Recently, DOGE claimed it saved $55 billion overall, detailing its savings on its “wall of receipts” webpage. However, this figure has seen significant revisions over just a few days. On Tuesday, the website reported $16.5 billion in savings, much of it from canceled federal contracts. By Thursday, that number dropped to $7.2 billion due to a large error in reporting.
The White House’s Department of Government Efficiency, associated with Elon Musk, adjusted its savings estimate after realizing a mistake. They found that a previously reported $8 billion savings from a canceled contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was incorrect. The actual contract was only worth $8 million. The team noted that the error came from a wrong entry made by an agency contracting officer.
Another adjustment involved saving about $2 billion from three USAID contracts, each originally valued at $655 million. Now, it appears only a single contract is counted, reducing that savings claim by $1.3 billion.
A White House official explained that DOGE calculates savings by subtracting funds already promised in contracts from the total contract values. They emphasized that this method is conservative since it doesn’t include funds that have been recovered or consider potential administrative savings.
Musk candidly acknowledged that mistakes happen. He remarked, “Nobody’s going to bat a thousand. We will make mistakes, but we will act quickly to correct them.”
Overall, DOGE continues to report total estimated savings at $55 billion, attributing this to various methods including fraud detection, contract cancellations, asset sales, and programmatic changes. However, most reported savings currently stem only from canceled contracts.
In a joint interview, Musk stated that DOGE aims to cut around $1 trillion from the federal deficit.
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