一份来自Politico的深度报告指出，政府效率部门（DOGE）实际节省的开支远低于其声称的数额。尽管该部门在过去六个月里取消了研究资助、联邦合同并解雇了联邦雇员，但其节省的金额远未达到埃隆·马斯克承诺的水平。DOGE声称自特朗普总统就职以来总共节省了2050亿美元，但Politico的调查发现，这些所谓的“收据”中存在大量水分。在取消合同方面，DOGE声称节省了528亿美元，但Politico只能核实327亿美元的合同，而实际可量化的节省金额仅为14亿美元。

📊 **节省开支数据被夸大**: Politico的报告揭露，政府效率部门（DOGE）在计算节省的开支时使用了“创意会计”方法，导致其声称的总节省金额被大幅夸大。例如，在取消合同方面，DOGE声称节省了528亿美元，但Politico核实的实际节省金额仅为14亿美元，仅占其声称金额的约2.6%。

📈 **会计方法存在缺陷**: DOGE在计算节省金额时，报告的是每个合同可能支出的最大金额，而非实际或计划的支出金额。专家将此比作取消一张拥有100万美元额度的信用卡，这并不意味着你实际节省了100万美元。这种方法使得DOGE能够“膨胀”其节省的数字。

🏛️ **资金流向问题**: Politico指出，即使通过取消合同实现了节省，这些资金也无法直接用于减少联邦赤字，除非获得国会干预。因为这些节省下来的资金会直接返还给相关机构，而不是进入联邦财政账户。

📉 **目标不断调整**: 在此之前，埃隆·马斯克曾声称DOGE将为政府节省2万亿美元，随后又将目标下调至1500亿美元。这些数据上的波动也引发了对其效率和透明度的质疑。

✂️ **实际削减影响**: 尽管节省数据存疑，DOGE的削减措施确实影响了一些政府服务，包括削减对外援助以及减少了1.25亿美元用于支持LGBTQ健康项目的资金。

An in-depth new report from Politico determined that the Department of Government Efficiency (aka DOGE) has actually saved far less than it's claimed. So, despite spending the last six months cancelling research grants, federal contracts, and firing federal employees across the country, DOGE has fallen far behind the savings promised by Elon Musk.

So far, DOGE has claimed $205 billion in total savings since President Donald Trump's inauguration, according to its public "wall of receipts."

However, Politico reports that the wall of receipts is sorely lacking in, well, some important receipts.

DOGE claims it has saved taxpayers $52.8 billion from canceled contracts, but Politico could only verify $32.7 billion worth of contracts. What's worse is that, per Politico, the actual, tangible savings from those cancellations are closer to $1.4 billion. That's because DOGE uses some creative accounting to "exaggerate" the total savings. We'll get to that in a minute.

In other words, Politico reported that DOGE only saved about 2.6 percent of its claimed savings from cancelled contracts. Crucially, as Politico pointed out, none of that money can be taken off the federal deficit (which DOGE is supposed to be reducing) without Congressional intervention, as those dollars just get returned to the agencies.

Politico's lengthy report is worth digging into, as it has all the technical details of how DOGE is using "faulty math" to come up with these numbers. When calculating savings, DOGE reports the maximum possible spending amount of each contract, not the actual or planned spending.

This has actually been a known problem with DOGE's accounting since February. Often, experts use the analogy of a credit card limit to explain the limits of this approach. If you cancel a credit card with a $1 million limit, that doesn't mean you've saved $1 million.

Politico's report said that DOGE's claimed savings are "drastically exaggerated," and that "the magnitude of DOGE’s inflated savings claims has not been clear until now."

The Trump administration told Politico in response to their story that the agency produced "historic savings for the American people,” and that DOGE's public list of claimed savings is accurate and "updated in real time based on current information."

These questions about DOGE's exaggerated numbers may not surprise anyone who has been following along with Musk's shenanigans since January. Musk, who officially left his post at DOGE earlier this year, initially claimed that the agency would save the government $2 trillion before quickly revising that goal down to $150 billion in April.

DOGE's cuts have undoubtedly been effective in shuttering some government services, slashing foreign aid, and cutting $125 million in funding to support LGBTQ health initiatives.