Summary

Elon Musk claims to have saved taxpayers $105 billion, but its own figures add up to just $19 billion.

A New York Times report found DOGE falsely credited itself for long-canceled contracts, including a 2005 Coast Guard contract.

DOGE’s inexperienced staff, many tied to Musk’s companies, may be unqualified to understand complex government programs. Mistakes could be deadly, with one former USAID staffer warning tens of thousands of lives may be lost.

The Times alleged DOGE has been removing erroneous “savings” from its wall of receipts just to replace the mess-ups with new errors.

  • tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip
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    20 hours ago

    its own figures add up to just $19 billion

    Even this is lying. It’s the equivalent of saying you lost weight after you chainsawed your arm off.

    • Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works
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      20 hours ago

      Fun fact. If they go ahead with that plan that was floated to send every American 20% of the DOGE “savings”, based on that $19bn figure (which as you correctly point out, is a total falsehood; nothing is saved by cancelling completed contracts or downsizing revenue producing departments), the result would be that every American would get a one time payment of $10.

      That’s it. That’s what Musk is claiming to have saved the country; a McDonald’s happy meal. And for that he’s burning down departments like the consumer protection bureau that protects Americans from scams and exploitative business practices.

      • alaphic@lemmy.world
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        18 hours ago

        Well that last part is only natural… He has to make sure he can make a living after all

        • Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works
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          18 hours ago

          I mean you kid (I assume), but literally all of the departments targeted so far are ones that have been investigating Musk’s companies

          • alaphic@lemmy.world
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            8 hours ago

            I wish I wasn’t (for a myriad of reasons, that being the least of which) yet, here we are

      • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
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        17 hours ago

        Or the old joke “I lost 200 pounds of useless flab… I killed my husband.”

        There’s of course no reason for me to mention this in the context of Elon (and Trump)