Amid plenty of media hype about Elon Musk taking a chainsaw to wasteful government spending, the fact of the matter is that DOGE’s approach is largely a coverup of the real corruption and waste in government spending, while laying the groundwork for coming deadly cuts in entitlements such as Medicaid. Perhaps Musk’s operations should be re-christened DODGE.
The last DOGE report on their “wall of receipts” is that they have cut $65 billion in wasteful spending—although that is questionable, given clerical errors and double counting. But regardless, let’s not miss the forest for the trees:
Total federal government spending in fiscal 2024 was $6.9 trillion, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
What about the $872 billion (13% of the total) that went to the defense budget to maintain wars of aggression around the globe, while shoveling billions to the largest military contractors (Lockheed-Martin, Northrop-Grumman, etc.), which are in turn controlled by the world’s largest asset management companies (BlackRock, Vanguard, etc.)
