The to-be-established Department of Government Efficiency named several examples of what it called a waste of taxpayer money.
The to-be-established Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has already begun to eye possible cuts to the federal budget.
In a series of posts on X this week, the official DOGE account published examples of what it called a waste of taxpayer money.
“Federal government agencies are using, on average, just 12% of the space in their DC headquarters,” a Thursday
post reads. “The Department of Agriculture, with space for more than 7,400 people, averaged 456 workers each day (6% occupancy). Why are American taxpayer dollars being spent to maintain empty buildings?”
Citing a
report published in July 2024 by the Congressional Budget Office, the DOGE said the agency identified authorizations of appropriations that expired before the beginning of fiscal year 2024.
“In FY2024, U.S. Congress provided $516 billion to programs whose authorizations previously expired under federal law. Nearly $320 billion of that $516 billion expired more a decade ago,” a Wednesday
post on X states.
On Tuesday, the DOGE
criticized the Pentagon for not being able to fully account for $824 billion and failing its seventh annual audit in a row.
The department on Monday posted a
video of Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) outlining examples of wasteful spending of taxpayer money. According to Paul, one example is the all0cation of $100,000 to study if tequila or gin makes sunfish more aggressive, according to Paul.
According to the latest
figures from the Treasury Department, most of the revenue that the U.S. government collects comes from contributions from individual taxpayers, small businesses, and corporations through taxes. The combined contribution of individual and corporate income taxes totals $181 billion. This represents 55 percent of total revenue in fiscal year 2025.
The data shows that the federal government largely depends on taxpayer money to run its agencies and programs.
However, according to a
survey by GOBankingRates, more than half of Americans don’t believe their tax dollars are being spent effectively, compared to nearly 18 percent who do think their tax dollars are being spent the right way. Nearly 27 percent said they don’t know how their tax dollars are being spent, the poll shows.
President-elect Donald Trump has tapped billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to head the DOGE.
According to Trump, Musk and Ramaswamy will be responsible for large-scale structural reform, focusing on dismantling government bureaucracy, slashing excess regulations, and restructuring federal agencies. The pair will lead a team to identify and weed out what they called massive waste and fraud in the annual $6.5 trillion of government spending, according to Trump.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene (R-Ga.) was chosen to lead the proposed DOGE House subcommittee and recently outlined a proposal to fire government employees.
Greene
said employees in the private sector are normally fired if they fail to do their jobs whereas “bad employees” in the government are somehow protected. She said that her subcommittee would work to dismiss government career bureaucrats and provide transparency to Americans through public hearings.
“There are 438 federal government agencies and sub agencies,” Greene
stated on X. “The federal government is the largest employer in the United States. The federal government is in debt at nearly $36 trillion dollars. And all of this is funded by American taxpayers. It’s truly shocking the American people haven’t torn down this government yet.”
