u...s-changed.html

Now the organization, which is also known as the U.S. DOGE Service, has deleted all of the five biggest “savings” on that original list, after The New York Times and other media outlets pointed out they were riddled with errors.

• An $8 billion cut at Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The actual contract in question was worth $8 million.
• Three $655 million cuts at the U.S. Agency for International Development. This was actually a single cut that was erroneously counted three times, as first reported by CBS News.
• A $232 million cut at the Social Security Administration ... Instead, as reported by The Intercept, it had canceled only a tiny piece of it: a $560,000 project to let users mark their gender as “X.” The DOGE site now shows that small cut instead.

The bad news, new inaccuracies.

Some of the new canceled contracts added this week appear to make some of the same types of errors.

The largest savings on the latest version of its list is a $1.9 billion cut at the Treasury Department. But The Times reported last week that this contract was canceled last fall, when Joseph R. Biden Jr. was president — and when DOGE did not yet exist.

I really want something like this, real time fact checker

Someone needs to create a "doge-tracker-corrections.com" that parallels it and come up with the details on why the savings is valid or not.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by larrymcg421

Um. What?

What don't you get?

[Mota]

Originally Posted by Lathum

What don't you get?

You could probably pick at a lot of things before needing to mock her appearance.

I wonder how much they're paying her to be an official employee who just serves as a front for Elon? That seems like a good target for DOGE.

[Lathum]

These people deserve to be mocked about everything and anything. Someone who is charged with finding excess who clearly doesn’t grasp the concept of excess should be mocked. The right certainly has no issues mocking people’s appearances so neither will I. The time for being nice is over.

[larrymcg421]

Someone who is charged with finding excess who clearly doesn’t grasp the concept of excess should be mocked.

Maybe one of the dumbest things ever written on this board. The rest of your post is just morally bankrupt justification for atrocious behavior.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by larrymcg421

Maybe one of the dumbest things ever written on this board. The rest of your post is just morally bankrupt justification for atrocious behavior.

I can live with that. Keep clutching those pearls.

[cuervo72]

Originally Posted by Lathum

So if you know it isn't accurate why are you creating a whole thread dedicated to following it and posting the dashboard that is completely inaccurate?

Because he's a troll and has always been a troll. Apparently there's no way to vote him off the island though so we have to put up with it, only able to mitigate it through putting him on ignore, but that does nothing about the "I'm just asking questions" threads that he insists on making.

Edit: maybe more propagandist than troll, but you know what I mean.

[Edward64]

This would be fun!

I wouldn't be surprised if Musk backed-off. But then, I don't think Paramount-MTV-Comedy Central-Daily Show wants this either.

But if it does happen, I think 50-50 that it could be a solid interview.

Elon Musk will go on 'Daily Show' if 'unedited': See show's response

Elon Musk could be headed to "The Daily Show" to go toe-to-toe with host Jon Stewart, a frequent outspoken critic of both the Trump administration and the billionaire's efforts to slash government spending.

After the episode aired, Musk's supporters began clamoring on social media site X, which he owns, for the tech mogul to go on "The Daily Show" for a one-on-one conversation with Stewart. Musk appeared to accept the challenge, replying Tuesday to one user, "I will do it if the show airs unedited."

"The Daily Show" took notice, reposting the message Wednesday from its official account accepting the terms.

"We'd be delighted!" read the response, which tagged Musk.

[sovereignstar v2]

Oh sweet. They can record that after Elon fights Zuckerberg

[JPhillips]

Yeah, Elon will back out, but I'm sure The Daily Show would love the opportunity. Regardless of what happens it would be a big ratings get.

[flere-imsaho]

[Atocep]

The DHA 3 star general was forced into retirement today. She spoke out regarding the Dodge deferred retirement threats. She wasn't even given the opportunity to send out an email to staff. Everyone found out when her acting replacement sent an email out saying he's in charge now while they search for the permanent replacement.

She was scheduled to be the keynote speaker at DHITS (Defense Health IT symposium) next week. Budget cuts have forced DHA to not allow civilian staff to attend this year. So you're going to get a bunch of military people that are in their position for 2 years, at most, speaking to vendors and making long term decisions regarding health IT that they won't be around to even see get off the ground. This was one of the travel opportunities I mentioned turning down in the Trump thread. These aren't fun at all but are important for building contacts at other Military Treatment Facilities, seeing the future of health IT, and speaking to the decision makers at the DHA leadership level.

The DoD also got the 5 bullet points email from Hegseth today. Nothing screams efficiency like 6 emails explaining what's wanted, clarifying what's wanted, and then confirming the clarifications. I spent 3 hours of my day going over bullet points with my staff so that everyone was comfortable with what they're sending. If this becomes an ongoing thing I'm probably going to make a list of 40 or so canned bullet points that my staff can pull from and use in the future.

[Atocep]

Elon has also requested 20 GS-15s be added to OPM through July of next year. That's about 4 million in salary waste from our efficiency overlords. (For those that don't know, GS-15 is the highest the federal GS system goes and in the DC area would be about $170k per year. My boss, the CIO of our large hospital, isn't a GS-15. We actually don't have a GS-15 in our hospital).

The NSF is rehiring all fired probationary employees after the judge ruled they were illegally fired last week.

RIFs are starting now at some agencies. We're going to see more lawsuits that OPM is going to lose since they're being carried out similar to the probationary firings instead of following guidelines.

[Edward64]

The tracker jumped up to $105B saved.

Looking forward to the analysis/rebuttals by MSM and fact checkers

[Arles]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

And how many staff reductions are being replaced with contractors? Twenty years ago my wife was a contractor for the SEC. She cost them more than a staff paralegal, but they could point to the reduction in staffing and call it a savings.

We have done the same with a few positions at my day job. With Obama care, it was a little trickier. Still, while the person makes a much higher hourly wage, the company saves between 40 and 60K (based on the salary) on not having to pay health/dental, social security, 401K match, reduced vacation/sick time, Life insurance, etc. So for many positions making that transition (even at a higher hourly rate) does save the company a decent amount of money.

[kingfc22]

Originally Posted by Edward64

The tracker jumped up to $105B saved.

Looking forward to the analysis/rebuttals by MSM and fact checkers

Funny that your natural instinct is to know the information they put out has a high likelihood of being incorrect but here you are still relaying the information as if it were true dollars saved.