In an exclusive interview with Fox News Senior Correspondent Bret Baier, Elon Musk and the entire DOGE team shared their insights on the current state of government spending and their ambitious goals to reduce waste and fraud.
This comprehensive discussion, a significant upgrade from previous individual interviews, included representatives from various government agencies such as the Social Security Administration, the Office of Management and Budget, the Department of Health and Human Services, the National Institute of Health, the Department of the Treasury, and the Department of the Interior.
According to RedState, Baier initiated the conversation by asking Musk about DOGE's budgetary savings goals and the progress they've made so far. Musk responded, "Our goal is to reduce the deficit by a trillion dollars. So, from a nominal deficit of two trillion to try to cut the deficit in half to one trillion. Or looked at in total federal spending, to drop the federal spending from seven trillion to six trillion. We want to reduce the spending by eliminating waste and fraud and reduce the spending by 15 percent. Which seems really quite achievable. The government is not efficient and there's a lot of waste and fraud, so, we feel confident that a 15 percent reduction can be done without affecting any of the critical government services. In fact, making it better."
When asked about the most shocking discovery in their quest to reduce government waste, Musk revealed, "The sheer amount of waste and fraud in the government. It's astonishing, it's mind-blowing. We routinely encounter waste of a billion dollars or more. Casually." This revelation, while shocking to the American public, has been suspected by many for decades. The lack of action from previous administrations and lawmakers, despite their promises to cut waste and fraud, has been a source of frustration for many. Musk and the DOGE team credited President Donald Trump and his Cabinet for allowing this investigation and correction to take place.
The DOGE team has been transparent in their findings, confirming that the prevalence of waste and fraud is largely due to outdated government systems with multiple redundancies, varying computer systems across agencies that do not communicate with each other, and a lack of accountability and safeguards within these agencies. Musk explained, "The ways that the government is defrauded is that the computer systems don't talk to each other. So, if the computer systems don't talk to each other, then you can exploit that gap. And fraudsters exploit that gap and take advantage."
DOGE software engineer Aram Moghaddassi highlighted a significant loophole in the Social Security Administration that has been exploited by fraudsters: the ability to change banking information over the phone. He revealed that "40 percent of the phone calls that they get are from fraudsters." This alarming statistic underscores the need for tighter security measures to protect beneficiaries.
Musk assured that the work of DOGE will not negatively impact legitimate beneficiaries. He stated, "Legitimate people, as a result of the work of DOGE, will receive more Social Security, not less. I want to emphasize that: as a result of the work of DOGE, legitimate recipients of Social Security will receive more money, not less money."
The team also discovered that over $300 million in Small Business Administration loans had been given out to individuals under the age of 11 and over $300 million distributed to people over the age of 120. Musk lamented how fraudsters exploit the Social Security numbers of newborn babies, stating, "They do terrible things. They will see that a kid has been born, they will steal that kid's Social Security number, take out a loan and leave that kid with a bad credit rating. That's literally a baby. Terrible things are being done is what we're saying."
DOGE's Anthony Armstrong explained that this happens because "the two systems are not talking to each other. Right? So, you don't know at the Small Business Administration that you're giving a loan to a nine-month old, which happened in one case, because you're not cross-referencing that with the Social Security Administration data that has birth dates. So, that very, very simple fix eliminates tremendous fraud."
Musk concurred, emphasizing the need for improved technology within the government. He stated, "When I say our job is tech support, I really mean it. We have to fix the computers. If the computers can't talk to each other, you can't get research done. If the computers can't stay online, people won't receive their Social Security. So, what we have here are a bunch of failing computer systems that are preventing people from receiving their benefits, that are preventing research from happening, that are extremely vulnerable to fraud, and we're fixing it."
Chief DOGE engineer Steve Davis revealed that there are over 15 million people marked as alive in the Social Security system who are over the age of 120. This issue, identified as a problem since 2008, has yet to be addressed. Davis stated, "So, there are some great people working at the Social Security Administration that found this, 2008, and nothing was done about it. And so, 15 to 20 million Social Security numbers that were clearly fraudulent were floating around that could be used only for bad intentions, there would be no way to use those for good intentions. So one of the things the DOGE team is doing is carefully, and very methodically, looking at those and making sure that any fraudulent ones are eliminated."
Engineer Tom Krause, part of DOGE in the Treasury Department, pointed to the culture within the government that perpetuates the lack of oversight and fraud. He stated, "One, we're changing the culture, the culture has been not a lot of caring, and not a lot of commitment to do what's right relative to financial operations. There's $500 billion of fraud every year. There's hundreds of billions of dollars in improper payments and we can't pass an audit."
Musk echoed this sentiment, stating, "We're talking about elementary financial controls, that are necessary for any company to function. If a commercial company operated the way the federal government does, then it would immediately go bankrupt, it would be delisted, the officers would be arrested. The changes we're putting in place will enable the federal government to pass an audit, it will enable taxpayers to know where the money is going and know that their hard-earned tax dollars are being spent well."
When asked about the pushback DOGE was receiving, Musk declared, "Well, this is a revolution. And I think it might be the biggest revolution in government since the original revolution. But at the end of the day, America is going to be in much better shape. America will be solvent. The critical programs that people depend upon will work, and it's gonna to be a fantastic future."
Musk further warned, "The reason we're doing this, is because if we don't do it, America's going to be insolvent. It's going to go bankrupt, and nobody is going to get anything." This stark warning underscores the urgency of DOGE's mission and the potential consequences if their efforts are not successful.
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