By Michael Kaplan and James Franey | New York Post
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are tasked with cutting down the $6,750,000,000,000 that the federal government spent in 2024 under their new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
The group will work outside the government to “dismantle bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures and restructure federal agencies,” according to a statement from President-elect Donald Trump. John Hart, CEO of watchdog Open the Books, which monitors fiscal waste, told The Post they will curb “spending that has been on autopilot where there’s no real thought or purpose behind it.”
Finding areas to cut isn’t hard — many jaw-dropping examples are revealed in the government’s own reports. Here are some of the first gravy trains expected to be derailed:
Dead people cashing in
In 2023, the federal government shipped $1.3 billion in checks to dead people from the IRS, Medicare and assorted veterans groups, according to RealClear Investigations.
According to Hart, it could easily be stopped. “The Treasury department has a do-not-pay list. These people should all be on it. But there is no cross checking between the agencies paying out and the Treasury,” he said.
Behind bars benefits
Prisoners thought to still be free and out-of-work received $171 million in unemployment payments or Social Security in 2023. Medicaid and Medicare also sent out $101 billion in improper payments, largely due to fraud, and tax cheats took the IRS for at least $546 million.
Russian cat research
In 2021 the National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded $549,000 to a Russian lab performing experiments on cats, including removing part of their brains and seeing if they could still walk on treadmills, according to the Washington Times.
Biden’s Irish boondoggle
American taxpayers shelled out $4 million last year for Joe and Hunter Biden to go on a trip to Ireland, as The Post reported. That included $1.2 million on an elaborate sound system and light show for a Biden speech and $760,000 to rent out an entire hotel in Dublin.
$50 million monkey business
Spending by the NIH includes $33 million to a firm which runs “Monkey Island,” a colony of around 3,000 primates sent to research labs. Additionally, NIH grants totaling $3.7 million funded a study on monkeys and gambling. Part of another $12 million went to the University of Mississippi to test monkeys on methamphetamine and a Florida lab received $477,000 to help fund research into “transgender” monkeys — males injected with female hormones.
Still paying for the pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic is over but spending hasn’t stopped — with FEMA expecting to spend another $70 billion on the pandemic by August 2026. Meanwhile, Dr. Anthony Fauci has been receiving $15 million worth of security detail this year, despite being retired. “He basically has a limo driver and armed guards,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) told The Post. “Presidents get that for a while, but they’re the only people in our country who get that.”
Drag shows in Ecuador
The State Department awarded a $20,600 grant in 2022 to a center in Ecuador, according to the tracker at USAspending.gov. That grant was used for “12 drag theater performances” and a “two-minute documentary” Fox News reported.
Empty federal buildings
Federal agencies are using on average 12% of space in their headquarters, according to a March report from the Public Buildings Reform Board. The General Services Administration is spending $2 billion annually to maintain government-owned offices and $5 billion to lease space.
DEI rages on
The Department of Health and Human Services hired 294 employees at a cost of $38.7 million to oversee Diversity Equity and Inclusion, as reported by Open the Books.
Handouts to China
The State Department handed nearly $58.7 million to China between 2017 and 2022, according to Open the Books. Nearly $100,000 of that was used to promote ‘Gender Equality’ — through the use of New Yorker magazine cartoons.
Arming the EPA
The Environmental Protection Agency shot itself in the foot by spending $620,000 on guns and ammunition, including on: bullet-proof armor, night vision equipment and military grade weapons, none of which is necessary, according to critics.
IRS tax dodgers
Even those working for the IRS aren’t leading by example. Between October 2021 and October 2023, IRS employees owed $50 million in unpaid taxes. Yet only 20 employees were fired over their filings. “If IRS employees can’t figure out how to pay their taxes, how do the rest of us?” said Hart.
Obscure research
The National Endowment for the Humanities spends hundreds of thousands of dollars per year on obscure studies. Their January 2024 grants alone awarded over $350,000 to research and write books on: The history of Muslim-Chinese encounters in Asia from the 1360s to the 1640s; the history and sociological impact of liver disease in Egypt and the nature of imprisonment in England from 1550 to 1800.
TOTAL WASTE: $386 billion
1.7 trillion to go…..
