Yes, There Are Ways To Cut The Budget Deficit. 'DOGE' Hasn’t Found Them So Far.

Early talk from Elon Musk on the proposed Department of Government Efficiency draws worry from budget battle veterans that he will favor flash over substance.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk posted a very simple question Dec. 7 on his X (formerly Twitter) social media account: “Why are we doing this when our own country is so deeply in debt?”

The object of Musk’s curiosity? International humanitarian aid, which, according to a United Nations estimate, the United States gave more of than nine other countries combined, totaling almost $9.5 billion in 2023.

As one of two co-chiefs of the still nebulous “Department of Government Efficiency” ― at this point, “DOGE” it is more of a social media account than an actual federal entity ― all eyes are on Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and what they will focus on as potential areas where the government can save money. But, as the foreign aid example shows, so far Musk appears to be looking at small but headline-grabbing proposals with little potential to meaningfully reduce the federal budget deficit.

“They’re not serious about controlling the deficit or the debt. What they’re serious about is helping people that would help them. That’s it,” Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) told HuffPost.

There is little dispute the U.S. government debt load has entered nearly unprecedented levels, with fears it could lead to a sharp financial crisis or become an ever-larger drag on economic growth. The federal debt held by investors was 99% of the size of the U.S. economy in 2024, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) in June, and projected to hit 122% by 2034. For comparison, the debt load of the U.S. after World War II was almost 109%.