Executive Order Series: Establishment of DOGE

By Rita Cook
Correspondent
Texas Metro News

President Trump’s Executive Order #14158 signed January 20 to establish and implement the Department of Government Efficiency has certainly been causing a stir.

For one thing, Elon Musk leads the department and no one can say he did not hit the ground running when Trump gave him his directives.

Musk has proved he is well up for the job already finding billions of dollars in the government’s unnecessary spending, according to reports.

The Executive Order names the establishment of DOGE and its purposes and reads it was also put in place to modernize “federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.”

Only having been in his seat a few weeks, many Americans believe Musk is showing the American people the DC bureaucracy on both sides of the aisle does not have to take years to unravel.

The US Treasury Department recently told Musk there is “over $100 billion per year of entitlement payments  to individuals with no social security numbers or temporary ID number.”

He said he was told around half of that amount was fraudulent at $50 billion a year.

There have also been rumors that through DOGE Trump plans to freeze Medicare and social security. This is not true since the administration has been clear DOGE was not put in place to personally impact Americans. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was clear, “Social security benefits, Medicare benefits, assistance going directly to individuals will not be impacted by the freeze placed on federal financial assistance programs.”

While the government’s wild ride on the taxpayer’s dime all these years might be hard for career politicians to accept has ended, it appears that is what is happening.

And with a savings that will positively impact both Republicans and Democrats, all Americans should have a strong interest in what DOGE is uncovering.

To date, DOGE has gotten rid of several diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives that were part of the country’s extremely expensive federal spending. Reportedly 12 contracts have been cancelled to the tune of $30 million as well as the termination of unnecessary federal building leases costing the American people $3 million.

Louisiana Senator John Kennedy said it well, “Common sense is illegal in Washington” and that appears to include spending American taxpayer’s dollars.

He added, “There is a Washington way of doing things and when somebody challenges the status quo many get excited and not in a good way.”

Reportedly DOGE has found a list of excessive expenditures to the tune of millions of dollars paid to mainstream media like AP, Reuters, and Politico for “subscriptions” proving perhaps you can buy the narrative.

Here are a few of the other items DOGE has reportedly found, but I recommend everyone check the website https://www.usaspending.gov/ and look up all the expenditures for yourself. The American people, regardless of the side of the aisle, have a right to know where their money is being spent.

While mainstream media has denied this, DOGE said it found line items showing taxpayers paid for Chelsea Clinton’s wedding and mansion by way of a fund that was meant to be sent to Haiti by the Clinton Foundation, funded by USAID. Also noted she received annually recurring funding from USAID, allocated by Obama providing afternoon meals to children in Africa, India, and Bangladesh. When someone did the math the number of meals served, 11,886, made each meal cost $1,410 per meal.

USAID paid George Soros $260 million, the reason for the expenditure is not clear. Justthenews.com reported USAID had been “regularly routed funding to causes aligned with George Soros’ nonprofit empire, terrorists and drag queens.”

Joni Ernst (R-IA) told reporters USAID did everything possible to withhold records until a formal congressional investigation began to force its hand. That still resulted in only a small amount of data released that included “very little data-driven results,” but lists of money spent like in Morocco for pottery classes and tourism in Lebanon during a state department advisory.

Other waste from the USAID coffers included money to Wuhan Lab of Virology, and money used by NGOs to aid illegal crossings into the US and millions spent on plane and bus tickets and coaching illegals how to stay in the country.

Another short list of USAID expenditures $16.8 million to support equitable outcomes in inclusion in Vietnam, $7.9 million to teach Sri Lankan journalists to avoid binary gender language, $6.3 million to study men having sex with men in South Africa, millions on LGBTQ promotions in Uganda, the western Balkans, Guatemala, $20 million on a Sesame Street show in Iraq, $4.5 million to combat misinformation in Kazakhstan and $15 million for contraceptives and condoms in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan and let’s not forget the $600 million on sushi or (standardized usage statistics harvesting initiative) and the IRS spent $230,000 a month on Starbuck’s Cinnamon Roast K-cups.

In late January DOGE had already announced it had saved the US government around $1 billion per day. It was reported these savings were overall realized by ending pointless hiring, eliminating DEI programs, and putting an end to improper payments to foreign groups being paid regularly with no oversight.

As for the future of USAID, that remains unclear. Newly-appointed Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been appointed acting director with possible plans to merge parts of USAID into the State Department.

Overall, it remains to be seen how much excessive spending will be uncovered, but this Executive Order is one worth watching as it unfolds.