Summary
DOGE initially claimed an $8 billion ICE contract reduction, but the actual figure was 1,000 times less at $8 million.
Despite correcting the ICE figure, DOGE did not adjust its overall $55 billion savings estimate, which lacks clear justification.
The ICE error wasn’t the only issue. CBS News found DOGE had triple-counted a $654.99 million savings on a single contract, overstating savings by as much as $1.96 billion.
Critics argue the errors remain unaddressed because “the propaganda of the numbers is important to them.”
The problem is that idiots are eating up these numbers. I have a few low information coworkers who just hear the stories about DOGE saving all this tax money on “wasteful” programs on right wing news outlets and are convinced, full stop. Now, they parrot all the information they hear and are “glad that someone is finally doing something about government waste”. They don’t look into whether or not the numbers that Elon Musk spits out are truthful, let alone whether or not those tax dollars were actually having a positive impact.
We live in a post-truth society, and the Republicans have been abusing the people’s willingness to give authority figured the benefit of the doubt. No amount of untruth can ruin their credibility, because all it takes is a tiny kernel of truth to make it seem like it wasn’t actually a lie.
Bro it annoys me to no end that people genuinely believe that the government never does audits. Like all this DOGE bullshit was already an ongoing part of the federal bureaucracy in place to ensure funds aren’t misappropriated.
Do people think there was zero accountability for the money??!?!!
DOGE isn’t saving shit it’s a smokescreen to shift money around and enrich the unscrupulous assholes.
Had one come up to me while I was working with chemicals excited about his doge check… then complained about owing taxes. Had to bite my tongue so hard not to tell him gullible was written on the ceiling