Washington

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have been given the responsibility of a new department by President-elect Donald Trump. They have been assigned to the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and need to tackle "massive waste and fraud" in $6,750,000,000,000 of annual government spending.

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However, they are not part of the government and will work from outside as advisors to “dismantle bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures and restructure federal agencies,” as per Trump’s statement. 

How does the department plan on getting rid of expenses and which areas can be hit? 

Open the Book is a watchdog that monitors fiscal waste. Its CEO Josh Hart spoke to the New York Post about everything that might take a hit. He said that Musk and Ramaswamy will curb “spending that has been on autopilot where there’s no real thought or purpose behind it”.

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Dead still receiving checks

Reports suggest that a lot of government money still goes out to dead people. According to RealClear Investigations, $1.3 billion in checks were sent to dead people from the IRS, Medicare and assorted veterans groups in 2023. Hart says this expense can be easily cut down on since the Treasury Department has a do-not-pay list.

Also Read: Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy to lead 'Department of Government Efficiency' in Trump's second term

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Hart says even some of the IRS employees aren’t paying their taxes. Between October 2021 and October 2023, IRS employees owed $50 million in unpaid taxes, he says, but only 20 of them were fired. 

Trip to Ireland

Nearly $4 million of taxpayers' money was spent last year on a trip to Ireland undertaken by Joe and Hunter Biden. 

The government has been funding a few animal-related projects as well.

Cat and monkey business

A Washington Times report suggests that in 2021 the National Institutes of Health (NIH) gave $549,000 to a Russian lab performing experiments on cats. This involved removing a part of their brains to see if they could still walk on treadmills.

Watch: Donald Trump Picks Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy To Key Cabinet Roles

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A firm that runs “Monkey Island” which houses around 3,000 primates for research labs received $33 million from the NIH. A study on monkeys and gambling received grants totalling $3.7 million. 

The University of Mississippi tested monkeys on methamphetamine for which it received a portion of $12 million, while a Florida lab got $477,000 for research into “transgender” monkeys. 

Covid spending

The Post reported that Covid funding hasn’t stopped yet and FEMA is looking at spending nearly $70 billion on the pandemic by August 2026. Dr Anthony Fauci, who led efforts to control the pandemic in the US and is now retired, received $15 million worth of security detail this year.

Prisoners

The report further says that unemployment payments and Social Security benefits worth $171 million were doled out to prisoners believed to still be free and out of work in 2023. Medicaid and Medicare also made improper payments of $101 billion following fraudulent activities. IRS lost at least $546 million due to tax cheats.

Empty offices, EPA ammunition and studies

The report further suggests that $2 billion is spent annually to maintain government-owned offices that are practically lying empty with another $5 billion to lease space.

The Environmental Protection Agency spent $620,000 on guns and ammunition which, according to some experts, wasn’t necessary. The State Department also gave nearly $58.7 million to China between 2017 and 2022, according to Open the Books, of which almost $100,000 was used for New Yorker magazine cartoons to promote ‘Gender Equality’.

Some strange studies, such as the history and sociological impact of liver disease in Egypt and Muslim-Chinese encounters in Asia from the 1360s to the 1640s, were granted $350,000 in January 2024 alone for research work and writing books on the topics. 

(With inputs from agencies)