The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been officially working for less than two weeks.
Undoubtedly, much has changed in those almost 14 days; President Trump and Vice President Vance are demonstrating they are determined to set a new definition of the idiom “Hit the ground running,” and so do Elon Musk and the DOGE.
On Thursday, the DOGE announced they had canceled a huge pile of “Diversity, Equity & Inclusion” (DEI) contracts and in so doing, saved the American taxpayers over a billion dollars. That’s right—over a billion. In 11 days, from January 20th to the 31st.
Updated data on DEI related contract cancellations with full detail: https://t.co/hEBk62KQvN pic.twitter.com/kcPATigb3x
— Department of Government Efficiency (@DOGE) January 31, 2025
Here’s more:
Through 1/29/2025, 85 DEIA related contracts totaling ~$1B have been terminated within the Dept. of Ed, GSA, OPM, EPA, DoL, Treasury, DoD, USDA, Commerce, DHS, VA, HHS, State, NSF, NRC, NLRB, PBGC, USAID, RRB, SSA, SBA, BLM, CFPB, NPS, and NOAA.
— Department of Government Efficiency (@DOGE) January 30, 2025
What’s next? This is a good start, but…
A billion here, a billion there,
pretty soon, you’re talking real money.
Turns out that eliminating DEI waste was not the only thing the DOGE is looking into.
$784 MILLION in taxpayer dollars for a new U.S. embassy in South Sudan, initiated in 2023. This is not a reasonable expenditure.
Source: https://t.co/pa35rlCEZI
— Department of Government Efficiency (@DOGE) January 22, 2025
The GSA terminated three leases of mostly empty office space, with tenants relocating to nearby buildings in the GSA portfolio. With savings of $1.6M, these are the first steps to right size the Federal real estate portfolio of more than 7,500 leases
— Department of Government Efficiency (@DOGE) January 27, 2025
While all this is good work and all worth doing, it is no more than what we might call “a good start,” and there are 36 trillion reasons why. A good start, yes, but it sure looks like the DOGE has upgraded perhaps from a scalpel to a steak knife. What’s needed is an axe—or a chainsaw.
Federal spending has to be gotten under control. Eliminating DEI contracts and ditching empty office buildings is worth doing, but it is low-hanging fruit.
God speed to the DOGE.
