Is DOGE ignoring the biggest chunk of missing federal money?

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Is DOGE ignoring the biggest chunk of missing federal money?

Kay Perkins | [e-mail]
February 20, 2025, 3:55 PM

President Donald Trump has said that he believes billionaire Elon Musk will save the government “hundreds of billions” of dollars with his Department of Government Efficiency.

DOGE has claimed to have saved taxpayers about $55 billion. ... But only about $6 billion in cuts have been verified so far — an almost infinitesimal fraction of the federal budget, which was $2.44 trillion in fiscal year 2025. ... It has been targeting what it calls “wasteful” spending. Some of these cuts have totaled nearly $1 billion, but most are under $20 million. ... Many of the programs in its crosshairs are related to foreign aid or “diversity, equity, and inclusion” initiatives.

Elaine Kamarck, who led a Clinton-era initiative that trimmed $136 billion, is not opposed to eliminating fraud and waste. But she is skeptical of DOGE’s strategy. ... Her research at the Brookings Institution’s Center for Effective Public Management showed that the biggest culprit behind missing federal money isn’t the government itself — it’s the American people. ... “Lots and lots of people don’t pay the amount of taxes that they owe,” Kamarck said.

The IRS reported that Americans failed to pay an estimated $688 billion in taxes in 2023 alone. ... That amount of money could fund the federal government’s biggest expenditure — the Department of Defense — with $100 billion still left over. ... “That’s a lot of money. But you have to increase the size of the Internal Revenue Service,” Kamarck said. ... “Ironically, the Republicans in the last several congresses have refused to increase the number of investigators at the IRS.”

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Kay Perkins
Kay Perkins is an associate producer at WTOP.

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