Thanks for the link. It should be easy to find such information at doge.gov, but take a look at that website to see how much information it offers.
The Washington Times article says "The Trump administration has flagged nearly $200 million in questionable spending" by USAID. A Newsweek article (1) says "USAID disbursed $72 billion in fiscal year 2023". The questionable spending amounts to less than 0.3% of the 2023 disbursements, and the $75 million spent on DEI in foreign countries is just a fraction of that.
I'm not defending the "questionable" or DEI spending - I'm pointing out that the figures we've seen so far hardly justify the draconian approach that Musk's team is taking, and I'm also criticizing the lack of transparency.
Imagine that you ran a business and someone came in and said that 0.3% of your spending was on illegitimate or questionable items, so they're shutting down your office and stopping all work. Shouldn't that raise questions?
Those are good points. Nevertheless, I think this is at the very least drawing attention by turning over the rock and displaying the creepy-crawlies underneath.
Musk seems sincere, and I do want them to root out the kind of waste and corruption he describes, but I still don't see the "transparency" he claims. He said that they put information on what they're doing on the DOGE site, but doge.gov has no information at all. I noticed that there's also a dogegov.com site, but that's not a government site and I have no reason to believe that it's officially related to DOGE.
For now, I'm waiting to see if there really will be transparency.
Apparently, there's a report somewhere, but in the two articles in this paper, I did not see a direct link to it. https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/feb/6/white-house-flags-nearly-200-million-questionable-/
Thanks for the link. It should be easy to find such information at doge.gov, but take a look at that website to see how much information it offers.
The Washington Times article says "The Trump administration has flagged nearly $200 million in questionable spending" by USAID. A Newsweek article (1) says "USAID disbursed $72 billion in fiscal year 2023". The questionable spending amounts to less than 0.3% of the 2023 disbursements, and the $75 million spent on DEI in foreign countries is just a fraction of that.
I'm not defending the "questionable" or DEI spending - I'm pointing out that the figures we've seen so far hardly justify the draconian approach that Musk's team is taking, and I'm also criticizing the lack of transparency.
Imagine that you ran a business and someone came in and said that 0.3% of your spending was on illegitimate or questionable items, so they're shutting down your office and stopping all work. Shouldn't that raise questions?
[1] https://www.newsweek.com/usaid-map-counties-most-money-2025073
Those are good points. Nevertheless, I think this is at the very least drawing attention by turning over the rock and displaying the creepy-crawlies underneath.
I just watched today's Trump/Musk press briefing about DOGE efforts.
https://www.c-span.org/program/white-house-event/president-trump-and-elon-musk-speak-to-reporters-about-doge-efforts/655710
Musk seems sincere, and I do want them to root out the kind of waste and corruption he describes, but I still don't see the "transparency" he claims. He said that they put information on what they're doing on the DOGE site, but doge.gov has no information at all. I noticed that there's also a dogegov.com site, but that's not a government site and I have no reason to believe that it's officially related to DOGE.
For now, I'm waiting to see if there really will be transparency.