Unfinished Business: The budget cuts Musk couldn’t complete and what’s next for DOGE

Though Elon Musk leaves behind a legacy of massive cuts to government programs which left many members of the Washington, D.C., establishment enraged, he was not able to accomplish all the lofty goals he set at the beginning of his time as head of the Department of Government Efficiency.

According to a May 26 update on DOGE’s website, the initiative has saved an estimated $175 billion through asset sales, contract cancellations, fraud payment crackdowns and other spending cuts. That translates to about $1,087 in savings per taxpayer.

Though significant, the $175 billion is a far cry from the original $2 trillion–nearly a third of the federal government’s total spending–that Musk originally set out to cut.

So, what went wrong?

Richard Ste...