DOGE Saved $1.4 Billion — Less Than 5% of What They Claimed, Shocking Analysis Finds

AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana

DOGE “drastically exaggerated” its government spending cuts and saved just a fraction of what they are boasting, a new deep-dive analysis from Politico found.

Politico’s Jessie Blaeser dove into public data and federal spending records for a report that accuses DOGE of using “faulty math” to overstate their massive savings calculations. According to the DOGE website, the agency estimates it saved more than $200 billion overall, which they say equates to more than $1,000 for every taxpayer. That total number comes from slashing workforces, cancelling contracts and grants, and more.

Of the billions in contracts that were canceled under DOGE, Politico could only verify a fraction. As noted, the savings are also difficult to calculate as money designated for agencies by Congress is required to be spent.

From Politico:

Through July, DOGE said it has saved taxpayers $52.8 billion by canceling contracts, but of the $32.7 billion in actual claimed contract savings that POLITICO could verify, DOGE’s savings over that period were closer to $1.4 billion.

Despite the administration’s claims, not a single one of those 1.4 billion dollars will lower the federal deficit unless Congress steps in. Instead, the money has been returned to agencies mandated by law to spend it.

The analysis ultimately found that DOGE saved less than 5% than what it claimed from more than 10,000 contract terminations.

Part of DOGE’s “faulty math,” according to the analysis, is that the group uses “ceiling” levels of spending to determine their savings. In other words, the organization uses the maximum amount of spending allocated for contracts to boost the amount saved in cuts.

White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Harrison Fields defended DOGE’s calculations and said they are “rigorously scrubbed.”