Althouse: Fact-checking DOGE's "Wall of Receipts."

March 4, 2025

Fact-checking DOGE's "Wall of Receipts."

67 comments:

Kevin said...: Does the Democratic Party need to stop with the partisan guise of “fact checking”? It can’t. It won’t.; 3/4/25, 7:41 AM
MartyH said...: Finally, some investigative journalism by the press! Finally, some transparency from the government! Let’s keep this going!; 3/4/25, 7:45 AM
Dave Begley said...: Trump should put the New York fucking Times in charge of cutting spending.

Got to admit though that this is clever. The Left would have you believe that it isn’t worth the effort to cut spending and that the government is already cut to the bone.

I want to see this self-satisfied leftist NYT’er defend the $2b the EPA gave to Stacey Abrams.

My view is that if DOGE’s numbers are only 50% accurate, that’s a huge victory.

DOGE is about changing the narrative.; 3/4/25, 7:48 AM
Dave Begley said...: This narrator has only worked for WaPo and the NYT and is a graduate of Harvard. Not credible.; 3/4/25, 7:51 AM
FormerLawClerk said...: Musk is touting $80 million in savings found at the Pentagon.

This represents just .0042% of the 2025 deficit.

If you try to Community Note him for lack of context, they want your telephone number to identify you.; 3/4/25, 7:52 AM
gilbar said...: 1. there IS NO waste in the Federal Government!
2. the amount of waste is VERY Small!!
3. sure there's a LOT of waste, but there has been; for a WHILE!!!
4. it's GOOD that our government wastes SO MUCH!!!!
5. hahahah!!!!!; 3/4/25, 7:54 AM
Enigma said...: With my professional experience in trying to clean up federal agencies, I believe that most government accounting is mostly correct. They do have oversight and error checking systems in place, as checks are required following the partisan bickering in every congressional committee.

DOGE came in as expert data analysts working with abiguous, error-filled records derived from many obscure rules spanning thousands of pages and decades. Those rules change all the time too -- see eCFR.gov for the real-time nightmare of shifts across a few years (i.e., date 1 vs. date 2 changes):

https://www.ecfr.gov/

If the accounting is mostly accurate, the core issue remains ideological: some feel unlimited spending on Ukraine or foreign birth control or random propaganda outlets is a good idea. Others think these are asinine or treasonous goals.

Publicity can change votes.; 3/4/25, 7:55 AM
actual items said...: One of more core principles from my 23 years of experience in corporate finance + data and analytics…

If someone comes to me with an initiative that saves $X million without the point A to point B walk, they are likely wrong: exaggerating at best, lying at worst.

What I mean is, if you tell me you are saving $10 million and that’s it, you are likely wrong. You need to show me, (A) we were spending $100 million, this initiative will save $10 million, so now (B) we will spend $90 million. That is, show me the P&L. Then I will believe you.

Because what is more likely is: you say you are saving $10 million, then there’s this upward pressure, and we need to replace that with this, yatta yatta yatta, that works out to $9 million. So the real story ends up as (A) we were spending $100 million, this initiative will save $10 million, but that also leads to $9 million of other cost increases, so now (B) we will spend $99 million. And presto, your $10 million is really $1 million, and in the grand scheme of this hypothetical P&L, rounds to zero.

For me to believe DOGE, they need to show, last year’s budget was A, we cut X, next year’s budget is B, and A - X = B.; 3/4/25, 7:56 AM
Quayle said...: More of the "I'm smart and they're all idiots, so let me tell you how it should be done" tone. You know the type. They first tell you nothing is wrong, and nothing needs to be fixed. Then when you show them that indeed some things are wrong and need to be fixed, they then start to point out the flaws in your attempts to fix things.

If he wanted to be helpful, his tone would have been different. But he doesn't want to be helpful. He wants you to know how smart and better he is than stupid Elon.; 3/4/25, 7:59 AM
rehajm said...: These are the same lame reasons for not reducing spending I’ve heard my entire life. A penny of smaller government will mean infinite pain and suffering for widows and orphans and…now veterans, because that polls well. Wind your neck in…; 3/4/25, 8:05 AM
n.n said...: The principal source of the budget deficit is in underfunded Medicare, unfunded Medicaid, under the Obamacares umbrella. The secondary sources are education, welfare, and energy prices and costs. Auditing the budget and identifying waste, fraud, and abuse is intended to address the issue while minimizing disruption. The issues are chronic health conditions, wicked solutions, dysfunctional lifestyles, redistributive change schemes, and labor, environmental, and monetary arbitrage.; 3/4/25, 8:07 AM
rehajm said...: The sock puppets claiming Elon’s numbers are wrong are the same dolts what know to 3 decimal s exactly how much added revenue a tax rate increase will raise…; 3/4/25, 8:10 AM
RideSpaceMountain said...: All I keep seeing is that continued inefficiency is the hill they're all willing to die on. With all the dead bodies up there the hill shall soon be a mountain. Alrighty then.; 3/4/25, 8:11 AM
rehajm said...: This guy inadvertently explains precisely why government should be as small as possible…; 3/4/25, 8:11 AM
n.n said...: The issue is regulatory arbitrage games played by politicians and bureaucracy that fuel monopolies and practices, which, among other things, includes shutdown of energy pipelines and people losing jobs, outsourcing manufacturing and people losing jobs, immigration reform and progressive cost of living, etc.; 3/4/25, 8:11 AM
Dude1394 said...: Just like democrats support open unlimited borders they also support increased unlimited spending. Both are existential threats to this country. I can only conclude that is their goal.; 3/4/25, 8:13 AM
Lloyd W. Robertson said...: I know this seems cynical or defeatist, but from some distance, maybe the cliche 50,000 feet, progressives have bad ideas, and conservatives have no ideas. At their best, conservatives are enjoying private life so much--not just sex and drugs--that they can hardly be bothered with this nonsense.
How exactly to achieve massive spending cuts, then reduce taxes and/or find a way to pay for everything with gambling revenue and probably Gold Cards? Like a Trump golf club, let in anybody and everybody as long as they have the money.; 3/4/25, 8:14 AM
FormerLawClerk said...: "They do have oversight and error checking systems in place,"

Some chick stole $109 million from the US Army. Over decades. They didn't catch her at $40 million, or $50 million, or $60 million. Or $100 million.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/janet-mello-woman-stole-109-million-army-mansions-jewelry-cars-sentenced-prison/; 3/4/25, 8:15 AM
n.n said...: The issue is budget productivity, the issue is waste, fraud, and abuse forcing progressive corruption, the issue is retained capital from personal labor, the issue is choice in a market economy.; 3/4/25, 8:16 AM
jim said...: Math is hard.; 3/4/25, 8:18 AM
n.n said...: People set budgets because resources are finitely available and accessible. Why is auditing the government's productivity and democratic integrity such controversial topics?; 3/4/25, 8:20 AM
Enigma said...: @FormerLawClerk: "Some chick stole $109 million from the US Army."

What part of "mostly correct" was unclear? She stole $109M over several years versus a $855B annual DoD budget...

The never-passed-an-audit DoD likely has the most budgetary slop and deception, as it's politically popular, enormous, and remains relatively unchallenged.; 3/4/25, 8:24 AM
Aggie said...: They're so busy showing where the DOGE team made a mistake, that they forget to mention that the list they're finding fault with is 100% mistakes, a good part of them outright fraud, because somebody in the government wasn't doing their oversight job. They can't mention that, because then people might start thinking about what that means. They'd rather you think about DOGE being the f*ckups.; 3/4/25, 8:25 AM
Wince said...: “When DOGE first published its list, we found…”

How about the most recent list?; 3/4/25, 8:29 AM
planetgeo said...: Jim: "Math is hard."

It's worse than that. Planetgeo's Axiom: Democrats are born without the Math gene.; 3/4/25, 8:30 AM
Prof. M. Drout said...: Just from the face I could predict what he would sound like, and just from the font I predicted that the piece would be full of "answering a different question than what was asked" and trivial definition-mongering obfuscation.
I wasn't wrong.
(Serious question: Why do all these people fit into just a few, slightly off, phenotypes? Do the same single nucleotide polymorphisms or misfolded proteins that produce faces that are just slightly off—squeezed just a little too much along the midline—and weirdo Grinch smiles also responsible for consistent failures of logic and/or over-estimation of personal intelligence?); 3/4/25, 8:34 AM
Mason G said...: "Musk's cost-saving claims are wrong in so many ways."

He's making an effort to cut waste and fraud. What are you doing about it, except excusing it and trying to get people to stop paying attention?

And this "It's just a little bit of waste and fraud" nonsense? I. Don't. Fucking. Care. Cut it. Are you okay with just a little bit of dog shit in your hamburger meat?; 3/4/25, 8:34 AM
gilbar said...: what i learned today...

it's TOTALLY COOL that the US Budget increases at 10-20% a Year..
Because:
* most government accounting is mostly correct..
* you tell me you are saving $10 million, you are likely wrong..

we shouldn't Just NOT try to stop waste..
we should LAUGH AT people that try to stop waste..
BECAUSE:
most government accounting is mostly correct..; 3/4/25, 8:39 AM
Howard said...: Error checking is very important. Personally, I am very glad that the New York times is doing some investigative reporting and fact-checking on the activities of Doge. It can only help improve the process and legitimize the results.

I guess it's very difficult for many of you folks who have devolved into whining victims of democrat malfeasance and oppression cannot get out of that mindset and act like men. I really and truly feel sorry for you.; 3/4/25, 8:41 AM
Peachy said...: Fact checkers - micro-managing actual first time waste cutting by... a pack of progressive democrats with agendas. hmmm.; 3/4/25, 8:46 AM
Enigma said...: @gilbar: What I learned today is that gilbar cannot read or comprehend full sentences.

I have strongly and regularly criticized the US government, and I could easily outline a way to cut 50% of the workforce. Happily. That doesn't make the wet-behind-the-ears, over-eager DOGE team experts on the arcane rules and congressional sausage making that got us where we are today.; 3/4/25, 8:47 AM
Iman said...: Let the interpretive dance and singing protest comedy ring out through the land. The incompetence, fraud, grift, graft and outright theft must continue.

Fuck these folk.; 3/4/25, 8:49 AM
Peachy said...: "Fact checking" by known liars.
No thanks.; 3/4/25, 8:49 AM
jim said...: the economist says that SEC's subscription to Westlaw has been cancelled.; 3/4/25, 8:50 AM
Leland said...: If all DOGE did was save $109million while making about as many mistakes as previous administrations; then it will have saved more than it cost. As for terminating contracts that were supposedly previous terminated, then why is anyone upset that money isn't flowing. The point of the exercise is to make the process transparent. If people can see what DOGE is doing and find its mistakes so easily, then it is transparent.

Meanwhile, we also have the media writing books at how they and the previous White House hid that our previous President wasn't personally capable of doing his job and running the country. I know which is the bigger scandal, and it is not DOGE misrepresenting savings.; 3/4/25, 8:50 AM
Whiskeybum said...: This from the cohort that brought us the so-called Inflation Reduction Act.

When someone claims that “$80 million saved is just a tiny fraction of the budget”, then ask them “Are there no worthwhile projects in your local community where $80 million would have enabled it, instead of having that money go to Washington to line some bureaucrat’s pocket?” Now multiply that one ‘little’ savings over multiple times, and you see the sense of how it all adds up.; 3/4/25, 8:52 AM
n.n said...: Is the criticism of the DOGE process or source material? Is the government in the business of maintaining sources of misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation that, among other things, enables and facilitates the fleecing of Americans?; 3/4/25, 8:55 AM
Peachy said...: This guy may or may not be lying -- but the leftist press doesn't have a reliable honest credible track record. They are loyal democrats.; 3/4/25, 8:56 AM
Mason G said...: "With my professional experience in trying to clean up federal agencies, I believe that most government accounting is mostly correct. They do have oversight and error checking systems in place, as checks are required following the partisan bickering in every congressional committee."

Then there shouldn't be any problem with letting DOGE look over the books. I mean- since there's really not anything to find, right? So why are so many people running around with their hair on fire over this?; 3/4/25, 8:57 AM
Wa St Blogger said...: Why Regan was so great:

This would probably have been better is a different thread, but since I only discovered this morning, it is going in the one.

He talks about programs and their costs and the excess fat in the federal budget:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Tgazc5qqVLA; 3/4/25, 8:58 AM
n.n said...: The DOGE audit is designed to discern plausible and probable sinks where waste, fraud, and abuse are evolving.; 3/4/25, 8:59 AM
Peachy said...: Speaking of liars in the Hack press:

onight NPR repeated the Charlottesville hoax as fact. The federal government is still funding radio programming - repeatedly debunked - that Trump praised neo-Nazis."

"Some good people on both sides" = Tearing down statues.
Trump was actually being gracious - and the corrupt leftist media turned it all into LIES.; 3/4/25, 9:05 AM
Peachy said...: Also - Soros bought 200 radio stations.
We must fix that. Somehow.; 3/4/25, 9:06 AM
rehajm said...: Okay, I broke down and watched and there’s quite a bit of deception in the explanation as well. Lots of reference to DOGE ‘initial list’, which sounds like exactly what it is, an initial list. Clearly these are flagged, correctly, I’ll add since not even Times pretend finance guru makes claims to the contrary. Instead they’re trying to frame the doge exercise as some kind if bounty hunting for savings while trying to discredit doge with some specious and some what spark outrage, like ‘Biden already wasted that money!!’ and ‘Biden team killed that corrupt spending on their way out the door!!!’

If anything, this doosh inadvertently makes a case to justify what Doge is doing…; 3/4/25, 9:12 AM
Clyde said...: What about all of the money that DOGE claims to be saving by eliminating DEI and transgender propaganda and celebrations in foreign countries? Was that all smoke and mirrors, too, NYT?; 3/4/25, 9:20 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Look it here. The waste fraud and abuse was not as bad as DOGE claims. What if DOGE is using the math used in Gov contracts formulas? Whatever the amount is you triple it or something? The NYT is a joke.; 3/4/25, 9:22 AM
Peachy said...: Bottom line- Democratic progs are butt-hurt over anyone removing their precious tax payer funded fraud.; 3/4/25, 9:27 AM
Lazarus said...: Some of this may reflect the general sloppiness in government bookkeeping, something the NYT has never addressed or worried much about. An administration concerned with concealing its operations (Clinton, Obama, Biden, and even Bush) doesn't face this kind of scrutiny. It's when government tries for transparency that it's expenditures and actions attract investigation by the media. As was said of the French Revolution, the most dangerous time for a regime is when it tries to reform itself.

The "Wall of Receipts" though, was a disappointment. I imagined a window or whiteboard with photos and clippings taped on to it, with string collecting photos and names (some underlined or circled) -- connecting, say, USAID to the Soros Foundation and to Samantha Powers' private accounts -- but I'm told that not even the police do that in real life.; 3/4/25, 9:28 AM
typingtalker said...: Dear New York Times:
What is your sample size? Is it a random sample? Did you find receipts that were correct? Did you find receipts that were wrong in the other direction?; 3/4/25, 9:29 AM
FormerLawClerk said...: The vast majority of the criticism I see of DOGE is that it is laughably short on its goals and doesn't come ANYWHERE NEAR making any kind of a dent in the waste, fraud and abuse that has been going on in the federal government.

Touting $80 million in cuts at the DOD was a huge own-goal.

USAID? It hasn't been eliminated. It and its budget have been moved onto the State Department's books and hidden there. The IC part of that budget has gone dark. It has exactly the same number of employees it always did.

Until Musk/Trump starts eliminating entire departments of the federal government, such as Education, Commerce, (take your pick) etc. then he's not serious about cutting anything and it's obviously just for show.

House Republicans have been voting for and passing these ridiculous budgets and they're going to keep doing it.

Trump is tonight will give a semi-SOTU address before Congress. The first thing he's going to ask them Congress for MORE $$$. He wants to use MORE $$$ to do X. I don't care what X is. There is no more money and Trump needs to commit to working on increasing our External Revenue Service and eliminating the IRS.

Or else it's just for show.; 3/4/25, 9:31 AM
Aggie said...: Voters to DOGE: G*ddammit this waste makes us furious ! Good Job, Kick their *ss some more, and kick it harder, and find more examples of the waste we can cut. And don't pay any attention to these lying f*cks at the NYT, they're lying liars who lie ! We're on board !

Howard: I guess it's very difficult for many of you folks who have devolved into whining victims of democrat malfeasance and oppression cannot get out of that mindset and act like men....."

You go, grrl.; 3/4/25, 9:41 AM
n.n said...: Democrats accused Russia of spending several hundred thousand dollars to influence the vote. Diverse... uh, 'd'iverse dollars matter.; 3/4/25, 9:41 AM
rehajm said...: The vast majority of the criticism I see of DOGE is that it is laughably short on its goals and doesn't come ANYWHERE NEAR making any kind of a dent in the waste, fraud and abuse that has been going on in the federal government

It is the first are looked at, chosen I’m sure for the egregiousness of the corrupt spending. Also keep in mind this is only one CR’s worth of corrupt crap. Killing it means it stops. If your argument is they looked at one backwater of government and didn’t find $2 trillion of savings so we should end doge 1- your repeating the same reason the crap rolls on and 2- stay tuned…

…you correctly point out it will be up to a corrupt Congress to invoke real responsibility. I predicted at the new year they won’t allow that to happen. I’m still not optimistic but we can only wait and see…; 3/4/25, 9:44 AM
Jupiter said...: How much would we save if we chained a millstone around this lying shitweasels neck and tossed him off a bridge? $1.50? $2.00? Works for me!; 3/4/25, 9:47 AM
Luke Lea said...: In the Defense Department at least the biggest waste will turn out to be spending on obsolete systems: aircraft carriers ($10 billion/per), manned fighter jets ($100 million/per for F35), etc. As has often been the case in the past, our generals are fighting the last major war.; 3/4/25, 9:50 AM
Michael Fitzgerald said...: Musk needs more teeth in his chainsaw.; 3/4/25, 9:53 AM
n.n said...: NYT favors scalpels perchance machetes over chainsaws? Shirley, U jest kidding.; 3/4/25, 10:04 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: What if it was a trap? Put them in irresistible position of defending waste fraud and corruption.; 3/4/25, 10:20 AM
Rusty said...: Howard, c'mon man. You and I both know it depends on who is doing the checking.
Would you be complaining if your work was being checked by an unqualified engineer? Do you trust your mechanic?; 3/4/25, 10:22 AM
hombre said...: So DOGE accuracy approaches or exceeds that of the legacy media?; 3/4/25, 10:22 AM
Smilin' Jack said...: Over the past 80 years the DoD has spent trillions fighting wars and losing them. We now spend more on “defense” than the rest of the world combined. Unless we’re expecting an invasion from Mars, I’d say there’s probably room for some significant cuts there.; 3/4/25, 10:25 AM
CJinPA said...: Democrats taught Americans that facts and nuance don't matter when talking government spending.

Thus, a reduction in the *increase* in Medicare spending would be portrayed as a "cut." And outlets like the NY Times played along.; 3/4/25, 10:27 AM
JIM said...: The outrage machine picketing and protesting outside SpaceX and Tesla dealerships do not care about accuracy. Just stop the audit! They are passionate about protecting the government from DOGE prying eyes. 'What color do you want the "x" spray painted on your new Cybertruck?'- passionate outraged government sheeple.; 3/4/25, 11:20 AM
Michael R. Arndorfer said...: I can't believe the chutzpah for indicating that the list was "updated quietly" given how most corrections are noted in the NYT. I also can't believe the irony of pointing to this amazingly public list of the things DOGE is doing, more transparent than any other government enterprise in the history of governments, and then wonder "how can we trust all the stuff they are doing in secret?" Why was this not a question for the last four (or forty) years?; 3/4/25, 11:34 AM
Robert Cook said...: "The principal source of the budget deficit is in underfunded Medicare, unfunded Medicaid, under the Obamacares umbrella."

Do you know this to be true? How so? What about the Pentagon, who have failed seven sequential audits and cannot account for nearly a trillion dollars in their budget?

If we could severely slash the Pentagon's budget--I'd like to see at least 75% of it slashed--then we would free up funds to fund programs that directly benefit the American people, (Medicare, Social Security, etc.).; 3/4/25, 11:54 AM
David53 said...: "And what contracting experts told us..."

Yes, trust the experts. Did you fact check these experts, who are they, do they have an agenda? Don't be so secret.

"DOGE has said it's trying to make its data accurate and it's asked the public to help in cleaning up its data."

Asking for help to be accurate is great! Sharing data with the public is great! Cleaning up data is great!

"Much of what DOGE does is secret, making decisions, gathering data..."

How do you know that? Did you ask them a question? Did they reply, "It's secret, we can't tell you"? DOGE information appears to be readily available on line. DOGE seems to be one of the most transparent departments in federal government. Your idea and mine of what secret means is really different.; 3/4/25, 12:05 PM
Temujin said...: "...that show this much misunderstanding about the machinery of government..."

My word. So he...this guy understands how we got to here? He gets the 'machinery of government'?
US Debt Clock.

If HE understands it, he should be helping DOGE, not working to stop them.

The concept of DOGE and the work of DOGE remains incredibly important. These people who are spending their time looking for errors in DOGE's receipts, while saying ZERO about how our government is run like a thieves online catalog where anyone anywhere in the world can apply for and receive millions or billions of dollars that disappear without any accountability, is ridiculous.

Of course receipts are going to be wrong. No one has any idea what has gone on in our government spending for decades. And that is the problem.

That, and our media, who seem to be the least curious people on earth when it comes to the important things, but find their work stride when it comes to keeping the status quo in place.; 3/4/25, 12:43 PM