Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) recently discovered a code pertaining to a budget line item that accounted for nearly $4.7 trillion in Treasury payments. According to DOGE, this line item was often left blank, making it “nearly untraceable.” The department maintained that the line item would be closely monitored moving forward.
The lack of oversight has prompted outrage from American taxpayers, who have raised the question of what their tax dollars are going toward. Shortly after stepping back into the White House, President Donald Trump charged Musk and DOGE with identifying such issues within the federal government and correcting them.
“The Treasury Access Symbol (TAS) is an identification code linking a Treasury payment to a budget line item (standard financial process). In the Federal Government, the TAS field was optional for ~$4.7 Trillion in payments and was often left blank, making traceability almost impossible,” the official DOGE account wrote to X. “As of Saturday, this is now a required field, increasing insight into where money is actually going. Thanks to @USTreasury for the great work.”
One irate conservative, Natalie F Danelishen, took to X, calling out the untraceable $4.7 trillion. “Wanna hear a fun fact? Last year the IRS collected 4.7 trillion in taxes. @doge just uncovered 4.7 trillion in untraceable payments. So to put it into perspective the treasury has a whole year of tax revenue just missing. What are we paying for?” she asked.
Echoing this sentiment, conservative commentator Clint Russell posted, “After these DOGE disclosures I feel like we absolutely shouldn’t have to pay taxes. Until you can show where every penny went you shouldn’t get a penny more. This is my most moderate position.” Another user agreed, “Absolutely! Once they complete the financial audit—I’d love it if they’d swing by the patent department and audit it. Releasing any tech that would benefit the greater good of humanity!”
The Kobessi Letter weighed in on the news, “It keeps getting worse: The Treasury Access Symbol, an identification code for payments in the US Treasury system, was an “optional” field. As a result, DOGE is unable to trace $4.7 TRILLION worth of US Treasury payments. That’s ~2.6 TIMES the 2024 US deficit.”
“This lack of transparency is staggering. $4.7 trillion in payments with no clear link to budget line items is a recipe for disaster and corruption,” one person on social media reacted. ” The fact that the TAS field was optional is unacceptable. It’s no wonder we have so much waste and inefficiency in government spending.”
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“We need leaders like Trump who will drain the swamp and bring accountability to our government’s financial dealings,” the same user concluded. “If the government was a business, they’d be bankrupt or in jail for failing to track where $4.7 TRILLION went,” another person commented. ” Now that transparency is mandatory, let’s see how much money was flowing to special interests, foreign governments, and deep-state cronies.”
Watch Musk sound off on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) below: