Statistics from February 2025 show federal spending hitting a historic high despite Elon Musk’s efforts within DOGE.

It looks like Elon Musk needs to get out his gilded chainsaw because all those cuts the Department of Government Efficiency is making don’t seem to be adding up. There have already been complaints about a litany of errors on the DOGE’s supposed ‘wall of receipts’, with Musk and his team having to remove $4 billion worth of savings that were incorrectly filed.

Musk has said his new department is on track to make $1 trillion in savings, and although he says this is working out at $4 billion a day, many think the math ain’t mathing.

The tech billionaire has claimed there’s half a trillion dollars of fraud in the likes of Social Security, while he’s also described government-funded non-government organizations as a ‘giant loophole’.

Still, the DOGE’s wall of receipts stagnated around the $105 billion mark and has recently climbed to just $115 billion at the time of writing.

According to the Financial Times, DOGE has yet to dent federal spending, and in fact, it’s actually gone up. The site reports that new Treasury data claims spending rose to a record-breaking $603 billion in February 2025.

Federal spending has actually gone up under the DOGE (Samuel Corum / Stringer / Getty)

Many departments failed to register any decrease, and across the board, spending rose by $40 billion when compared to February 2024 – this marks a 7% increase.

Elsewhere, the first five months of fiscal 2025 recorded an equally record-breaking $1.147 trillion budget deficit. This includes a $307 billion deficit for President Donald Trump‘s first full month in office. Worryingly, this was up 4% from the same time a year ago.

With thousands of government jobs being slashed, many are questioning where all the money is going. Discussing Musk’s so-called cuts, economic policy expert Jessica Riedl explained: “Doge savings are so small as not to be identifiable in monthly spending totals.”

Despite Secretary of State Marco Rubio adhering to DOGE’s suggestions and halving USAID’s monthly outgoing to $226 million, that figure is ‘dwarfed’ by monthly healthcare rising by 3% a month…working out at $5 billion. There’s also been a 6% rise in Social Security outlays that adds up to another $8 billion.

Riedl continued: “Some 75 per cent of all federal spending goes to social security, Medicaid, Medicare, defence, veterans and interest — and none of that has been touched.

“There is zero indication that such savings have actually been identified.”

Even the Treasury itself has been spending more, highlighting how its own spending spiked by $29 billion when compared to February 2024. This is attributed to a $10 billion uptick in monthly debt servicing (now $86 billion), as well as tax credits and associated payments climbing by $14 billion.

Musk recently spoke out about DOGE’s mission in the aftermath of his own personal wealth plummeting by $29 billion in a single day. Despite looking defeated, he vowed to keep following the money and making cuts.

All of this comes amid calls to restrict DOGE’s powers and the POTUS telling Musk to use a ‘scalpel’ rather than a ‘hatchet’. If this wasn’t bad enough, a federal judge has ordered the DOGE to release records on how it’s running things. We imagine there are some uncomfortable conversations going on right now.

As the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, it must sometimes feel like the weight of the world is on Elon Musk‘s shoulders.

The controversial tech billionaire has firmly got his feet under the table in Washington, and while he’s technically a ‘special government employee’ who can only work 130 days in the year, he’s taking his role at the DOGE very seriously.

Hoping to make $2 trillion in cuts to government spending, Musk and his team have wasted no time in gutting departments like USAID and showing thousands of government workers the door.

While Musk talks a big talk, there are continued concerns that the numbers aren’t adding up. Aside from some award accounting errors that led to the DOGE removing billions in savings from its supposed ‘wall of receipts’, there’s the inescapable fact that new Treasury data shows government spending has risen to a record-breaking $603 billion in February 2025.

Musk remains steadfast in his mission to trim the fat, but what if it isn’t his mission at all?

Musk is trying to cut $2 trillon from government spending (SAUL LOEB / Contributor / Getty)

Podcaster Joe Rogan has shared a clip from 2011, seemingly showing former President Barack Obama announcing his own plans to cut THE federal spend where possible.

In the resurfaced video, Obama says that getting rid of the deficit will require some ‘tough decisions’, adding that it will involve cutting back on the billions being spent in programs that some people love and care about.

The former President goes on to say it should be easy to get rid of the “pointless waste and stupid spending that doesn’t benefit anybody.”

Foreshadowing what the DOGE seems to be saying, a defiant Obama said: “No amount of waste is acceptable, not when it’s your money.”

Obama highlighted a number of websites being paid for by taxpayers’ money, as well as empty government buildings that are all hitting us in the pocket. Hyping a renewed effort to hunt down every dime, he tasked then-Vice President Joe Biden with spearheading the scheme. While you might not have heard of it, the Campaign to Cut Waste was signed into power by an executive order on June 13, 2011.

You might remember that Obama also controversially formed the United States Digital Service to overhaul the archaic government infrastructure in 2014. You might also remember that the USDS was recently revamped as the United States DOGE Service, and there was a mass walkout due to its handling under Musk’s new regime.

It seems Rogan was trying to do Musk a favor here by taking the heat off some of the controversy surrounding the DOGE’s actions, although it’s instead led to some claiming Musk has simply stolen the idea from the Obama administration.

Others were annoyed by the video and claimed it calls out the double standards of those who are against Musk’s work with the DOGE.

One Musk supporter cheered: “The difference is… Joe lined his and Obama’s pockets… Elon is getting rid of it!”

Another added: “Makes sense. Amazing how when a Republican tries to do it then the Democrats automatically want to stop it.”

A third chimed in: “Bizarre how Obama administration proclaimed the exact things that’s being implemented by Musk today, but somehow the dems ain’t happy 😂😂. DUEL STANDARDS.”

Someone else remained a little more neutral as they concluded: “He laid out all the bullsh*t in his speeches and for the life of me I don’t know how everyone f**king missed it.. maybe they didn’t and just f**king didn’t give a sh*t, I don’t know…”

Even though this isn’t the first time the comparison has been made, some have accused Musk of ‘weaponizing’ Obama’s supposedly good intentions. While Musk’s supporters and the likes of Rogan continue to rally around him, it’s clear the DOGE remains divisive.

We’re not even 100 days into the presidency of Donald Trump, but already, we’re looking at a very different America.

Well, at least in terms of the federal workforce.

After the POTUS told Elon Musk to be more aggressive in his mission to cut $2 trillion from government spending, the head of the DOGE made good on the mass firings of probationary workers, pushing the deferred resignation offer, and sending out a blanket email demanding government workers justify their jobs.

There are questions about whether Musk’s work is even legal, but for now, the ‘special government employee’ is continuing to take a chainsaw to the federal spend.

While Trump says he’s happy with DOGE’s work, there have been more than a few fumbles along the way and some seemingly fudged numbers on what the organization has actually saved.

Elon Musk is trying to cut $2 trillion from government spending (Andrew Harnik / Staff / Getty)

In an article attempting to blow the lid off what’s going on inside the DOGE right now, the New York Times claims that over $4 billion worth of savings have been deleted.

The DOGE’s supposed ‘wall of receipts’ shows savings made and currently states that it’s saved the U.S. taxpayer $105 billion. That works out at a pretty tasty $652.17 per taxpayer…if the numbers add up.

According to the NYT, March 2 saw the DOGE erase over 1,000 contracts that it once claimed to have canceled. This is over 40% of all contracts it’s said to have canceled that week, although it then added another 1,000 canceled contracts that represented a much smaller sum of total savings.

The embarrassing turn of events came after the DOGE deleted its wall of receipts’ five ‘biggest’ savings after several outlets pointed out they were riddled with mistakes.

This included three mentions of $655 million cuts at the U.S. Agency for International Development, which was incorrectly reported three times and was said to be nowhere near $655 million even once. It has now been scaled back to a grand total of just $18 million.

There was also the incorrect reporting of a massive contract cut of $232 million at the Social Security Administration, whereas the real sum was just a $560,000 part of it. The official DOGE site says: “We are working to upload all of our receipts in a digestible and transparent manner consistent with applicable rules and regulations.

“To get started, listed below are a subset of contract, grant, and lease cancellations, representing ~30% of total savings.”

One problem is that the ‘wall’ doesn’t include all of the cuts made, meaning it’s hard to justify the supposed $105 billion savings.

As pointed out by the NYT, there are multiple incidents where millions are incorrectly reported as billions, as well as taking credit for contracts that were canceled during the Biden administration or even decades earlier.

Jessica Riedl, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, said: “Overall, there’s a certain randomness to it. It seems like DOGE had certain agencies pull together some random lists of contracts that may or may not currently exist anyway, and then, without checking the data very well, uploaded it onto a website and summed up the amounts. It doesn’t seem to be centrally coordinated.”

The DOGE and The White House didn’t respond to the NYT’s request for comment, but now, wording has been changed to seemingly shift blame as it adds that figures “originate directly from agency contracting officials.”

This time around, scrapped savings included $1.9 billion for axing an Internal Revenue Service contract for tech help. This was the DOGE’s single biggest claim to savings, but in reality, the contract was canceled under Biden in November 2024.

It looks like someone needs a better calculator.

One Democratic representative began an incensed rant against Elon Musk during a DOGE hearing, brutally calling out it’s leader Elon Musk in an eruption of rage.

Elon Musk‘s movement into government has been controversial to say the least, as the richest man was awarded a position as head of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and tasked with cutting significant spending from the federal budget.

In the several months since Musk began this new role the Department has reportedly already saved around $115,000,000,000 – a figure which has been heavily disputed by experts – in efforts that have hit many of key areas of government, including Education, Labor, Health, and more.

Job cuts have become a particular focus for Musk and his team, as an email threatening the roles of 100,000 civil service employees has been backed up by government-wide firings, which have also led to mass rehires after key individuals were ‘accidentally’ let go.

One of the DOGE’s most notable actions came in it’s first few weeks though, as employees gained access to social security and treasury information in a seemingly unprecedented move.

Rep. John Larson released a fiery rant against Musk and DOGE, calling out the richest man in the world (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

This received heavy criticism from Democratic representatives, and led to a hearing where members debated DOGE’s ability to access these records, and one veteran representative was particularly ferocious in their criticism for Musk.

As reported by the Daily Mail, Rep. John Larson (D-CT) argued that House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith neglected his responsibilities when overseeing DOGE’s ability to access Social Security records and implement reform.

“Where’s the independence of the committee? Where’s the legislature?” remarked an enraged Larson.

“And yet when you look at the empty seats here, where’s Elon Musk? I’m sure he’s a genius, and is a very incredible person because of the wealth he’s accumulated, but that does not put him above the law or the responsibility to come before this committee and this congress.

“If he’s so great, if these plans and all the fraud and abuse that he’s found are so eminent, why isn’t he here explaining it? You know why, because he’s out to privatize social security.”

This brutal rant against Trump came after Chairman Smith accused the Democrats of attempting to “throw sand in the gears of the Trump Administration’s important work to expose the waste, fraud, and abuse in our government,” which Larson indicated was just ‘blathering’.

Many on social media have sided with Larson following his tirade as well, with one reply writing: “Everyone knows that Musk is the biggest liar on this platform. You can even ask Grok, his own person AI on this very platform. It will tell you that he spreads most of the disinformation on this site.”

This is in fact hilariously true, as not only has Grok accused its ‘creator’ of spreading misinformation, but it’s also acted as a fact-checker, denying his false claims that include the Biden administration’s supposed slaughter of 150 million chickens.