Perhaps nothing so succinctly defines the brief and terrible existence of President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, which appeared to shutter quietly in November, as much as deception. A comprehensive New York Times analysis found some startling data on DOGE that indicate its claims of having slashed government spending were packed with false advertising. According to the Times, DOGE’s 13 largest claims about cuts were all incorrect, and many were totally false.
When you put all the numbers together, they help explain why federal spending went up even as DOGE chief Elon Musk took a chainsaw to the government’s programs.
As early as the spring there were signs that the claims of savings in Musk’s “wall of receipts” were riddled with misinformation. There was at least some hope that we’d eventually get an accurate accounting of what had been cut as Musk took down and tweaked information in response to call-outs from the media. But that didn’t happen. Like so much of the Trump era, the hype went unfulfilled.
This is a preview of Zeeshan Aleem's latest column. Read the full column here.
|
