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The duo's mission is to trim trillions from the federal government's annual $6.75 trillion expenditure by eliminating waste, cutting through red tape, and downsizing federal agencies.
According to the Daily Mail, the government's lavish spending habits are well-documented, with examples ranging from the Pentagon's excessive spending on soap dispensers to questionable drag performances in South American cities. Trump likens his cost-cutting initiative to the Manhattan Project, the 1940s atomic bomb program, and believes it will aid in dismantling government bureaucracy.
Elon Musk, the world's richest man, estimates that he can save taxpayers a whopping $1.9 trillion. He pledges 'maximum transparency' from a team that will operate outside the regular confines of government. "We will also have a leaderboard for most insanely dumb spending of your tax dollars," Musk posted on X. "This will be both extremely tragic and extremely entertaining." However, critics argue that DOGE grants more power to Musk, who donated millions to Trump's election campaign and whose companies could potentially benefit from the new government portfolio.
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As the axe begins to fall, it's worth examining some of the most extravagant examples of government overspending. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is notorious for its peculiar spending habits, such as a $3 million study that involved injecting hamsters with steroids to study aggression. Other examples include the Pentagon spending $192,952 on Starbucks espresso machines for the US Navy and the Department of Defense overpaying $992,856 for a dozen types of spare parts under a 20-year deal with Boeing worth $35.6 billion.
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The NIH's spending doesn't stop at hamsters. It also paid $33 million to a company that manages a controversial 'monkey island' used for research, and spent millions studying the gambling habits of monkeys and the effects of methamphetamine on them. A Florida lab even received $477,000 to research 'transgender' monkeys — males injected with female hormones.
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In addition to these examples, the federal government has spent approximately $324 million since 2020 on lesser-known podcasts. One such podcast, Regeneration Rising, received $446,353 from the Department of Agriculture to create shows about 'building a queer farmer community.' Another, Subtitle, received $227,420 from the National Endowment of the Humanities to produce a show about a new gender-neutral pronoun in Swedish.
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Ramaswamy has already identified areas of federal spending he wants to cut — those promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts across the government. The Department of Health and Human Services spends an annual $38.7 million on the salaries of 294 DEI staffers, many of whom earn six-figure salaries. It also spends another $29.4 million in payroll for seven offices dealing with the health of minorities. "An efficient government has no place for DEI bloat," Ramaswamy posted on X. "Time to DOGE it."
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Other areas of wasteful spending include Social Security paying out $171 million in unemployment benefits to prisoners and Medicaid and Medicare sending out $101 billion in improper payments, mostly due to fraud. The NIH also awarded $549,000 to a Russian lab performing experiments on cats, including removing part of their brains to see if they could still walk on treadmills.
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The government's former top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, has also been a source of significant expenditure. Taxpayers have spent a staggering $15 million on his private security detail since he retired. The US State Department was also exposed in 2022 for spending $20,000 on drag shows at a cultural center in Ecuador to 'promote diversity and inclusion.'
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John Hart, CEO of Open The Books, expresses optimism for Trump's DOGE plans but cautions that previous attempts to trim the fat have failed. He believes the department's goal is 'attainable,' but it requires a focus on the 'huge mandatory spending burden that makes up the bulk of the annual budget.' "There are endless examples of frivolous spending they can snip away first," Hart told DailyMail.com. "The shrimp on treadmills example is not just some canard, there are countless easy wins to put on the board."
