DOGE Findings

[civilwarbuff]

hmmm, I wish that your computer or smartphone would allow you to turn off the Blaze's use of cookies. I am able to do so with my browser.

So can I......

 

[Say it aint so]

DOGE Removes Biggest Spending Cuts From Wall Of Receipts​

Last week, DOGE proudly posted a "wall of receipts," showcasing its biggest cost-cutting victories. Immediately, organizations including the New York Times, Washington Post, Politico and others started fact-checking and found that the list was riddled with errors. Earlier on Tuesday, The New York Times reported that DOGE has deleted all of the five biggest savings on that original list, quietly. The errors range from simple miscalculations to outright misrepresentations of government contracts. And yet, despite backtracking on its initial figures, DOGE now claims it has saved $65 billion (up from $55 billion a few days ago) —without any clear explanation of how it reached that number. --FORBES

 

[essentialsaltes]

I know, I know. Elon Musk promised that he would make mistakes that make him look inept and foolish.

Musk Makes Big Mistake While Trying to Smear CNN Legal Analyst Norm Eisen​

Elon Musk falsely accused prominent lawyer and CNN legal analyst Norm Eisen of leading a “crime family” after he discovered a woman with the same last name who worked for an organization that accepted funds from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

The only problem? The woman, Tamar Eisen, is no relation to Norm Eisen.

The group Building America’s Future, which Musk funds, ran an ad earlier this week targeting the liberal candidate in the race for Wisconsin’s Supreme Court, Susan M. Crawford. But the image of the woman in the ad was instead of Susan P. Crawford, a Harvard Law School professor.

 

[Say it aint so]

3/3/25

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has deleted hundreds more claims from its mistake-plagued “wall of receipts,” erasing $4 billion in additional savings that the group said it had made for U.S. taxpayers.​

​

Late Sunday night, the group erased or altered more than 1,000 contracts it had claimed to cancel, representing more than 40 percent of all the contracts listed on its site last week. The deleted items included five of the seven largest savings that it had claimed credit for just last week. At the same time, the group added about 1,000 additional canceled contracts, worth smaller total savings.​

​

It was the second time in a week that DOGE had deleted some of its greatest claims of success. Early last week, it erased all five of the largest savings it had claimed when the wall of receipts, which is what the group is calling its list of canceled contracts, was originally posted on Feb. 19. --NYTimes​

Notice Musk's sends out no correction tweets of his false claims.

​

 

[essentialsaltes]

DOGE to cancel government contracts that help veterans, records show​

Records show the 875 contracts included support for medical and burial services, cancer programs and efforts to recruit doctors for critical vacancies

To the Beclown Car!

Under pressure, VA halts contract cancellations in major reversal​

Records show the 875 contracts at issue included support for medical and burial services, cancer programs, and efforts to recruit doctors for critical vacancies.

DOGE still plans to cut VA contracts that may harm veterans' care, employees say​

The list of contracts on the chopping block hasn't been made public, and the VA declined to provide it. NBC News reviewed documents identifying 200 of the contracts scheduled for cancellation.

What had been a list of 875 VA contracts scheduled for termination a little over a week ago has now become 585 canceled contracts, the VA said Monday. The about-face is a [not so] rare public retreat by the so-called efficiency operation known as DOGE, which has come under fire for moving to ax crucial government services and overstating the value of some of its savings to taxpayers.

The list of contracts still on the chopping block has not been made public, [transparency!] and the VA declined to provide it. But VA employees have identified 200 of the remaining scheduled cancellations to NBC News, and some of them appear to be central to patient safety, those employees say.

For example, the revised list of killed contracts includes those covering sterility certification for VA hospital pharmacy operations, facility air quality and safety testing to prevent transmission of infections, and sterile processing services to decontaminate equipment and medical instruments. Also on the list: contracts providing ... follow-up care for cancer patients.

Another contract that remains scheduled for cancellation supports the National Center for PTSD, a VA entity that is the world’s leading research and educational center on post-traumatic stress disorder.

After this article was published on Thursday, the VA said some of the contracts – sterility certification for pharmacy operations, sterile processing services to decontaminate equipment, technology upgrade of electronic health records and safety monitoring of hospital radiation equipment – have never been slated for cancellation.

Also on Thursday, the VA issued a new directive to its network contracting offices, known as NCOs.

“There will not be any more opportunities to stop termination of contracts that are on the termination lists, these are the rules of the road today," it read. “NCOs should continue moving forward with all terminations as directed. We understand the potential ramifications.”

 

[Valletta]

DOGE still plans to cut VA contracts that may harm veterans' care, employees say​

The list of contracts on the chopping block hasn't been made public, and the VA declined to provide it. NBC News reviewed documents identifying 200 of the contracts scheduled for cancellation.

What had been a list of 875 VA contracts scheduled for termination a little over a week ago has now become 585 canceled contracts, the VA said Monday. The about-face is a [not so] rare public retreat by the so-called efficiency operation known as DOGE, which has come under fire for moving to ax crucial government services and overstating the value of some of its savings to taxpayers.

The list of contracts still on the chopping block has not been made public, [transparency!] and the VA declined to provide it. But VA employees have identified 200 of the remaining scheduled cancellations to NBC News, and some of them appear to be central to patient safety, those employees say.

For example, the revised list of killed contracts includes those covering sterility certification for VA hospital pharmacy operations, facility air quality and safety testing to prevent transmission of infections, and sterile processing services to decontaminate equipment and medical instruments. Also on the list: contracts providing ... follow-up care for cancer patients.

Another contract that remains scheduled for cancellation supports the National Center for PTSD, a VA entity that is the world’s leading research and educational center on post-traumatic stress disorder.

After this article was published on Thursday, the VA said some of the contracts – sterility certification for pharmacy operations, sterile processing services to decontaminate equipment, technology upgrade of electronic health records and safety monitoring of hospital radiation equipment – have never been slated for cancellation.

Also on Thursday, the VA issued a new directive to its network contracting offices, known as NCOs.

“There will not be any more opportunities to stop termination of contracts that are on the termination lists, these are the rules of the road today," it read. “NCOs should continue moving forward with all terminations as directed. We understand the potential ramifications.”

Every contract is supposed to help someone. That being said, the wasteful contracts are being eliminated, just as Trump promised he would do.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Every contract is supposed to help someone. That being said, the wasteful contracts are being eliminated, just as Trump promised he would do.

Follow up care for veteran cancer patients is wasteful?

 

[Hans Blaster]

Every contract is supposed to help someone. That being said, the wasteful contracts are being eliminated, just as Trump promised he would do.

Who are the experts on medical care expenditures and waste on the "DOGE" team?

 

[rjs330]

Follow up care for veteran cancer patients is wasteful?

Have you seen these contracts? Do you know if these are duplications of things already in place? I don't think we have enough information to be able to say anything at all about this with any certainty.

 

[SimplyMe]

Have you seen these contracts? Do you know if these are duplications of things already in place? I don't think we have enough information to be able to say anything at all about this with any certainty.

I think that is part of my issue, the fact that there is a lack of transparency in what they are doing, so we don't know what cuts there have been and what duplication there may be.

OTOH, what I've seen is that many of the things they are cutting are things they want to start doing in house. The example given (I believe on a document at Whitehouse.gov) was a contract for a company to do "leadership conferences" -- that the VA believes they can do them cheaper in house. My issue is, it seems they are cutting all these contracts while, at the same time, trying to cut about 15% of the VA workforce. I don't see how the VA is going to add new jobs for people to do -- some of them allegedly mission critical (such as cleaning and testing to keep Veterans in VA hospitals safe) if the claims about some of the contract cuts are correct -- while at the same time making such a large cut in the VA workforce.

I'm going to wait to see what the results are before criticizing but it looks like it could be bad; at least talking as a person who has VA healthcare coverage and is expecting to end up in a VA hospital in the next few months.

 

[rjs330]

I think that is part of my issue, the fact that there is a lack of transparency in what they are doing, so we don't know what cuts there have been and what duplication there may be.

OTOH, what I've seen is that many of the things they are cutting are things they want to start doing in house. The example given (I believe on a document at Whitehouse.gov) was a contract for a company to do "leadership conferences" -- that the VA believes they can do them cheaper in house. My issue is, it seems they are cutting all these contracts while, at the same time, trying to cut about 15% of the VA workforce. I don't see how the VA is going to add new jobs for people to do -- some of them allegedly mission critical (such as cleaning and testing to keep Veterans in VA hospitals safe) if the claims about some of the contract cuts are correct -- while at the same time making such a large cut in the VA workforce.

I'm going to wait to see what the results are before criticizing but it looks like it could be bad; at least talking as a person who has VA healthcare coverage and is expecting to end up in a VA hospital in the next few months.

Well I'm glad you are going to wait and see. I think that's important. I have no idea if any of this is going to work out. It's never been done before. Well I guess Clinton did and it seemed to be okay.

I think this could be okay too. I know this is a lot of change very quickly for a lot of people. And change is hard and often heavily criticized. I'm will to wait and see how it all works out.

If it doesn't, then the Republicans won't be in office for long.

But despite how these various threads are going, most Americans support a lot of the changes.

 

[essentialsaltes]

No, seriously. Zeroing out this program will remove health care from veterans.

Congressman Pat Fallon speaks on DOGE at town hall meeting​

Fallon said cuts and changes to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are needed to address fraud and misuse of funds.

Though, when he addressed cuts to veterans services during his speech, he was answered by boos and laughter.

“Just because we cut the Veterans Affairs budget or they cut their own, that doesn’t mean we hurt veterans,” he said, “it will probably will help veterans.”

At one point, he admitted that he didn’t know much about a program that DOGE cut, and residents shouted out questions around how DOGE can cut a program it doesn’t understand.

Those residents were removed from the meeting by local law enforcement.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Big swings, big misses: DOGE struggles to back up its outsized claims​

Elon Musk and President Donald Trump continue to tout their cost-cutting and fraud-finding efforts, but high-profile claims aren't holding up to scrutiny.

Musk says he will finish most of $1 trillion federal cost cuts within weeks​

DOGE estimates it has saved U.S. taxpayers $115 billion as of March 24 through actions including workforce reductions, asset sales and contract cancellations.

So even if that figure were believable, and even if DOGE had the authority to unspend money that Congress has appropriated to spend, they still have to go 90% of the way.

 

[Hans Blaster]

Musk says he will finish most of $1 trillion federal cost cuts within weeks​

DOGE estimates it has saved U.S. taxpayers $115 billion as of March 24 through actions including workforce reductions, asset sales and contract cancellations.

So even if that figure were believable, and even if DOGE had the authority to unspend money that Congress has appropriated to spend, they still have to go 90% of the way.

There just going to destroy the systems that make SS payments, aren't they?

 

[Pommer]

There just going to destroy the systems that make SS payments, aren't they?

I’ll let you know on April 3rd. May 3rd.

 

[essentialsaltes]

That is a GAO finding.

Speaking of GAO findings, they'd like to find out what DOGE is doing with all our data.

An audit of DOGE’s handling of data at federal agencies is reportedly underway.

[Wired] revealed that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) launched an investigation back in March into how Elon Musk’s pseudo-agency has been handling data in the offices that it has pried its way into.

The probe was reportedly spurred by requests from multiple agencies, meaning there are likely still people within the workforce who are at least a little skeptical of what Musk and the DOGE team are up to.

 

[Aryeh Jay]

Speaking of GAO findings, they'd like to find out what DOGE is doing with all our data.

I have no idea but pornography pop-ups have increased 300% on my phone.

 

[FreeinChrist]

Musk says he will finish most of $1 trillion federal cost cuts within weeks​

DOGE estimates it has saved U.S. taxpayers $115 billion as of March 24 through actions including workforce reductions, asset sales and contract cancellations.

So even if that figure were believable, and even if DOGE had the authority to unspend money that Congress has appropriated to spend, they still have to go 90% of the way.

Note the lack of people charged with fraud.

 

[Aryeh Jay]

Note the lack of people charged with fraud.

Or anything else information wise.

 

[essentialsaltes]

What has DOGE done in Trump's first 100 days?​

'Savings' claims were off from the start​

There's little evidence to support the claim that DOGE is saving agencies significant money or changing the fact that the federal government spends more money than it collects — mainly on non-discretionary programs like Medicaid and Social Security. In fact, as of March 31, government spending is up 10% from the same period last year while revenue is only up 3%, leading to a 23% increase in the deficit, according to Treasury Department data.

Even after Musk's latest downward revision of DOGE's savings goal to $150 billion, that number is unlikely to be reached.

On its website, DOGE claims $160 billion has been saved through canceling contracts, firing workers and other measures. As NPR has reported, that tracker is plagued with inaccuracies, errors, omissions and overstatements.

As of late April, out of $160 billion in claimed savings, DOGE's "wall of receipts" has data to account to just $63 billion in purported claims.

The five contract cancellations with the most claimed savings, accounting for nearly $7.5 billion in the DOGE tracker, actually amount to just under $1 billion in potential savings. They include a contract that was never awarded, one that was already terminated and another that doesn't appear to be canceled at all, as DOGE continues to use misleading math.