Is DOGE all bark and no bite?
Billionaire Elon Musk has walked back a prior claim that his vaunted blue ribbon commission on government bloat and inefficiencies would be able to slash the roughly $6.75 trillion annual federal budget by $2 trillion.
Musk, 53, explained that the $2 trillion goal he floated on the campaign trail was merely the “best-case outcome” and admitted that he believes there may only be a “good shot” at achieving just half of that.
“I think we’ll try for $2 trillion, I think that’s like the best-case outcome,” Musk told Stagwell CEO Mark Penn during an X Spaces conversation. “If you try for $2 trillion you have a good shot at getting $1 [trillion].
“If we can drop the budget deficit from $2 trillion to $1 trillion and free up the economy to have additional growth, such that the output of goods and services keeps pace with the increase in the money supply, then there will be no inflation,” he added.
“So that, I think, would be an epic outcome.”
The South African-born Tesla founder has long had a reputation for dramatically overstating what he can accomplish, such as his 2011 claim he’d put a man on Mars in 10 years or his promise that Teslas would have “full autonomy” by 2017.
President-elect Donald Trump tapped Musk to co-head the meme-inspired Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) alongside biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.
DOGE’s name is inspired by Dogecoin and memes about Kabosu, a Shiba Inu dog from Japan.
Through DOGE, which is set to expire July 4, 2026, Musk and Ramaswamy intend to test the limits of executive power to streamline federal government structures and claw back wasteful spending.
They will serve in an advisory role with the White House Office of Management and Budget and presumably collaborate with Congress.
Experts have raised questions about the $2 trillion benchmark Musk laid out during his stumping with Trump at Madison Square Garden last October.
During fiscal year 2024, the federal government was estimated to have spent some $6.75 trillion. Of that, discretionary outlays, such as on the US military, accounted for over $1.6 trillion.
The rest was mandatory spending — including entitlements like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid as well as interest on debt.
Trump has already ruled out significant cuts to Social Security and Medicare in his forthcoming term.
Critics previously lashed out at Musk’s America Super PAC for identifying interest payments on the national debt as an example of wasteful spending in 2023.
Meanwhile, the deficit for fiscal year 2024 was about $1.8 trillion, with interest rates eclipsing defense expenses as the total debt exploded past $36 trillion.
Republicans in Congress have talked about reining in that soaring rate of debt. But they’re also exploring tax cuts that could push the deficit higher.
Ramaswamy has underscored that in addition to trimming down Uncle Sam’s bills, DOGE will strive to take a sledgehammer to the regulatory state to boost economic growth. And by expanding the economy, he hopes that will also help reduce the deficit.
During his X Spaces exchange with Penn, a former adviser to former President Bill Clinton, Musk was asked about specific cuts he had in mind.
Musk kept his cards close to the vest, but mused that the federal government is a “very target-rich environment for saving money.”
