And this is the guy taking us all to Mars, is it? It has been almost a year since Elon Musk was hand-picked by Donald Trump to run a government efficiency unit and reduce costs at a federal level. Unfortunately, the tech billionaire has come up short…
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Spending UP in the year of DOGE
Figures released this month, and reviewed by the CATO Institute, show the extent of US government spending over the course of 2025. It reveals a near 6% increase federal costs, with an additional $248 billion lashed on to the public slate.
“DOGE did not reduce spending. The federal government spent $7.6 trillion in the first 11 months of calendar year 2025, approximately $248 billion higher by November of 2025 compared to the same month in 2024.”
“Cumulative spending in every month of 2025 was greater than in every other year. There is no visible structural break in 2025 spending that coincides with DOGE’s start date. An observer who did not know when DOGE started could not identify it.” | CATO Institute
Top job, Elon Musk…
This flies in the face of claims made by both Elon Musk and Donald Trump over the past 12 months, whose ‘slash and burn’ strategy appears to have backfired. This data also shows that the government workforce has been significantly reduced, by almost 10%.
However, this has failed to translate into effective financial savings. During his time at the helm of Tesla and X, Elon has relied on mass lay-offs to bring down spending and streamline operations. However, government does not work like any other business.
Most federal expenditures ‘are transfer payments’ rather than salaries, the CATO Institute notes, and money spent on external contractors to plug the gaps left by the wave of dismissals have also been credited with racking up the fiscal total.
That wasn’t very DOGE-y, Elon…