DOGE Claims It Has Saved Billions. See Where.

A WSJ analysis of government data found that many claims of savings were overstated and 'woke' cuts were only a tiny fraction of the total






Agencies that spent the most on canceled contracts in FY2024
Research
Environment
DEI
Other
TYPE OF CONTRACT
USAID
Social Security
Administration
$1.2 billion
$272.5 million
Other agencies
$175.5 million
Health and
Human Services
$771.6 million
Education
$131.9 million
General Services
Administration
$61.1 million
Source: WSJ analysis of federal contract data via Deltek

Updated Feb. 22, 2025 4:46 pm ET
The Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency touts cuts of $55 billion in federal spending, often citing canceled DEI and climate contracts. However, a Wall Street Journal analysis of government contract data showed a much different picture: "Woke" cuts were a tiny fraction of the total, and many claims of savings were overstated.

While DOGE hasn't offered details about all of the stated savings, it has posted a list of more than 1,100 canceled contracts to its website. As of Friday, it said the savings from these contracts amounted to about $7 billion.

The Journal analysis projects the actual savings could be closer to $2.6 billion over the next year if spending levels remained constantand about 2% of the funds would have gone to contracts related to DEI.

Research-focused agencies were among the top targets for cuts, including the Education Department and the Department of Health and Human Services, where DOGE terminated contracts costing the government more than $900 million last year.

DOGE terminated more than 60 Health and Human Services contracts including a clinical evaluation of an Alzheimer's and traumatic brain injury drug and a study of smokers with chronic lung disease. DOGE described these as "administrative expenses."

An administration official said many contracts were canceled for waste, fraud and abuse. They added that DOGE's estimations of its savings are conservative and that no funds for Alzheimer's were canceled.
Many of the Education Department's canceled contracts funded research on college costs, student career paths and early childhood development. DOGE said one $1.4 million contract funded "mailing and clerical operations." The contract was used to mail surveys to respondents participating in studies and was nearly complete when canceled, creating no savings for terminating it.
Canceled contract funding by research type, FY2024

Scientific and technical consulting
$115.6 million
Biotech
109.7
Engineering and life sciences
102.5
Social sciences
and humanities
86.8
Lab services
56.1
Animal production
18.8
Source: WSJ analysis of federal contract data via Deltek
To assess the impact of the cuts, the Journal analyzed federal spending data from Deltek, a government contracting specialist and data provider. Deltek matched the canceled contracts listed by DOGE to their actual cost in fiscal year 2024. To categorize the contracts, the Journal used information about vendors, industry sectors and keywords like "diversity" and "climate change."

In all, government contracts with more than 500 companies were posted to the DOGE website. Leidos, the company whose canceled contracts were worth the most in 2024, had part of its contract to modernize the Social Security Administration's technology canceled. DOGE said this would save about $230 million. "Our work supporting the Social Security Administration, and the millions of Americans it serves, is on contract and ongoing," Leidos said in a statement.
Companies with the most canceled contracts, FY2024

Other
Research
Environment
DEI
$0 million
50
100
150
200
250
300
Leidos
Development Alternatives
Chemonics International
Tetra Tech
Deloitte
RTI International
Axle Informatics
National Opinion Research Center
Education Development Center
Source: WSJ analysis of federal contract data via Deltek
The United States Agency for International Development, which the Trump administration has dismantled, had contracts with more than 130 companies canceled in DOGE's sweep.
Among them, Chemonics International, a D.C.-based firm, had more than a dozen USAID contracts terminated. The company said that it has furloughed or cut hours for more than 15% of its 6,000 employees, affecting workers in 41 states and D.C.

On Monday, DOGE posted its "wall of receipts" touting transparency, showing 1,127 contracts. But as the Journal and others raised questions about the figures, the tally of savings on DOGE's website dwindled from $16 billion to about $7 billion.

Two contracts also disappeared from the site Thursday because DOGE counted the same $665 million USAID contract three times, the Journal found.

Even as DOGE edited the numbers, the total savings listed on its site remained overstated, experts told the Journal. Agency contract amounts are often akin to credit card limits, said Deniece Peterson, senior director of federal market analysis at Deltek.

DOGE's shrinking savings
Feb. 17
$16.5 billion
Feb. 18
16.5
Feb. 19
8.5
Feb. 20
7.2
Source: DOGE.gov

"If I have a credit card with a $30,000 limit and I have a $2,000 balance and I cancel the credit card, I'm not saving $28,000," she said. "What I'm seeing in many of these transactions is not savings."

But more than 50 of the contracts listed on DOGE's website list virtually all of their maximum as savings, a number rarely hit, according to Nat Malkus, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. "The totals [DOGE] put up as receipts on their website raise basic questions about how well these receipts were prepared and what they actually capture."

More than a quarter of the contracts listed by DOGE were actually already paid, the Journal found, saving no money. For instance, DOGE listed $168,000 in savings for terminating a contract with HHS for an Anthony Fauci museum exhibit. It had already been fully paid.

We can't really know yet what DOGE claims are accurate. The truth is, we might not ever really know exactly what is going on, and that is the point. The government is so big, that even if you audit it, you still won't really have a good grasp on what is going on.

But if you will look at the article, the WSJ is getting all their data from 1 source, so I'm automatically skeptical. How do they know that Deltek's 50 million records are accurate, and that the WSJ's interpretation of the data is correct?

For example, I saw a series of facebook memes about the 150 year olds getting Social Security. The first meme was DOGE making fun of the government for trying to get Social Security to 150 year olds, and the fraud that implies. The second meme was about DOGE being dumb and not understanding the code involved, claiming it wasn't true. So what are we supposed to believe?

I will tell you that right now, I do have more faith in Elon Musk than the OPie. And I don't think it's misplaced. First, it is insane, what power Elon has bought for his $250 million. Not only was his return about $10 billion in personal wealth, he now gets to send minions through the entire federal government. However, he is probably uniquely placed to have that much power and only misuse it a little. Does he stretch the truth? Of course, during TSLA earnings calls. But I do think I have a good idea of the person he is, and for me, I'm giving this a chance to play out.

I'm good with Musk looking under the hood to find, waste, fraud and abuse. My issue is that he needs to be confirmed and vetted by congress and answer to congress, not fat man.

Johnny Bear said:

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DOGE has been operational for all of a month. They're off to a good start but nobody promised the would find all or even most of the waste fraud and abuse in a few weeks. Given time, I'm not going to be at all shocked if the $$ saved reach $trillions.

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Then they better find a lot more than $20 million here and there. A trillion is a HUGE number…like $20 million X 50,000

Johnny Bear said:

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nein51 said:

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Johnny Bear said:

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DOGE has been operational for all of a month. They're off to a good start but nobody promised the would find all or even most of the waste fraud and abuse in a few weeks. Given time, I'm not going to be at all shocked if the $$ saved reach $trillions.

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Then they better find a lot more than $20 million here and there. A trillion is a HUGE number…like $20 million X 50,000

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Yes, it's a huge number, but DOGE has barely even scratched the surface so far. They have yet to fully go after the enormous waste , fraud, and abuse in things like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, the Department of Education (which will hopefully get abolished altogether), the Defense Department, the Justice Department, and on and on and on. Give them time.

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Abolishing the DOE doesn't eliminate the spending it merely moves it from the DOE to the states.

Now I still think that's the correct thing to do because Americans are getting demonstrably dumber.

nein51 said:

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Johnny Bear said:

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nein51 said:

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Johnny Bear said:

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DOGE has been operational for all of a month. They're off to a good start but nobody promised the would find all or even most of the waste fraud and abuse in a few weeks. Given time, I'm not going to be at all shocked if the $$ saved reach $trillions.

---

Then they better find a lot more than $20 million here and there. A trillion is a HUGE number…like $20 million X 50,000

---

Yes, it's a huge number, but DOGE has barely even scratched the surface so far. They have yet to fully go after the enormous waste , fraud, and abuse in things like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, the Department of Education (which will hopefully get abolished altogether), the Defense Department, the Justice Department, and on and on and on. Give them time.

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Abolishing the DOE doesn't eliminate the spending it merely moves it from the DOE to the states.

Now I still think that's the correct thing to do because Americans are getting demonstrably dumber.

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I fully realize the things the DOE does that actually relates to education will get transferred to the states - where it belongs - but at least there should be highly material savings on getting rid of the things the DOE wastes $$ on that have nothing to do with improving the quality of education in addition to the waste fraud and abuse that is surely there as well.

nein51 said:

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Johnny Bear said:

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nein51 said:

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Johnny Bear said:

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DOGE has been operational for all of a month. They're off to a good start but nobody promised the would find all or even most of the waste fraud and abuse in a few weeks. Given time, I'm not going to be at all shocked if the $$ saved reach $trillions.

---

Then they better find a lot more than $20 million here and there. A trillion is a HUGE number…like $20 million X 50,000

---

Yes, it's a huge number, but DOGE has barely even scratched the surface so far. They have yet to fully go after the enormous waste , fraud, and abuse in things like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, the Department of Education (which will hopefully get abolished altogether), the Defense Department, the Justice Department, and on and on and on. Give them time.

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Abolishing the DOE doesn't eliminate the spending it merely moves it from the DOE to the states.

Now I still think that's the correct thing to do because Americans are getting demonstrably dumber.

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You wouldn't have to move all of the DOE money to the states. Remember there is probably alot of DC DOE overhead. That could be the savings. The rest could go to the states. The libs (like Kamala) would have left the DOE or even expanded it so there would have be ZERO savings under libtards.

ScottS said:

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nein51 said:

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Johnny Bear said:

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nein51 said:

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Johnny Bear said:

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DOGE has been operational for all of a month. They're off to a good start but nobody promised the would find all or even most of the waste fraud and abuse in a few weeks. Given time, I'm not going to be at all shocked if the $$ saved reach $trillions.

---

Then they better find a lot more than $20 million here and there. A trillion is a HUGE number…like $20 million X 50,000

---

Yes, it's a huge number, but DOGE has barely even scratched the surface so far. They have yet to fully go after the enormous waste , fraud, and abuse in things like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, the Department of Education (which will hopefully get abolished altogether), the Defense Department, the Justice Department, and on and on and on. Give them time.

---

Abolishing the DOE doesn't eliminate the spending it merely moves it from the DOE to the states.

Now I still think that's the correct thing to do because Americans are getting demonstrably dumber.

---

You wouldn't have to move all of the DOE money to the states. Remember there is probably alot of DC DOE overhead. That could be the savings. The rest could go to the states. The libs (like Kamala) would have left the DOE or even expanded it so there would have be ZERO savings under libtards.

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I agree but "cutting overhead" isn't going to get you anywhere near a trillion dollars in savings. The entire Education Dept budget was $268 Billion. What % of that do you think is overhead and waste? 20-30%

Again, I'm not, in any way saying "do nothing". I am saying some people need to reel in their expectations. I won't be shocked if actual waste is more like 10% and we should definitely cut that 10% right the hell now.

nein51 said:

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ScottS said:

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nein51 said:

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Johnny Bear said:

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nein51 said:

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Johnny Bear said:

---

DOGE has been operational for all of a month. They're off to a good start but nobody promised the would find all or even most of the waste fraud and abuse in a few weeks. Given time, I'm not going to be at all shocked if the $$ saved reach $trillions.

---

Then they better find a lot more than $20 million here and there. A trillion is a HUGE number…like $20 million X 50,000

---

Yes, it's a huge number, but DOGE has barely even scratched the surface so far. They have yet to fully go after the enormous waste , fraud, and abuse in things like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, the Department of Education (which will hopefully get abolished altogether), the Defense Department, the Justice Department, and on and on and on. Give them time.

---

Abolishing the DOE doesn't eliminate the spending it merely moves it from the DOE to the states.

Now I still think that's the correct thing to do because Americans are getting demonstrably dumber.

---

You wouldn't have to move all of the DOE money to the states. Remember there is probably alot of DC DOE overhead. That could be the savings. The rest could go to the states. The libs (like Kamala) would have left the DOE or even expanded it so there would have be ZERO savings under libtards.

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I agree but "cutting overhead" isn't going to get you anywhere near a trillion dollars in savings. The entire Education Dept budget was $268 Billion. What % of that do you think is overhead and waste? 20-30%

Again, I'm not, in any way saying "do nothing". I am saying some people need to reel in their expectations. I won't be shocked if actual waste is more like 10% and we should definitely cut that 10% right the hell now.

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You have to remember they are going department by department doing things in a better way. If inacted this will be WAY better than before (i.e, what got us to $36T in debt). Libtards have zero ideas for saving anything.

Married A Horn said:

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No one is saying cutting the doe will eliminate the deficit.

But over 15 departments and what, 400 or 500 agencies... trim up / doge all of them and it goes from material to substantial.

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Again, I'm not saying do nothing. I'm saying folks need to slow the train about how much this is going to save.

10% would be a MASSIVE number. That's 3 trillion dollars in a 36 trillion dollar deficit. You could eliminate the defense department and the department of education and you would just barely get to 1 trillion.

Disappointment is when reality fails to meet expectations. If you set realistic expectations "our goal is to cut 15% of government spending" that's a win. If you make it seem like you're going to cut 50% of spending and end up at 15% that's a disappointment.

Like all things Trump he just needs to tone down the rhetoric or at least he needs to make it more precise.

What's going to happen is the left is going to laugh at the amounts saved (you're already seeing that) and the right is going to be pissed it's not cut deeply enough.

I think you may be mixing up deficit and debt. Debt is 36T. Deficit is I think 2T?

nein51 said:

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Married A Horn said:

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No one is saying cutting the doe will eliminate the deficit.

But over 15 departments and what, 400 or 500 agencies... trim up / doge all of them and it goes from material to substantial.

---

Again, I'm not saying do nothing. I'm saying folks need to slow the train about how much this is going to save.

10% would be a MASSIVE number. That's 3 trillion dollars in a 36 trillion dollar deficit. You could eliminate the defense department and the department of education and you would just barely get to 1 trillion.

Disappointment is when reality fails to meet expectations. If you set realistic expectations "our goal is to cut 15% of government spending" that's a win. If you make it seem like you're going to cut 50% of spending and end up at 15% that's a disappointment.

Like all things Trump he just needs to tone down the rhetoric or at least he needs to make it more precise.

What's going to happen is the left is going to laugh at the amounts saved (you're already seeing that) and the right is going to be pissed it's not cut deeply enough.

---

The left is going to disparage everything Trump accomplishes.

However the real key is can Trump improve the economy.
His ability to generate trillions of dollars of foreign investment into the US will help dramatically.

But it will take years to generate jobs.

Somehow Trump needs to force the Fed to lower interest rates before the real estate market collapses.
.

Married A Horn said:

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I think you may be mixing up deficit and debt. Debt is 36T. Deficit is I think 2T?

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I'm not mixing them up. I'm saying that even if you cut the deficit to $0.00 the debt is still there.

If your deficit is 2T and you COMPLETELY ELIMINATE the #1 and #6 expenditures you still have a deficit and there's 0% chance you can eliminate all of that spending.

We need to set proper expectations of what DOGE can do. There's government waste and it needs to go away. That number isn't going to be remotely close to what most people think it is, imo.

KaiBear said:

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nein51 said:

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Married A Horn said:

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No one is saying cutting the doe will eliminate the deficit.

But over 15 departments and what, 400 or 500 agencies... trim up / doge all of them and it goes from material to substantial.

---

Again, I'm not saying do nothing. I'm saying folks need to slow the train about how much this is going to save.

10% would be a MASSIVE number. That's 3 trillion dollars in a 36 trillion dollar deficit. You could eliminate the defense department and the department of education and you would just barely get to 1 trillion.

Disappointment is when reality fails to meet expectations. If you set realistic expectations "our goal is to cut 15% of government spending" that's a win. If you make it seem like you're going to cut 50% of spending and end up at 15% that's a disappointment.

Like all things Trump he just needs to tone down the rhetoric or at least he needs to make it more precise.

What's going to happen is the left is going to laugh at the amounts saved (you're already seeing that) and the right is going to be pissed it's not cut deeply enough.

---

The left is going to disparage everything Trump accomplishes.

However the real key is can Trump improve the economy.
His ability to generate trillions of dollars of foreign investment into the US will help dramatically.

But it will take years to generate jobs.

Somehow Trump needs to force the Fed to lower interest rates before the real estate market collapses.
.

---

It appears there may be a stock market bubble brewing as well. Things could go real south, real fast.

nein51 said:

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KaiBear said:

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nein51 said:

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Married A Horn said:

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No one is saying cutting the doe will eliminate the deficit.

But over 15 departments and what, 400 or 500 agencies... trim up / doge all of them and it goes from material to substantial.

---

Again, I'm not saying do nothing. I'm saying folks need to slow the train about how much this is going to save.

10% would be a MASSIVE number. That's 3 trillion dollars in a 36 trillion dollar deficit. You could eliminate the defense department and the department of education and you would just barely get to 1 trillion.

Disappointment is when reality fails to meet expectations. If you set realistic expectations "our goal is to cut 15% of government spending" that's a win. If you make it seem like you're going to cut 50% of spending and end up at 15% that's a disappointment.

Like all things Trump he just needs to tone down the rhetoric or at least he needs to make it more precise.

What's going to happen is the left is going to laugh at the amounts saved (you're already seeing that) and the right is going to be pissed it's not cut deeply enough.

---

The left is going to disparage everything Trump accomplishes.

However the real key is can Trump improve the economy.
His ability to generate trillions of dollars of foreign investment into the US will help dramatically.

But it will take years to generate jobs.

Somehow Trump needs to force the Fed to lower interest rates before the real estate market collapses.
.

---

It appears there may be a stock market bubble brewing as well. Things could go real south, real fast.

---

Totally agree

Been slowly selling our portfolio since October.

Still have about 40% left.

Was hoping to sell off another 20% of what's remaining next week.

But I might be out of time .

This isn't the slam the OP wants it to be. I think we all know it'll be overstated for a while as they figure out what is getting cut and what has to be paid. I'm good with an aggressive approach. Glad to know that others are looking through it that are incentivized to find waste. Let's just keep going. I want full transparency on the cuts so the taxpayer can see the final scope of waste. Whether that be 10% or 40%, just want the fat cut.

Also, as to the contract example above, ending a contract that hasn't been fully spent will result in savings. Many of those contracts would have gotten used up as agencies tend to spend what they're allocated. Otherwise they risk losing it.

nein51 said:

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J.R. said:

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I'm good with Musk looking under the hood to find, waste, fraud and abuse. My issue is that he needs to be confirmed and vetted by congress and answer to congress, not fat man.

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You want the people being audited to confirm the auditor? Yeah that should go well.

That's like putting the answers to the test on the chalkboard and telling people not to look.

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No, I want him accountable. Truly Bear should not be who he is accountable. That is congresses job. Rs and Ds. Unfortunately, the Rs have NO backbone when it comes to fat guy

nein51 said:

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KaiBear said:

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nein51 said:

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Married A Horn said:

---

No one is saying cutting the doe will eliminate the deficit.

But over 15 departments and what, 400 or 500 agencies... trim up / doge all of them and it goes from material to substantial.

---

Again, I'm not saying do nothing. I'm saying folks need to slow the train about how much this is going to save.

10% would be a MASSIVE number. That's 3 trillion dollars in a 36 trillion dollar deficit. You could eliminate the defense department and the department of education and you would just barely get to 1 trillion.

Disappointment is when reality fails to meet expectations. If you set realistic expectations "our goal is to cut 15% of government spending" that's a win. If you make it seem like you're going to cut 50% of spending and end up at 15% that's a disappointment.

Like all things Trump he just needs to tone down the rhetoric or at least he needs to make it more precise.

What's going to happen is the left is going to laugh at the amounts saved (you're already seeing that) and the right is going to be pissed it's not cut deeply enough.

---

The left is going to disparage everything Trump accomplishes.

However the real key is can Trump improve the economy.
His ability to generate trillions of dollars of foreign investment into the US will help dramatically.

But it will take years to generate jobs.

Somehow Trump needs to force the Fed to lower interest rates before the real estate market collapses.
.

---

It appears there may be a stock market bubble brewing as well. Things could go real south, real fast.

---

Make sure you keep your $Trumpcoin, $Bitcoin, and $Fartcoin! They will soon be worth $bajillions!!!!

J.R. said:

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nein51 said:

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J.R. said:

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I'm good with Musk looking under the hood to find, waste, fraud and abuse. My issue is that he needs to be confirmed and vetted by congress and answer to congress, not fat man.

---

You want the people being audited to confirm the auditor? Yeah that should go well.

That's like putting the answers to the test on the chalkboard and telling people not to look.

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No, I want him accountable. Truly Bear should not be who he is accountable. That is congresses job. Rs and Ds. Unfortunately, the Rs have NO backbone when it comes to fat guy

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Both republicans and democrates in congress have too many slush fund kickbacks to appoint a maverick like Musk to conduct the required rat killing.

Just wait till Musk gets finished with the Pentagon.

Thats when the screaming about Musk will become truly bipartisan.

J.R. said:

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nein51 said:

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J.R. said:

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I'm good with Musk looking under the hood to find, waste, fraud and abuse. My issue is that he needs to be confirmed and vetted by congress and answer to congress, not fat man.

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You want the people being audited to confirm the auditor? Yeah that should go well.

That's like putting the answers to the test on the chalkboard and telling people not to look.

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No, I want him accountable. Truly Bear should not be who he is accountable. That is congresses job. Rs and Ds. Unfortunately, the Rs have NO backbone when it comes to fat guy

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Ok but you're asking an independent auditor to be accountable to the people hiding the money. You have to see how that doesn't work. It's why auditors are independent in the first place. If he was auditing Trump then I wouldn't want him working for him either.

The problem is that the money issue is a cross aisle issue. Both R and D are not going to let someone kill their pet projects or piggy banks.

J.R. said:

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I'm good with Musk looking under the hood to find, waste, fraud and abuse. My issue is that he needs to be confirmed and vetted by congress and answer to congress, not fat man.

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Legal he doesn't have too.....do we really believe that every single person in prior administrations were vetted....The waste alone just simply by running the ages of people collecting SSN should piss off every single American currently properly collecting SSN and those paying into it.

I am satisfied that for the first time in a very long time, the spending is going in the right direction, down.