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.
VERY SIMPLY IMPLEMENT A ‘”ZERO BASED BUDGETING” PROCESS IN EACH DEPARTMENT, AGENCY, PROGRAM, OR GROUP THAT IS REQUESTING FUNDING, THAT MANDATES THAT EACH YEAR BEFORE THEY GET ONE CENT THEY MUST SHOW, BASED UPON SOLID EVIDENCE, THAT THEIR ACTIVITIES CONTRIBUTE TO THE EFFICIENT AND EFFECTIVE OPERATIONS OF THE PART OF GOVERNMENT THEY OVERSEE. A KEY PROBLEM IS THAT MOST OFTEN NOTHING IS EVER CANCELLED THEY JUST THROW MORE MONEY AT IT, A KEY STRATEGY IS TO FLATTEN THE GOVERNMENT TO ELIMINATE MULTIPLE REDUNDENT LEVELS. ALSO ELIMINATE DEI HIRING AND TENURE FOR ALL EMPLOYEES AND ELIMINATE EMPLOYEE UNIONS. IT IS WHAT SMART BUSINESS DO AND AS WHAT SMART AND RESPONSILBE PEOPLE AND FAMLIES DO. THIS WILL BE FOUGHT VIGEROUSLY BY THE LEFT AND ALL THOSE WHO THRIVE IN THE WASTEFUL SPENDING WHILE THEY FILL THEIR RETIREMENT ACCOUNTS OFTEN CONTRIBUTING NOTHING TO THE COUNTRY.
I truly appreciate your show watching it every week. I enjoy your staff of reporters as well. Today, when watching this segment, Lisa Fletcher made the statement of “entitlement programs” such as Social Security and Medicare. While I agree there are abuses where the money we have all put into the program has been used for other purposes and spent recklessly maybe being too free with spending the money over the years instead of leaving it for all of us when we retired, I was a bit surprised at her statement. I just wish she would have clarified it and not used it as an example of an entitlement program. As for Medicare, right now my husband and I pay out of our social security check for this “benefit.” So that being an entitlement is a joke.