DOGE Tracker: What Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy Say They Will Lower

• Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy goal to chop as much as $2 trillion from the federal funds by July 4, 2026.
• They’ve stated they will fireplace federal staff, “delete” businesses, and publicize all of their work.
• The DOGE leaders have name-dropped many causes they might goal, like DEI efforts and public media.

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have massive plans for the Division of Authorities Effectivity.

The 2 have promised to considerably scale back the federal funds, with Musk saying in October he needed to chop $2 trillion. He scaled again his estimate throughout a broadcast on X in January, saying that $2 trillion was a “best-case end result.” Throughout the broadcast, Musk stated that he thinks DOGE has a “good shot” of saving $1 trillion.

Federal spending reached $6.75 trillion in fiscal 12 months 2024, with nine-tenths going to federal applications. President-elect Donald Trump has lengthy sworn to not contact Social Safety or Medicare advantages, which comprise a big chunk of the funds.

Here is a working record of issues Musk and Ramaswamy have stated they will do as they gear as much as tackle this new position.

Representatives for Musk and Trump did not reply to Enterprise Insider’s request for remark. A consultant for Ramaswamy declined to remark.

Slash rules

Musk and Ramaswamy plan to counsel rules for Trump to chop, and so they stated Trump might then use govt actions to pause the rules and start the removing course of.

The coheads outlined their concepts in an opinion piece in The Wall Road Journal and stated they deliberate to lean on two latest US Supreme Courtroom rulings, West Virginia v. Environmental Safety Company and Loper Vivid Enterprises v. Raimondo. The instances, they stated, “counsel {that a} plethora of present federal rules exceed the authority Congress has granted underneath the legislation.”

Some authorized consultants beforehand advised BI that the DOGE leaders had been misinterpreting the lawsuits, which they stated did not add to the chief department’s capability to curb rules. Beneath the rulings, businesses nonetheless have to adjust to a prolonged administrative course of to vary or overturn guidelines, the consultants stated.

‘Delete’ total businesses, or at the very least vastly change them

A key a part of DOGE’s cost-cutting agenda has to do with scaling again authorities businesses — Ramaswamy promised that the group would “delete” total departments. Political scientists and fellows at Washington suppose tanks beforehand advised BI that deleting departments outright nearly at all times requires congressional approval, making DOGE’s aim appear unrealistic to some. Musk has stated he desires to trim the variety of federal businesses right down to not more than 99.

Listed below are a number of the businesses DOGE plans to focus on:

Deliberate Parenthood and public media could also be impacted

Musk and Ramaswamy criticized the Company for Public Broadcasting and “progressive teams like Deliberate Parenthood” of their op-ed. They stated DOGE would attempt to curb federal spending “by taking goal” on the funds appropriated for these providers, amongst others.

The CPB is the biggest funding supply for public radio, tv, and on-line providers, primarily for native public media — within the fiscal 12 months 2024, it had a funds of $535 million. Congress created the CPB and authorizes the funds. Between 2019 and 2021, American associates of Deliberate Parenthood obtained about $148 million in federal grants, based on the Authorities Accounting Workplace.

Goal expired federal spending commitments

Musk and Ramaswamy stated of their op-ed that they deliberate to go after expired federal expenditures. Based on the Congressional Funds Workplace, $516 billion value of federal appropriations in 2024 have expired, with the biggest applications by way of spending referring to veterans’ healthcare, drug growth, and NASA. Neither Musk nor Ramaswamy have specified which expired authorizations they’d goal.

Scale back the federal workforce

Musk and Ramaswamy have stated they need to considerably scale back the scale of the federal workforce, although have not specified exactly what number of staff ought to be reduce. There have been greater than 2 million federal staff as of 2023, based on the nonpartisan group the Partnership for Public Service.

Civil-service staff profit from job protections that make it troublesome to fireplace them, however the DOGE co-leaders stated of their Journal article that Trump might implement “reductions in drive” that are not directed at particular person staff.

Within the op-ed, Musk and Ramaswamy stated that after eliminating federal rules, “mass head-count reductions throughout the federal paperwork” would comply with. They plan to find out the minimal variety of staff wanted at every division and stated they could enact insurance policies that lead some staffers to voluntarily resign, equivalent to return-to-office mandates, early retirement presents, and severance packages.

Federal worker salaries do not comprise an enormous chunk of the funds — not together with navy personnel, their annual salaries and advantages complete about $305 billion, or 4% of spending, The Washington Publish reported. If Musk and Ramaswamy removed 25% of the federal workforce, authorities spending would fall by about 1%.

Relocate some federal businesses and reform constructing use

Musk and Ramaswamy raised the potential for relocating federal businesses exterior Washington of their op-ed, a degree that Ramaswamy has spoken extra about on-line and in interviews. When speaking to Fox Information in November, he stated he “completely” needed to maneuver businesses elsewhere and known as the truth that some staff do not go into the workplace a “soiled little secret.”

In a submit on X from late November, Ramaswamy stated addressing the price of sustaining federal buildings “feels like a job for DOGE.” A 2023 report from the Authorities Accountability Workplace discovered that 17 of the businesses reviewed used about 25% or much less of their buildings’ house. The federal authorities spends about $2 billion every year to keep up federal workplace buildings and $5 billion to lease house to businesses, the report discovered.

Conduct audits of businesses

Of their opinion piece, Musk and Ramaswamy stated audits carried out throughout momentary fee suspensions might carry massive financial savings. They known as out the Pentagon and wrote that the company failed its seventh consecutive audit. Help for the proposal got here from an unlikely place: progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders. In a submit on X, Sanders stated that “Elon Musk is true,” including that the Pentagon had “misplaced monitor of billions.”

Publicize all of the modifications the fee makes

Musk stated in a submit on X that he’d publish all of DOGE’s actions on-line for “most transparency.”

“Anytime the general public thinks we’re chopping one thing essential or not chopping one thing wasteful, simply tell us!” he wrote. In the identical submit, he stated DOGE would create a “leaderboard for many insanely dumb spending.” Ramaswamy promised in a submit that DOGE would begin “crowdsourcing” for sources of waste and fraud.

Rent staff

Along with Musk and Ramaswamy, DOGE has introduced one official rent: William Joseph McGinley because the fee’s counsel. The fee is actively recruiting staff, based on its X account, although their identities haven’t but been shared and the hiring course of stays unclear.

In a submit on X from November, the fee stated it was in search of “tremendous high-IQ small-government revolutionaries keen to work 80+ hours per week” and that hundreds have indicated curiosity. Candidates ought to message the account their CV and the co-leaders would overview prime contenders, the submit stated.

Musk stated in his personal submit from that month that the roles will likely be unpaid. But in late December and early January, DOGE’s account stated in two separate posts that the fee was searching for folks to fill a “very small” quantity of “full-time salaried HR, IT, and Finance positions” and “full-time salaried Software program Engineers and InfoSec Engineers.”

Once more, candidates had been instructed to ship their {qualifications} and causes for curiosity in a direct message, with the directions various barely per place.

Disband DOGE no later than July 4, 2026

When Trump introduced the creation of DOGE, he stated the committee would disband by July 4, 2026. The committee’s leaders, although, have stated they suppose their work will likely be performed earlier.

Musk stated on X that DOGE would full its objectives “a lot quicker,” and Ramaswamy advised Fox Information that “folks will likely be shocked by, I believe, how shortly we’re in a position to transfer with a few of these modifications.” To finish its work, DOGE plans to make use of “a lean staff of small-government minded crusaders” that works intently with the Workplace of Administration and Funds, the leaders’ opinion piece stated.

They’ve hinted at abolishing daylight-saving time and different initiatives

Although posts on X do not equate to an official DOGE plan, Musk and Ramaswamy have each posted about different issues they might deal with of their roles, a few of which might require congressional approval.

Musk has posted about abolishing daylight-saving time, spending in Afghanistan, and “faux jobs” within the authorities.

Ramaswamy stated in his posts that DOGE may very well be used to deal with subsidies from the CHIPS Act, DEI efforts at universities, and the way the federal authorities buys expertise providers.

DOGE’s X account has posted repeatedly about publicly funded infrastructure initiatives, together with the California Excessive Velocity Rail mission, which goals to attach Los Angeles and San Francisco. First accredited in 2008, the mission’s timeline and funds have grown within the years since. Although DOGE’s posts on X do not specify exact plans for present infrastructure initiatives, they criticize the allowing and regulation course of.

Have you ever utilized or thought-about making use of to work at DOGE? Share your expertise and ideas with this reporter at atecotzky@insider.com.

Correction: December 13, 2024 — An earlier model of this story misstated the top date for DOGE; it’s set to finish July 4, 2026, not June 4, 2026. The story additionally overstated the variety of present federal businesses.