Despite Elon Musk’s DOGE promising trillions of dollars in savings, federal spending is still climbing.
The cost-cutting team has ripped through the government, shuttering agencies, laying off workers, and canceling billions of dollars worth of contracts. According to DOGE’s official website, the department, which is unofficially headed by billionaire Musk, has saved the government approximately $160 billion.
A DOGE spokesperson did not immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment, made outside normal working hours.
Musk, who served as an unpaid “special government employee” advising DOGE, has already said he plans to vacate the White House and will likely step down in late May. During his tenure, he became the face of DOGE and spearheaded much of the team’s aggressive cuts to the federal workforce.
However, critics argue that Musk’s cuts may have generated more waste than they’ve eliminated. Much of DOGE’s main savings have been made by dramatically slashing the headcount in the federal workforce.
This mass exodus of federal workers may reduce salary obligations, but it also threatens the government’s capacity to perform critical work, including collecting revenue from tax audits.
The Partnership for Public Service estimates that DOGE’s actions may be costing taxpayers around $135 billion. With the federal workforce of 2.3 million drawing $270 billion in annual payroll, Max Stier, chief executive of the nonprofit, argues that the combined expense of firing and rehiring employees, placing them on paid leave, and the resulting productivity losses amounts to roughly half that payroll total.
“The end result will be that the American public will be holding the bag as Elon Musk goes back to his private enterprises,” he said.
The team publishes part of their savings publicly via their website’s “Wall of Receipts,” which lists some canceled contracts, grants, and real estate. However, DOGE says the receipts provided on the website only represent approximately 30% of the full savings, making the top-line figure unverifiable.
Even the selected savings provided by DOGE for public review have been unreliable. For example, the team removed several contracts from its receipt wall after media investigations cast doubt on their validity. In one instance, DOGE downgraded its biggest contract from $8 billion to $8 million when the vendor clarified that the $8 billion figure was likely a clerical mistake.
