2d ago

Elon Musk’s government efficiency push falls short as Treasury data shows spending up sharply since Trump’s inauguration: report

www.benzinga.com

Elon Musk's Government Efficiency Push Falls Short As Treasury Data Shows Spending Up Sharply Since Trump's Inauguration: Report

Despite aggressive cost-cutting by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, federal spending has reportedly climbed by $154 billion since Donald Trump returned to office.

Government spending is significantly higher under Trump's second term compared to the same period in 2024 under Joe Biden, according to the analysis by the Wall Street Journal, citing the Treasury Department’s daily financial statements.

The increase—$154 billion—comes even as DOGE, led by Elon Musk, touts $150 billion in cost savings through job cuts, contract terminations, and the rollback of diversity and aid programs.

90 comments

It's almost like cutting spending was never the actual plan, and they were more likely using that as a smokescreen for ideologically guided attacks on institutions they disagreed with.

Spending and deficit going up is a staple of a Republican government.
- "Fiscally Conservative"

They know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

I am shocked. Shocked! It's almost like they lied just to get more rich like greedy MFers...
But that can't be right. Right, MAGAts? Right, scumbags who didn't bother to vote?

Sure, are you going to believe the numbers out of the Treasury? Probably fake news by the Democrats and things are better than ever under DJT!
- it's so sad that I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not.... this sounds too much like a real thing that would now come out of official government communications.
  
  That's part of the problem with this administration. It's not that I disagree with their reasoning or their use of facts or figures. It's that they don't have any solid reasoning and facts and figures are misinterpreted or deliberately ignored. Even worse, they have taught their fans that if any facts aren't convenient, you can safely ignore them. Basically, the perfect recipe to make our country a joke.

Its what the gop always does. Republican in charge spending soars. Democrat in charge spending decreases. Its been that way as long as I've been alive.
- Longer than that, I bet. This report from EPIAction doesn't specifically mention spending increases and decreases, but all other economic indicators have been better under Democrats than they have under Republicans for at least 75 years.
  Since 1949, there has been a Democratic advantage in the average performance of key macroeconomic indicators measuring economic health, including:
  Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth
  Job growth
  Unemployment rate
  Growth in inflation-adjusted wages
  Growth of market-based incomes per capita
  Inflation
  Interest rates
  The US economy has performed better when the president of the United States is a Democrat rather than a Republican, almost regardless of how one measures performance…The superiority of economic performance under Democrats rather than Republicans is nearly ubiquitous: it holds almost regardless of how you define success. By many measures, the performance gap is startlingly large.
- When did it decrease under the Democrats?
  Clinton perhaps, after the USSR folded, I can't recall any other times spending fell.
  I am curious given the money supply grows at 10% a year whether spending can fall relative to the past 4 years. It seems mathematically impossible given just the inflation in salaries and goods prices.
  
  https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/statistics/data/federal-budget-receipts-and-outlays
  
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budget_sequestration

So, they cut tons of services and research to give the money directly to DOGE and Elon. Cool.

So they stole it
- Nobody in this kind of website will be at all surprised.
  I would be screaming at liberal America that they've been duped and they need to mobilize if they want to still retire or have social security or medicaid or medicare...
  But reddit and google have shadowbanned me across all their platforms for doing that. Four times now.
  We're in the dark timeline guys, this doesn't end until there's news reports showing flames.

when is every media outlet going to stop playing along with this stupid "saving money" narrative? it was never about saving money, or efficiency, or literally anything any trumpistan official says it's about
shift the conversation around the fact that they are deliberately destroying the country, and maybe something productive can happen. this whole "hey waitaminute!?! they're nOt SAvInG aNy MoNeY!!!" is such a fucking waste of time
- it's all theft baybay. this is a kleptocracy and a kakistocracy at the same time
- As soon as every media outlet isn't owned by an Oligarch
- when is every media outlet going to stop playing along with this stupid "saving money" narrative?
  when the tech oligarchs are dead or no longer in power.
- That's the neat part: they don't!
- I can't help but wonder who the fall guy is gonna be when the guillotines finally come out. When the rich (enough) have felt enough pain for it to trickle-up to their betters. fElon? Trump? Big Balls?
  Who's going to be the albatross around the neck keeping America from being Great Again?
  
  Don't think it's going to be Trump. Their power hinges on him and his cult. Plus, he is very easy to manipulate, so the perfect marionette.
  Elon seems to be a better candidate to take the fall. His cult is somewhat fading.
  But honestly they might just prop up one of their goons.
  
  its going to be DOGE/elon, + any billionaires/cabinet members he will throw under the bus, its exactly like whats putin does, minus the Defenestration.
- This

Who's surprised by the guy responsible for a quarter of the deficit.
- Debt. Deficit is year by year, debt is the cumulative amount. Trump create one quarter of the total debt of the US in his first 4 years.
  
  Thank you. 🌠

Imagine believing that fascism has anything to do with saving money.
This kind of credulous reporting is a huge part of why we have fascism.
- Musks only intent, from the get go, wasnt cutting costs/saving money/fixing waste.
  His only intent was to undermind, disarm, and dismantle the agencies that were either actively investigating him, or held power to do so.
- My mom's been bitching about how she can't pay for her water bill because of immigrants. Meanwhile the city is just trying to play catch up on infrastructure that's been neglected for decades.
  Her bill isn't going to get any cheaper, but hey, at least everyone gets to fear for their lives now.
  
  "God damn immigrants made my local government not do its necessary maintenance and upgrades for over 20 years, making me have to pay 20 extra dollars a month! GODDAMN THEM!"
  
  Seems relevant https://youtu.be/VVUeqxXwCA0
  Also https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJp5q-R0lZ0_FCUbeVWK6OGLN69ehUTVa

They also fired so many IRS employees that they're projecting a 500Bn Revenue loss.
- Less IRS to go after billionaires. Theyll implement AI to make sure all the poors are taxed though.
  
  They will make sure that they are overtaxed, too. And make the appeals process cost money, meaning they'll have far less money and far less time to deal with the bullshit.
- So much winning.
  
  well, yeah? They have a very simple and elegant strategy called "starve the beast" that they've been trying to do for decades and this appears to be it
- They're offering a second round of paid-leave-to-quit at the IRS, and a lot more employees are going to take it this time around. There's not going to be many left.

I bet that treasury data stops coming at some point.
- Exactly, it has stopped since then!

Because it was always bullshit in the first place. I guess it’s well deserved for Americans because we prove it right all the time but the media really does assume we all have room temperature IQs and they just have no respect for us whatsoever

In his first term, Trump increased both the budget deficit and total outstanding debt with his unsustainable fiscal policy. Now, his antagonistic and erratic foreign policy is raising Treasury yields. He and his political project are brewing the very debt crisis they keep fearmongering about. The solutions they contemplate, like currency devaluation, messing with the Federal Reserve, perpetual or century bonds and a partial default on repayment obligations to China, further erode trust in the global financial system that underpins American power.

He forgot to carry the minus sign when calculating how much he saved. You can tell the products he has direct input on designing, either that blow up, panels fall off, they run over toddlers, or they turn into a paperweight.
Or sometimes multiple outcomes are possible

Only far right politicians (and pundits) can get the numbers over 200% wrong and not just keep their job, but still be lauded as fucking folk heroes 🤦
- Their voters seem to only care about what these politicians say, rather than what they actually do.
  
  They're never going to hear this on fox much less conservative radio, or Sinclair much less farther right sources.
  
  It's not even that. Have you seen what they say? It's incomprehensible sludge that they contradict the very next day. All they really care about is that there is some consistent underlying tone that the people in power hate others that are "different" as much as they do. That's it. That's really all there is to the cult of Trump.

its hard to imagine they put Elon's Musk in charge to actually see results. Lonnie was given a hatchet to erode civil liberties and take care of Dumpy's enemies and in exchange Musky Boy gets the power he always wanted to do the same. The system is working as intended here, the increase in spending is par for the course with Republicans; Reagan pulled the exact same shit and they lauded him for it.

more spending with less to show for it. Getting less for more.
- Some select few are getting a lot more though.

Sieg Heiling Space Karen and Felon Drink Bleach are remarkable failures and idiots.
Increasing costs - all to very detrimental effect - with nothing but the spread of human misery to show for it.

Friend in fedramp at tier 1 infra company said DHS is issuing POs like hot cakes in fear of losing budgets
- POs?
  
  Purchase Orders.
  
  Purchase Order

I'm so glad we couldn't fund all those aid programs with the money already set aside under the guise of cOsT sAvInGs so they still ended up increasing spending. Can we start asking them when they'll start hiring all the people back since we can now see how inefficient this administration is. I know the answer to that but one can only dream.

It's that damn military show they're preparing for his birthday
- Well, that, and the unexpected uptick in deportations to fucking everywhere, Narnia included. It's expensive, shoving all those kids into a fucking dresser. They scream a lot, and the poor agents need lots of vacations to recover.
  Additionally, burning most of the air traffic controllers at the stake probably doesn't have anything to do with a dozen mid air collisions on the daily. That's all free anyway, thank god.
  And launching all the irs agents into that volcano? Yeah, we probably shouldn't have done that, but hey! Big Balls won $50 on a scratchy! That'll help offset!
  And sucker punching every person, in every country that's ever bought or made anything outside murica? It was pretty funny, but that's gonna sting soon.
  And we never made any fucking money on tourism, so it's fucking GREAT that nobody ever comes here now!
  Which means all those people at the national parks were obsolete, so fucking dump them!
  And disaster recovery? After a disaster? Sorry, we can't. You don't think Big Balls won on his first scratchy, do you? That's cute!
  
  How do I get deported to Narnia?!?!?!
- Hoping he becomes the next tank man.
  
  They didn’t run over tank man

Soooooo whatcha spending it all on, Cheeto? Elmo, you?
And of course Elmo didn't really make anything more efficient, he just looked at the government like an engine, took out the oil and gasoline filter, cuz only pussies use filters , took out three out of 6 cylinder because those three cylinders can just work a little harder, he took out the spark plugs because we don't party at the government, we just work hard, and he took out the clutch a nf gears because he's the world's greatest engineer, right? The engine then obviously never started again but that isn't the point, it's much lighter now, not?
Elmo are workds greatest engineer, yay!
And a large group of people actually applauded
Oh, did I mention that an enormous amount of money that elmo possesses he got from those same government for doing shit he never did? Three billion dollars to get us ready to go to Mars and for that we've seen Elmo blow up a banana over the Indian ocean. As ridiculous as they sounds, that's literally what we got.
Meanwhile Elmo has secrets been killing all the organizations that should control and or stop him, and nobody had batted an eye because that's the world we live in
Fuck Elmo, fuck Tesla, fuck spacext and fuck Elmo defenders. No, SpaceX is not an actually great company, it's a scam company, just like Elmo is.
- Also his tech 'geniuses' are a bunch of kids whose knowledge of computers and networks only extends to being able to facilitate cybercrimes. 'Big Balls', that 19 year old punk, absolutely did tech support for cybercriminals when he was in high school. They don't know jack shit about computer science and sure as HELL do not understand the complexity of dealing with a massive system like the Social Security database.
  I studied CS on my own time for years and even took a web dev bootcamp (still didn't get the job, sadly), and even looking at their bullshit attempts at 'modernizing' the older database is heart-attack inducing. I remember when I was in bootcamp we all had to make a brand new site from scratch, but they also made it clear that in the real world it is a rare occasion that we actually get to make a brand new site for a client, and almost always we will be working with a massive existing site that can have a massive combination of old and new coding that has been around since forever.
  Take some sites like Amazon or eBay. They've been around since the 90s. You think the website was once taken down in its entirety and had something entirely new made? That didn't happen. They were built slowly over time, tweaked, improved, had the substitute newer parts slowly and steadily integrated before taking over the older stuff.
  But something like the SS database is something far, far larger and far far more important than either eBay or Amazon. If something goes wrong with amazon and I lose my ancient account, then so what? I can just make a new account, and I won't be impacted. Hell, it might be a good thing since as a privacy guy, I would like it if I could have all my previous purchases purged from time to time. But I do not want shit from the government that I absolutely need as long as I live (and even for relatives who would survive me) destroyed like that on a big 'whoopsie!'

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