The DOGE Death Legacy
It Was Never About Efficiency Was It Mr. Musk?
Elon Musk has announced that he is leaving service to the United States government which for me begs the question…how soon can you go? Today wouldn’t be soon enough. Let me show you the door….
DOGE Was A Failure
By any metric that you want to use, Elon Musk’s “DOGE project” has been nothing but a colossal failure at least in terms of its public goals. Notwithstanding the rhetoric that Trump spins daily about “fraud, waste, and abuse” within the system, Musk has increased all three of these maladies.
Designated as a “special government employee,” (whatever the hell that is) Musk has conducted a campaign to radically downsize the federal government and terminate numerous agency employees. Instead of using evidence-based processes and a scalpel to ensure essential government functions and people are not harmed, he took a hatchet to the bureaucracy and eliminated thousands of jobs regardless of their importance or significance. This will not end waste or fraud nor save any money…however, it will cost lives.
The overall goal was supposedly to slash spending. With an original promise of cutting $2 trillion from the budget during the 2024 campaign, Musk downsized the goal to $1 trillion by Trump’s inauguration. And, how much has Musk saved the American people in spending after 130 days?
If you believe Musk or Trump, or Fox News, the number is $175 billion…
…but, that is a stretch according to the New York Times investigation. The investigation uncovered numerous errors in DOGE's numbers, including counting government contracts that had not yet been awarded, counting contracts that had ended years ago, triple-counting the same savings, and confusing "million" with "billion.”
Amateur mistakes? Intentional misinformation? Take your pick.
A more likely number that would be in line with reality is $0…a big goose-egg. DOGE cuts have caused more inefficiencies in government processes and wasted money in numerous ways. Musk’s manipulation has probably cost the American taxpayer more money in the end.
Cancelling ongoing scientific studies before they can deliver results means effectively throwing away any money already spent. Firing essential workers makes it more expensive to run agencies. The Penn Whartan Budget Model which is nonpartisan, shows that spending has risen 6% over the same period last year (Jan.-April). Yes, more spending than the Biden administration.
In other words, DOGE has accomplished nothing, except increasing the cost of government. The nonprofit Partnership for Public Service estimates that DOGE’s actions may be costing taxpayers around $135 billion. 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 the payroll total.
The irony of this situation is that hearing from my MAGA friends and acquaintances, they are giddy with excitement over the fraud and abuse that they truly believe DOGE is finding, many claiming that the waste was solely the responsibility of the corrupt Biden administration. Of course, this glee comes from watching Fox News and listening to the President’s pronouncements on X. The disconnect with reality is truly profound.
DOGE Missed the Grift Right Under Their Noses
Musk’s failure to save any money doesn’t obfuscate the fact that there is a lot of fraud in federal government programs. But fraud and waste doesn’t come from the employees who have suffered the hammer of cuts. According to a report by private anti-fraud firm Socure, international rings of foreign criminals are pilfering federal programs through stealing identities, and applying for funds through federal programs.
Fraud and waste are real. But DOGE has ignored the real source of the grift.
Socure researchers have tracked these fraud criminals to several countries including Russia, China, Egypt, Poland and others around the world. The Government Accountability Office (GOA) which is the real agency in charge of fraud, waste and abuse in government is fully aware of these criminal activities and estimate the losses at around $500 billion annually. Another fraud expert, Linda Miller, told CBS’ "60 Minutes" that she believes the losses reach between $550 billion and $750 billion a year.
Going after international fraud against the US government could have been a gigantic victory for Musk and the American people. It is a technology problem. But Musk wasn’t interested.
“It’s the government’s dirty little secret — this has been an ongoing effort by nation states and other criminal organizations for years,” said Jordan Burris, vice president of Socure, an identity management firm, who is a former White House official. “We’ve been able to confirm that these coordinated attacks are pilfering government programs and doing so at a velocity that is relentless.”
This is a problem that is completely solvable. Banks and private companies such as Amazon and Walmart have largely solved this type of fraud through upgraded technology and anti-identification stealing programs. You would think that a person with the technology background of Elon Musk would have identified this as one of the major culprits of fraud and waste and go after it with his hatchet…but he didn’t.
So What Was The Real Objective? It Wasn’t Efficiency
This begs another question: why did Musk, the genius-technology savant wonder boy, ignore the real source of government waste? It was right there hiding in plain sight.
What if I told you the real purpose of DOGE was not to end fraud, waste and abuse? After all, how could someone with the intelligence of Elon Musk miss the most obvious source of government waste?
Maybe it is because ending that sort of abuse wasn’t the goal. “Ya think?”
What if I told you the real objective of DOGE was to consolidate power within the Presidency? This has been a long-term goal of Republicans, and of course, the indicted felon-President Trump is on board.
They want to expand presidential power under the theory of the Unitary Executive, which advocates greater White House control over the government. Remember Nixon’s famous quip? “If the President does it, it isn’t illegal.” Conservative MAGA types have pushed for this since the Reagan administration, and Trump hopes Musk’s actions will help advance it.
Put another way, DOGE is nothing but a power grab by the Donald and his MAGA-Minions. Firing thousands of federal employees and making them scapegoats for government waste will give him the ability to rehire more loyalists. The federal government won’t really decrease in size, but it will increase with MAGA loyalists in bureaucratic roles instead of nonpartisan experts with years of experience. That fact alone will cost the government more money due to greater inefficiency.
This game plan has been taken directly from Project 2025. Musk has been the quarterback. DOGE has already made the United States government more chaotic and more autocratic, which is a win for Trump and his allies.
Regardless of what the world’s richest person chooses to do next (and thank goodness he is leaving) and despite the apparent failure to save any money, he has succeeded in increasing the autocratic structure of the executive. That was the real point all along.
The Department of Government Efficiency should have been named the Department of MAGA Power Consolidation. That is what it is…it has nothing to do with government efficiency or fraud. DOGE is one of the biggest frauds hoisted on the American people in history.
DOGE Will Lead to Many Deaths
However, DOGE fraud goes deeper than just manipulation and misdirection. Ultimately, the outcome of the DOGE project will be the loss of lives. When power becomes the overriding objective, human lives become expendable and cheap. That is why governments rarely worry about the downtrodden, marginalized, and those who have no voice. They are valueless because they offer no support (meaning cash) to the real objective: power and control over others.
The DOGE legacy of death is best exemplified in the abrupt shuttering of USAID or the United States Agency for International Development. U.S. foreign aid plays a critical role in tackling poverty, hunger, and inequality worldwide, which is why the Trump administration’s recent cuts were met with public outrage. Trump was banking on support for this effort since many Americans complain about US dollars going to foreign aid. Such was not the case.
The misinformation about USAID is vast. Americans greatly overestimate the amount spent on US foreign aid with many estimating that at least 20 percent of the budget goes to foreign aid. The amount is around 1% or less with a budget of around $40 billion. But it is amazing what can be done with just $40 billion. It isn’t wasted.
Elon Musk seemed surprised at the blowback for dismantling USAID. Foreign aid is a popular program. The University of Maryland’s School for Public Policy surveyed thousands of people and discovered that 89% of Americans say the US should spend at least one percent of the federal budget on foreign aid, the current amount the US spends on aid. This includes 84% of Republicans and 94% of Democrats.
Even with this support, most citizens aren’t aware of how foreign aid money is spent. Trump and the MAGA crowd view it as a government handout to non-American citizens. The chart below illustrates that 27% of the funds go to economic development. However, 44% of the funds go to humanitarian assistance and healthcare, especially HIV/AIDS vaccines and care.
USAID saves lives on a worldwide scale and has been doing so since the 1960s. It has made the difference between death and a meager living for millions of people. Now, with the funds slashed and grants halted, people are dying. The effect of these cuts on people is dire: At least 23 million children stand to lose access to education, and as many as 95 million people would lose access to basic healthcare, potentially leading to more than 3 million preventable deaths per year.
On May 21, Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared: "No one has died because of USAID [cuts]." At a subsequent congressional hearing, he said, "No children are dying on my watch." Rubio is either lying or is so out of touch with reality on the ground that he should resign.
According to Kate Phillips-Barrasso, Mercy Corps’ vice president for policy and advocacy, 40 of its 62 U.S.-funded programs with the potential to reach 3.5 million people in Nigeria, the Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Somalia, Iraq, Sudan, Afghanistan, Kenya, Lebanon, and Gaza have been terminated.
Brooke Nichols mathematician and professor of infectious diseases at Boston University, had created a model to predict the human cost of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency’s USAID funding cuts. What she discovered astounded her; the number of deaths on Nichols’s tracker hit 300,000, more than 200,000 of them children.
Nichols’ work has evolved into a data-tracking website called Impact Counter. She has highlighted the work of the USAID program PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief), which was the largest source of international assistance to more than 120 countries through food programs, clean water initiatives, and infectious disease outbreak responses.
People will die without these programs.
These are just the short-term effects of the dissolution of USAID. The coming years could reverse decades of progress in working to end poverty, hunger, and disease in countries throughout the world. The DOGE death legacy will linger for years as millions, mostly children, will die of malnutrition and preventable diseases. Musk and Trump will have their blood on their hands.
Musk came to the White House on May 30 to receive his thanks from Trump and adoring adulation from the MAGA staff workers… It was a disgraceful scene. The “optics” of the world’s richest man taking from its poorest and getting thanked for it were “horrifying,” said Nichols.
Impact On American Farmers
The deaths that have resulted and will result from the destruction of USAID are catastrophic enough. However, the impact on American farmers is yet to be totaled. This situation illustrates the maxim that in economics, everything is connected to everything. It is a truism that I can believe goes over Donald’s head, but someone like Musk should understand it.
Iowa farmers in my state will be faced with a loss of markets for their crops, requiring them to raise prices to break even on domestic sales and thus contributing to more inflation. The uncertainty makes planning for planting and harvesting more difficult,, resulting in inefficiency. These problems will be exacerbated in a highly agricultural state like Iowa.
But these cuts will affect farmers in all regions. For many southern farmers already struggling with narrow profit margins, the loss of market access and technical support could be devastating. Rural communities across Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Arkansas, Louisiana, and the Carolinas risk losing critical economic opportunities due to USAID cuts.
What Trump-Musk-DOGE death policies fail to comprehend is the interrelatedness of farm production, USAID international contracts, the health and well-being of millions of people around the globe, and the welfare of the United States. Foreign Aid ultimately helps the United States…there is a positive result when the US is engaged in working to end hunger, disease and malnutrition.
Frankly, Musk and his billionaire buddies have enough private wealth to not only fund USAID themselves, but they could triple the budget. The result would be the end of poverty, hunger, and infectious disease world-wide. The chance of that happening are lower than me buying a Tesla.
It is enough to sustain foreign aid simply because it is the right thing to do, however, USAID indirectly benefits Americans by supporting global stability, which can reduce conflicts and humanitarian crises that could impact the United States. It also promotes global health initiatives that can prevent disease outbreaks from spreading to the US and protect American citizens abroad. Additionally, USAID's work can create economic opportunities for American businesses through international development and trade.
Only the most short-sighted narcissist would not see the interconnectedness of global aid programs. As long as those with power, money, and connections see the world through a “win-lose” paradigm instead of a “win-win” framework, people will die needlessly.
So long Mr. Musk. Take your soulless and pachydermatous self-interested efforts back to your private businesses, which have profited from your so-called Efficiency cuts. We will not miss you.
God help the vulnerable and voiceless ones who will suffer because of Elon’s self-serving efforts.
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