Many of my fellow fiscal conservatives cheered President Trump’s executive order establishing the “Department of Government Efficiency,” headed by billionaire businessman Elon Musk.

Indeed, as the author of hundreds of reports and articles showing how to reduce federal spending and deficits, I was cautiously hopeful that Musk would follow the language of the executive order to “moderniz[e] Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.”

Government waste — while not a lead deficit driver — represents the lowest-hanging fruit to cut.

The Government Accountability Office recently estimated that fraud costs the federal government between $233 billion and $521 billion annually. The Office of Management and Budget estimated that payment errors alone totaled $191 billion in 2023.

Additionally, Washington runs dozens (and sometimes hundreds) of overlapping programs addressing economic development, drug abuse, K-12 education and other areas.

Unfortunately, DOGE has thus far failed to achieve significant savings because Musk has instead focused on

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