Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair

Remember the Department of Government Efficiency? A recent Reuters piece prompted a lot of commentary on this question, because the article more or less confirmed that Elon Musk’s overhyped effort to eliminate trillions in wasteful government spending does not really exist anymore. While some might consider that a reason to celebrate, a fair accounting suggests that DOGE did none of what it was promised to do, but nonetheless managed to do substantial damage to the day-to-day functioning of the federal government, and to the vital public services it provides.

DOGE, you might recall, was launched with the promise to cut $1 trillion from the federal budget (at one point Musk doubled that goal). To say it failed to deliver on that promise would be generous. As we pointed out in June, at one point DOGE claimed $55 billion in savings, a number that was impossible to verify (one NPR analysis counted about $2 billion; others arrived at similar conclusions). And as many pointed out, in the end DOGE seemed likely to cost more than it saved – massive cuts at the IRS will shave billions in tax revenue, jobs losses at national parks........

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