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Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have some ideas about cuts to federal spending when President-elect Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) becomes official in January.

“Musk, the wealthiest person in the world who is known for his ambitious goals, has set an aim to slash $2 trillion in federal spending under the initiative, while Ramaswamy, a billionaire in his own right, has said entire agencies will be ‘deleted’ under DOGE’s recommendations,” Fox Business reported.

Given their success as entrepreneurs, it’s likely that the priorities established by Musk and Ramaswamy will prove to be beneficial to the American people and Fox Business has compiled a list of “opportunities for improvement” being considered, beginning with simplifying the U.S. tax code.

“In 1955, there were less than 1.5 million words in the U.S. Tax Code. Today, there are more than 16 million words,” DOGE posted to its official X account back in November. “Because of this complexity, Americans collectively spend 6.5 billion hours preparing and filing their taxes each year. This must be simplified.”

DOGE also took note of the Department of Defense failing its 7th straight audit last month, being unable to fully account for its $824 billion budget, with Musk posting on X: “Sounds like a job for @DOGE!”

There were $236 billion in improper payments in federal programs in 2023, according to DOGE, and $200 billion in pandemic relief went to fraud/abuse. DOGE also noted that the U.S. “failed to track $1 Billion in Ukraine Aid.”

In addition to commenting on the DOD failed audit, Ramaswamy posted on X: “The Department of Education just failed to receive a clean audit for its 3rd time in a row (budget: $268B). USDA showed significant deficiencies across multiple divisions (budget: $203B). Auditors declined to give a clean opinion to AmeriCorps (budget: $1B). This is utterly unacceptable. Time for @DOGE.”

DOGE has announced that it’s “undergoing a serious analysis of wasteful and burdensome regulations,” and Musk said last week any effort must include addressing outdated computer systems.

“The Federal government computers & software are in such bad shape that they often cannot verify that payments are not fraud, waste or abuse! That’s why the government can’t pass basic audits. They often LITERALLY don’t know where your tax dollars went. It’s insane,” he posted.

“My preferred title in the new administration is Volunteer IT Consultant. Need to fix the IT infrastructure in order to make government work. This is a grind & hardly glorious, but we can’t make government efficient & fix the deficit if the computers don’t work,” Musk added.

The department highlighted plenty of frivolous spending and wasteful grants and even put a price tag on the cost of illegal immigration — $150.7 billion. But the high-end spending is where real progress will begin.

Here’s a quick sampling of more potential priorities, as seen on the DOGE X account:

Tom Tillison
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