DOGE, or Department of Government Efficiency, is an advisory panel created by Donald Trump which will be headed by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. Trump made the announcement when he appointed Musk and Ramaswamy as members of his cabinet, but is DOGE a real government department? In short, the answer is no, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t hold influence over policy under the Trump administration.
DOGE gets its namesake from the cryptocurrency named after a popular meme which gained popularity after its endorsement by billionaire and tech CEO, Elon Musk, however, it is not a federal department in the same sense as the Department of Education, for instance. Instead, Trump has said that DOGE, “will provide advice and guidance from outside of government, and will partner with the White House and Office of Management & Budget to drive large scale structural reform.” So, what exactly do Musk and Ramaswamy intend to do as heads of this organization? They’ve taken to X to inform the public of their plans to make budget cuts and check government spending.
Budget Cut Proposals
Since Trump announced the creation of DOGE on November 12 and appointment of Musk and Ramaswamy to head the organization, the two have been busy on X tweeting about unnecessary government expenditures and how they plan on balancing the budget. Most of the items tweeted about came from a Reader’s Digest Article and the above chart came from a USA Facts report.
How the Government Spends your Tax Dollars:
-$28 million on licensing fees for a green “camouflage” pattern on Afghan National Army uniforms
-$2.5 million on a Super Bowl Ad for the Census
-$1.7 million for holograms of dead comedians
-$500,000 to build an IHOP in Washington, DC
-DOGE, Post on X, Nov. 24th.
The Reader’s Digest article the post came from goes into more detail about the reasoning behind these seemingly unnecessary expenditures. Some of these purchases, like the camouflage approved by the Pentagon in 2017, are nonsensical, as the DOGE tweets suggest. Particularly because the camouflage is a lush green, which doesn’t blend in Afghanistan’s desert environment, and according to the article, “Picking a different color (say, one of the many others the government already has the right to and aren’t already used by American forces), plus making alterations like swapping pricy zippers for cheap buttons, would save taxpayers between $68.6 million and $71.2 million over the course of a decade, according to a government report.” Perhaps this is one of the areas where DOGE may be able to make some substantive changes, as their tweets also criticize the Pentagon’s wasteful spending and failed audits.
However, DOGE’s tweets fail to mention that the approval of said camo occurred under the first Trump administration. Trump has proposed an incredibly expensive initiative to create an Iron-Dome missile blocking system for the United States and the deployment of troops against cartels, but has also proposed mass firings of Pentagon officials, though whether or not this will reduce the federal workforce or replace it with pro-Trump officials is unclear. It is yet unclear whether Trump, who is generally hawkish, would be amiable to cuts to the Department of Defense that would make any impactful changes to US spending reduction.
But while the Afghan camo spending is as nonsensical as it seems, some of the other expenditures make a lot more sense when you take a deeper look. For example, the $2.5 million dollars spent on a Super Bowl ad for the US Census in 2010, the Census Bureau argued would save taxpayers $85 million dollars for every 1% increase in mail in responses it received by reducing the cost of sending workers door to door to take the census manually.
Furthermore the $500,000 spent on building an iHop in Washington, DC was created to provide 70 full-time jobs for low-income workers who qualified for government financial assistance. Not only would this save taxpayers money by reducing the amount of individuals on government assistance, but it would also increase government revenue through payroll taxes and create 70 individuals capable of supporting themselves. As for the $1.7 million given to create holograms of dead comedians, this was a grant given to National Comedy Center in Jamestown, New York to memorialize comedians like Lucille Ball in their museum by showing visitors holograms of these individuals in their heyday. Governments often fund the arts, including museums and theatres in order to provide enrichment for their citizens and economic benefits from tourism and recreation.
DOGE tweets are particularly critical of social and scientific research indirectly funded by the government through university grants or government funded institutions:
In 2024, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) spent $1.8 billion studying racism including:
-$125K on “Examining Anti-Racist Healing in Nature”
-$151K on “Perceived racism, cardiovascular disease risk, and neurocognitive aging”
-$516K on “Effects of Racism on Brain and Pathways to Health Disparities”
DOGE, tweet on X, Nov. 30th
-$87, 944 on the “Role of the estrous cycle and nucleus accumbens signaling on incubation of oxycodone craving in female rats”
DOGE, tweet on X, Nov. 30th
What DOGE fails to mention in its tweets is that it is the responsibility of the National Institute of Health to conduct social and scientific research that moves medicine forward by funding research institutions like universities. The “Role of estrous cycle and nucleus accumbens signaling on incubation of oxycodone craving in female rats” study was conducted to determine the role of reproductive cycle and ovarian hormones on drug and food addiction in women and the cost was a grant given to the University of Minnesota to conduct the study in their school of medicine. The study will provide valuable research for scientists in understanding how eating disorders and drug addiction affects women differently than men.
In regard to “Effects of Racism on Brain and Physiological Pathways to Heath Disparities”, this is a study currently being conducted by Tufts University Medford. The abstract for the study provides some context:
“Project Summary Racism is one of the most urgent and broadly impactful crises in contemporary society, increasing an array of adverse health outcomes including mortality in Black Americans, yet neuroscientists and psychologists have heretofore shied away from directly examining personal experiences with racism and their consequences on the brain, mind, and body. Such investigation is essential because it will allow us to better characterize mechanistic pathways linking experiences with racism to health disparities and to devise potential strategies for addressing such disparities. Repeated exposures to racism likely trigger and amplify a cascade of stress-related brain and physiological responses that are known to mediate elevated risk for adverse health outcomes.”
Considering that studies show that black Americans die younger and live sicker lives that other Americans with higher maternal mortality rates for black women in pregnancy, the study funded by the NIH is necessary to gaining an understanding of this phenomenon and how to address it.
Where Will DOGE Make Cuts?
The criticism of such government expenditures along with Trump’s threats to end funding to universities and public schools that teach critical race theory and defund the Department of Education show an increased threat to the United States education system.
Musk wants to cut spending by about $2 Trillion dollars, a hefty bill considering all of the expenditures tweeted about on DOGE’s X account for only 280 billion dollars. It is likely that in order to reach such a goal of balancing the budget without increasing government revenue, something that will likely decrease due to Trump’s proposed tax cuts, this money would need to be taken out of spending on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
The “Other Spending” category in the USA Facts chart is made up by things like the national parks ($3 billion), the National Weather Service ($1.3 billion) and funding for arts programs like the Corporation for Public Broadcasting ($500 million). “Transfers to States” includes funding for states to pay for public education, Medicaid programs, child services, and transportation. If cut entirely, which would be disastrous for public education, public assistance, and the general ability of poorer states, generally Republican ones that voted for Trump, to run, this would be about $1.7 Trillion in savings for the US government – nearly reaching Musk’s goal.
However, if Trump cuts payroll and income taxes by $5 Trillion dollars over 10 years as he has promised, it would make any cuts by DOGE mute as government revenue would be greatly decreased. Payroll and income taxes, as seen in the chart above, make up the vast majority of government revenue, which even Trump’s proposed tariffs could not make up for. This gives DOGE an impossible job without cutting into mandatory spending like Social Security and Medicare. Though Trump has promised not to touch Social Security or Medicare, Musk stated at a town hall in late-October, “We have to reduce spending to live within our means. And, you know, that necessarily involves some temporary hardship, but it will ensure long-term prosperity.” Some might criticize individuals like Musk and Trump, who have never experienced economic hardship, for a seeming disregard for any economic pain these cuts may result in for the lower and middle classes.
Does DOGE Have Any Power?
Ramaswamy and Musk have already met with congressional officials to discuss budget cuts, and it would seem that GOP lawmakers have been receptive to their suggestions. Speaker Mike Johnson stated, “We need to make government more efficient and that is what this whole objective is.” in reference to congress’ “brainstorming session” with these “two innovators”. He also said that this would be a bicameral effort with bipartisan support. As a constituent from Florida’s 12th congressional district, I received a newsletter from Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.) on December 8th which referenced the meeting:
“Capitol Hill was hopping with enthusiasm last week as my House colleagues and I met with the DOGE DUO, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, to start talking budget cuts. No more waste, fraud, and abuse of the federal taxpayers in our federal agencies. House Republicans intend to use the reconciliation process to target excess federal spending, prevent tax hikes on Americans, lower energy costs by reasserting American energy dominance, and secure the border. We will work hand in hand with DOGE to achieve these goals. A new era on the Hill is taking shape and I’m excited to be a part of it!”
While DOGE is not a government organization, they are certainly more than a government meme or account on X. They have the ear of congress. Unfortunately, the bottom line is that without either substantive cuts to military spending, Medicare, and Social Security, or increased revenue through taxes, both of which Trump has vowed to avoid, they are facing an impossible task. The irony is, that DOGE, is likely an inefficient addition to the government bureaucracy they were designed to trim down.
The Citrus Peel 
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