In huge news first reported on by the Washington Post, the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, already has over 4 dozen agents that have been sent to Washington, D.C., and are busy looking for ways to cut waste. Up first on the block, it appears, is the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), which the DOGE agents are investigating for waste.
As background, Trump, announcing that Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk would head DOGE, said, “Together, these two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies – Essential to the ‘Save America’ Movement.”
He added, “I look forward to Elon and Vivek making changes to the Federal Bureaucracy with an eye on efficiency and, at the same time, making life better for all Americans.” Commenting on DOGE at the time, Musk said, “This will send shockwaves through the system, and anyone involved in Government waste, which is a lot of people!”
In any case, according to the Washington Post, DOGE has sent, as of now, a total of 50 employees who are working in DC and are looking for ways to start slashing federal spending. As of now, the sources told the Washington Post, those over four dozen agents are working out of SpaceX’s DC-area offices.
While it is the IRS that has garnered the most attention so far as a department that will very likely be cut if DOGE can get its recommendations into the budget, it’s not the only one that the dozens of DOGE agents are examining for cuts. According to the Washington Post report, the U.S. Treasury, IRS, Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services (HHS) are being investigated as the agents set to work.
Elon, commenting on the amount of spending DOGE aims to cut, said that while it is aiming for the $2 trillion cut necessary to get rid of the federal deficit, he thinks it is very possible DOGE will at least get to $1 trillion. He said, “I think we’ll try for $2 trillion. I think that’s like the best-case outcome. But I do think that you kind of have to have some overage. I think if we try for $2 trillion, we’ve got a good shot at getting $1 [trillion].”
As the advance team gets in place in DC and starts determining what low-hanging fruit there is that can be found and slashed from the budget, which many observers expect to be a great deal of spending, Elon has ramped up hiring for DOGE and expects to have around 100 agents in place by January 20, Inauguration Day.
Numerous people in the tech world and Musk’s orbit are said to be involved in DOGE at the highest levels. For example, Steve Davis, president of the Boring Company and the man who took a cost-cutting chainsaw to X after Musk took it over, firing around three-quarters of the pre-Musk workforce, is reportedly involved in formulating strategy for it. Similarly, former Uber executive Emil Michael, is reportedly involved with crafting regulatory reforms for DOGE.
Watch Trump comment on DOGE here:
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