Source: The Dispatch
by Jessical Riedl
“DOGE fell victim to the absurdly unrealistic standards set by its leaders. Elon Musk originally pledged that his administrative actions to slash government waste could immediately save $2 trillion out of a $7 trillion federal budget. As Musk familiarized himself with basic federal budgeting, he quickly reduced his target to $1 trillion and then $150 billion. These ambitious goals reflected the long-held conservative fantasy that budget deficits are driven primarily by obvious waste, fraud, and abuse that any competent business leader could simply zero out, saving trillions of dollars. … DOGE’s failure was entirely predictable to anyone with a baseline understanding of the federal budget, public administration, or basic politics.” (12/15/25)
https://thedispatch.com/article/why-doge-failed-to-slash-spending/