Meet DOGIE: The Department of Government In-Efficiency
"When your planes don't crash into each other and your checks arrive on time, it's because the government is doing its work." Ali Velshi, 2/18/2025
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Since Donald Trump returned to the Oval Office (accompanied by President Musk), we have seen things break. A lot. Not just promises to bring down the cost of groceries, but airplanes, USAID, Medicaid portals, maybe even the entire system of checks and balances.
Why is this happening?
It’s DOGE!
On February 19, Trump explained:
“I signed an order creating the Department of Government Efficiency and put a man named Elon Musk in charge.”
Why did Trump do this?*
Trump claims that DOGE will make the government more efficient by dismantling bureaucracy, slashing regulation, cutting wasteful spending, and restructuring federal agencies. To that end, Musk has gone on a firing spree and targeted:
FAA workers. Now airplanes are crashing into helicopters, in midair, and into the ground.
Workers in charge of our nuclear weapons. Realizing their mistake, the government tried to rehire these workers but had no way to contact them.
Federal employees working on the government’s response to bird flu, even though avian flu is killing millions of chickens, and spreading to other animals and humans (and the price of eggs is still going up).
And we are just at the beginning.
The Real DOGE
Musk has already made numerous false claims of fraud, abuse, and waste. So DOGE is actually making the government inefficient. Here are two of Musk’s most serious false statements (you can read many more in this article from Forbes).
DOGE inaccurately reported that it was saving taxpayers $1.96 billion by cutting federal contracts. One big mistake: claiming a contract that cost the government $8 million was actually worth $8 billion. (DOGE has yet to comment on the error.)
Musk posted on X that millions of dead people are receiving Social Security. But the problem isn’t fraud, it’s Social Security’s outdated software system, which assigns incorrect birth dates to people who died before electronic records were used.
DOGE has also fired 17 inspectors general. You know, the people whose actual job it is to promote efficiency and detect waste, fraud, and abuse.
For a deeper dive into the impact of DOGE’s actions over just the first month, read these analyses from Harvard professors.
The good news: the media is FINALLY paying attention.
The Bottom Line
We can speculate why DOGE is so inefficient. Maybe Musk wants to speed up privatization to funnel more taxpayer money to his own company. Maybe he wants to get back at “woke” agencies. Maybe he’s just not very good at it. After all, he spent at least $288 million in the last election and now holds a job that only pays $400,000 a year.
One thing we can say for sure: DOGE is actively damaging the American government. Until we can get back to a time when the government was seen as valuable, all of our lives will be more chaotic and less safe.
What can you do?
Call your representative and senators and demand they fight against DOGE’s takeover of the government. 5calls and Indivisible both have excellent scripts that you can use.
Find a local “Musk or Us” protest using Mobilize.
Join members of Congress and others to spread the truth about DOGE on social media.
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*This is truly a question for the ages. It’s impossible to know why Trump does anything. Further, most of what he does seems to be because he is an immoral, vindictive asshole.