Greetings everyone. I know it has been a while since my last post. But after several months of tuning out of the news and focusing, this article seems like one to share. In fact, it was shared with me this morning by an old friend. While reading the article, the following items came to mind that are consistent with the conclusions of the former DOGE engineer.
- Government spending actually increased during all this talk of cost cutting. According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, the Federal Government spent $166 billion more in the first four months of 2025 than in first four months of 2024: HTML.
- DOGE savings are just false claims. BBC found that of the proposed $2 trillion ($2,000 billion) in cost savings, later downward revised to $1 trillion ($1,000 billion), only $61.5 billion are itemized and of those line items, only $32.5 billion are verifiable: HTML.
- Reducing waste may be more costly than beneficial. In How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking by Jordan Ellenberg, page 236 notes the Social Security Administration (SSA) example. If you stop at “the agency improperly paid $31 million in benefits to 1,546 Americans believed to be deceased” you could [falsely] start screaming “look how inefficient Social Security is.” However, if you realize that “$31 million represents 0.004% of the benefits disbursed annually” you realize that the Social Security Administration is actually very efficient. I have first-hand experience of SSA’s efficiency with a family member’s passing a few years ago.
- Delayed travel reimbursement over $2 or $3. I travelled to NY for work in April. My recent NY travel expense reimbursement was held up because of a minuscule tax differential on my room tax reimbursement. We are reimbursed for rooms up to $333. My room was $339. My reimbursement was held up because even though I put in $333 for the room expense, I didn’t pro-rate the tax based on $333 vs $339. We are talking about $2 or $3 difference in total expenses. If you monetize the time spent by the accountant (who is very good to catch such details) and my time to re-do the expense report, it is far more than the $3 in savings.
Parting thoughts…
Just because someone has wealth, political clout, or holds a CEO title does not make that person an expert in operational efficiency. This is especially evident when considering the origins of their wealth or their track record. For example, prior to his first term, President Trump’s businesses filed for bankruptcy six times, which indicates repeated and serious operational failures.
If cost cutting and efficiency are the true goals, then one should either (a) become informed by reading works such as How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking and by consulting with experts, or (b) hire someone with a proven record in the field. Installing a hatchet man who has likely never considered the subtle nuances of complex cases, such as the Social Security Administration example mentioned earlier, set the stage for the acrimonious outcome we all witnessed: HTML.
I could go on about how those in power create demonstrably false narratives about their greatness and keep repeating the falsehoods until they stick, but hopefully you all get the point: don’t buy everything they are selling to you.
-Dr. Moore
Former DOGE engineer on his experience working for the cost-cutting unit
Juana Summers8-Minute Listen
Sahil Lavingia, former DOGE engineer, says he didn’t see the fraud and abuse in government spending that he was expecting.Sahil Lavingia
A former employee of the Department of Government Efficiency says that he found that the federal waste, fraud and abuse that his agency was supposed to uncover were “relatively nonexistent” during his short time embedded within the Department of Veterans Affairs.“I personally was pretty surprised, actually, at how efficient the government was,” Sahil Lavingia told NPR’s Juana Summers.
Lavingia was a successful software developer and the founder of Gumroad, a platform for online sales, when he joined DOGE in March. Lavingia said he had previously sought to work for the U.S. Digital Service, the technology unit that was renamed and restructured by the Trump administration. He told NPR that he just wanted to make government websites easier for citizens to use and didn’t really care which presidential administration he was working for, despite protests from his friends and family.
Lavingia said the overall message at DOGE was transparency and a vibe of “ask for forgiveness, not permission.” So, when a blogger asked for an interview about Gumroad, he agreed. And when asked, he talked about his work at DOGE, including how little inefficiency he saw compared to what he was expecting.
“Elon [Musk] was pretty clear about how he wanted DOGE to be maximally transparent,” Lavingia said. “That’s something he said a lot in private. And publicly. And so I thought, OK, cool, I’ll take him at his word. I will be transparent.”
Shortly after the interview was published online, Lavingia got an email. Just 55 days into his work at DOGE, his access had been revoked.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Efficient Minds™ 
The $2 – $3 variance comes from the need to audit a vast quantity of reimbursements – it’s a lot easier if you don’t have to account for the individual judgement of a bunch of people of varying experience level’s application of their administrative discretion. And therefor a lot fewer hours spent by your expensive independent auditor. It’s cheaper in the long run to require them to balance to the penny or keep administrative discretion limited to rounding errors of a few cents.
Good points about the need to audit more than just my expense report and then the downstream cost of an external independent auditor. Thank you for the comment.
The evolved, traditional structure including inspectors general offices, ethics hotlines, GAO, and committee oversight have made strong contributions to accountability. There’s a potential for problems in places with security classifications like lost guns at the FBI. It’s good to get feedback from a critic that suggests the system worked, past tense. Part of DOGE’s work seems centered on zero accountability. Thank you for posting.