DOGE's Only Public Ledger Is Riddled With Mistakes

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Hat tip, someone at another forum

TheUpshot
DOGE’s Only Public Ledger Is Riddled With Mistakes

The figures from Elon Musk’s team of outsiders represent billions in government cuts. They are also full of accounting errors, outdated data and other miscalculations.


Elon Musk has been a central figure in the first month of the Trump administration. Eric Lee/The New York Times

By Aatish Bhatia, Emily Badger, David A. Fahrenthold, Josh Katz, Margot Sanger-Katz and Ethan Singer
The reporters reviewed hundreds of federal contracts, interviewed contracting experts and spoke to recipients of canceled contracts.
Feb. 21, 2025

Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency say they have saved the federal government $55 billion through staff reductions, lease cancellations and a long list of terminated contracts published online this week as a “wall of receipts.” … President Trump has been celebrating the published savings, even musing about a proposal to mail checks to all Americans to reimburse them with a “DOGE dividend.”

But the math that could back up those checks is marred with accounting errors, incorrect assumptions, outdated data and other mistakes, according to a New York Times analysis of all the contracts listed. While the DOGE team has surely cut some number of billions of dollars, its slapdash accounting adds to a pattern of recklessness by the group, which has recently gained access to sensitive government payment systems.

Some contracts the group claims credit for were double- or triple-counted. Another initially contained an error that inflated the totals by billions of dollars. In at least one instance, the group claimed an entire contract had been canceled when only part of the work had been halted. In others, contracts the group said it had closed were actually ended under the Biden administration.

The canceled contracts listed on the website make up a small part of the $55 billion total that the group estimated it had found so far. It was not possible to independently verify that number or other totals on the site with the evidence provided. A senior White House official described how the office made its calculations on individual contracts, but did not respond to numerous questions about other aspects of the group’s accounting. But it is clear that every dollar the website claims credit for is not necessarily a dollar the federal government would have spent — or one that can now be returned to the public.

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Aatish Bhatia, a graphics editor at The Upshot, creates interactive articles that explain complex ideas in simple ways. More about Aatish Bhatia

Emily Badger writes about cities and urban policy for The Times from Washington. She’s particularly interested in housing, transportation and inequality — and how they’re all connected. More about Emily Badger

David A. Fahrenthold is an investigative reporter writing about nonprofit organizations. He has been a reporter for two decades. More about David A. Fahrenthold

Josh Katz writes, designs and produces stories, charts and interactive journalism for The Times. More about Josh Katz

Margot Sanger-Katz is a reporter covering health care policy and public health for the Upshot section of The Times. More about Margot Sanger-Katz

Ethan Singer reports using data for The Upshot section as a member of the 2024-25 Times Fellowship class, a program for journalists early in their careers. More about Ethan Singer

[Klarkashton]

1. DOGE is a mistake.

[sinkingfeeling]

2. Put another way, it's all bullsh*t.