Just one month into its existence, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is already touting massive savings in taxpayer dollars from waste, fraud and corruption in the federal government. DOGE has been tracking total savings on its website, but has now gone a step further with its "Agency Efficiency Leaderboard" to track savings by government agency.
DOGE estimates that it has saved $65 billion in public money so far, although the agency admits that full government data is not available for all agencies so that number is subject to change as more accurate info comes in. Still, legacy media outlets like the Washington Post are already disputing the total estimated savings, claiming many of the canceled contracts were already spent or allocated by Congress. EJ Antoni, economist with the Heritage Foundation, says haggling over the actual dollar amount of savings is missing the point. "The important thing is that (DOGE) is starting, that they are chipping away at this massive federal spending," he tells KTRH. "As the saying goes, how do you eat an elephant...one bite at a time."
Antoni argues that DOGE is just beginning, and it is unfair to nitpick the results a few weeks in. "Just because something is not going to immediately cure the problem, doesn't mean that you don't do it," he says.
"They are moving so quickly, it is staggering that they have already, in a matter of weeks, managed to save us billions of dollars as taxpayers," Antoni continues. "Can you imagine what's going to happen as they continue getting better and better at what they do?"
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