Official announcements or policy changes from the U.S. government

Trump's DOGE to Eliminate Waste, Fraud, Abuse, Targeting $2 Trillion in Savings

Dec 16, 2024, 03:47 PM

President-elect Donald Trump has appointed Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), with the goal of cutting wasteful government spending. Trump has stated that DOGE aims to eliminate billions in waste, fraud, and abuse, potentially saving up to $2 trillion. The initiative will not impact essential programs like Medicare or Social Security, focusing instead on areas such as simplifying the U.S. tax code, addressing the Pentagon's audit failures, ending government employees' work-from-home privileges, speeding up government projects, modernizing IT systems, and reviewing foreign aid for transparency. Musk and Ramaswamy have highlighted several areas for improvement, including the complexity of the tax code, the Department of Defense's inability to account for its budget, and the need for cost-effective IT systems. They have also emphasized the importance of returning funds to taxpayers from programs like the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that they deem wasteful. Additionally, DOGE will propose eliminating funding that furthers only local rather than truly national interests, adhering to the constitutional spending power.