The soon-to-be-formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by X owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk and entrepreneur and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, shared some examples of obscene government waste on Monday so Americans can have some clear examples of what needs to be cut.
DOGE shared a clip of Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), widely known for his annual Festivus government waste report, walking through some of the most shocking ways the U.S. government has wasted taxpayer dollars.
One of the studies highlighted by both Paul and DOGE in involves seeing what makes a sunfish more aggressive: Gin or tequila. About $100,000 went toward that project.
The U.S. government also spent nearly one million on a study to see if cocaine makes Japanese quail more “sexually promiscuous.”
It does not end there, either. The U.S. government also spent $750,000 to determine if Neil Armstrong’s famed line was actually “One small step for man” or “one small step for ‘a’ man.” DOGE pointed out that the study was “inconclusive.”
The clip shared by DOGE also features Sen. Paul noting that $2 million was spent on the “construction of a kelp and shellfish nursery in Maine.”
Paul continued: “$1.5 million to encourage video gaming in New York. … We might be better off spending 1.5 million to discourage kids from a playing video games. … $388,000 for Columbia University … $249,000 for the Baltimore Symphony, give money to all the symphonies.”
Ramaswamy appeared on Sunday Morning Futures and previewed plans for DOGE to completely “delete” some government agencies.
He said in part:
Over the last 40 years, even conservatives, we’ve talked a big game for 40 years about cutting the federal government, about reducing the scope of the federal government. Politicians haven’t been able to do it. And so Elon and I, we’re not politicians. We’re businessmen. We’re coming at it from the outside. Sometimes, if you go inside, you become native to the system.”
“I applaud President Trump for setting this up for success. But I come back to the principle. In the early months, score quick wins through executive the action, show what can be done, and then I think we’ll lay the groundwork for Congress to have to take meaningful steps for the future,” he explained.
“Let’s start with the fact that there is massive waste, fraud and abuse right now. Federal contractors are really exploiting the federal government. You could take haircuts across the board, and they would be no worse off for if it,” Ramaswamy continued, previewing “mass reductions” at federal agencies.
“We expect certain agencies to be deleted outright. We expect mass reductions in force in areas of the federal government that are bloated,” he said.
“We expect massive cuts of all federal contractors and others who are overbilling the federal government. So, yes, we expect all of the above,” he added.
Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH) is among those who have pointed out that DOGE can start with cutting bureaucrats off.
“Well, they can get rid of the bureaucrats, for sure. There’s certainly things that they can do on that front. But you know, as an example, Congress created the Environmental Protection Agency. Congress created the Department of Education. Nothing says that they have to have 4,500 employees at the Department of Education,” he told Breitbart News Daily.
The post follows DOGE stating that they are looking for “high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting.”