DOGE exaggerates the contribution to cutting the US budget expenditures - NYT.

The New York Times reports that billionaire Elon Musk is intentionally exaggerating the economic impact of his budget cuts.

During the 2024 election campaign, Musk claimed he could reduce the federal budget by 2 trillion dollars. However, after taking office, the billionaire announced a reduction in government spending of only 150 billion dollars within the same timeframe, which is only 15% of the initially stated goal.

The publication reports that the savings figures claimed by Musk are exaggerated and contain many errors and inaccuracies. Among them are expenditures whose reductions will not lead to economic effects, cancellations of contracts that the government had no intention of making, inflation of the costs of various budget expenditures, etc.

The material also notes that the website where Musk's fans praise his achievements contains many errors, including triple counting of the same cancellations. Furthermore, Musk is credited with achieving cuts in programs that were completed during the presidency of George W. Bush.

The New York Times estimates the volume of errors in billions of dollars.