A new report claims Elon "Leon" Musk's DOGE is costing taxpayers billions of dollars.
Unsurprisingly, a new study by The Partnership for Public Service has shown that the untold costs of DOGE's firings and re-hirings will cost US taxpayers around $135 billion. The New York Times also notes that Musk has lowered his estimate of DOGE's impact from $7 trillion to around $150 billion. Elon's chainsaw and wrecking ball approach to the government might be more literal than we realized.
The errors and obfuscations underlying DOGE's claims of savings are well documented. Less known are the costs Mr. Musk incurred by taking what Mr. Trump called a "hatchet" to government and the resulting firings, agency lockouts and building seizures that mostly wound up in court.
The Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit organization that studies the federal work force, has used budget figures to produce a rough estimate that firings, re-hirings, lost productivity and paid leave of thousands of workers will cost upward of $135 billion this fiscal year. At the Internal Revenue Service, a DOGE-driven exodus of 22,000 employees would cost about $8.5 billion in revenue in 2026 alone, according to figures from the Budget Lab at Yale University. The total number of departures is expected to be as many as 32,000.
Neither of these estimates includes the cost to taxpayers of defending DOGE's moves in court. Of about 200 lawsuits and appeals related to Mr. Trump's agenda, at least 30 implicate the department.
New York Times
Previously:
• 'Be kind' desk sign deemed contraband by Musk's DOGE enforcers
• Elon Musk to spend less time at DOGE following dismal Tesla earnings
• DOGE upending child safety and human trafficking programs
