Elon Musk's plan: United States federal expenses increased in February to record 603 billion dollars. This is about $ 40 billion morethan in the same period of the previous year. The cancellation of thousands of government contracts, the withdrawal of subsidies and huge exemptions did not cause savings in the accounting tables. And such a goal was set before new the advisory body of the Department of State (DOGE), which he manages Elon Musk. Donald Trump marked the billionaire to carry out the cuts of public expenses and the fight against the alleged waste and corruption.
Expenses went up: If we look closely at expenses USA From last month you can see that the corrections are minimal. For example, it was possible to reduce the expenditure of the Education Department by $ 6 billion, and the United States Agency for International Development by $ 321 million, but on the other hand, health care expenses increased by $ 5 billion, and for social security by $ 8 billion. In addition, debt service consumed an additional $ 10 billion. and increased to $ 86 billion, a The increase in tax rates cost $ 14 billion. The savings were therefore eaten by other expenses.
The exemptions will not help much: Jessica Riedl, an expert on economic policy in an interview with the Financial Times, explained that “about 75 percent of all federal expenses goes to social, health, defense, veterans and percentage, and nothing was touched.” Therefore, as the expert noted, “savings are so small that It is impossible to see them in monthly expenses“So far from the savings announced by Elon Musk in the amount of $ 1 and $ 4 billion a day., Of which the billionaire probably realizes.
Elon Musk must brake? During the interview at Fox News, the owner of Tesla announced that he would try to intensify the Doge activities by double the current staff and focusing on large sources of expenses, such as social insurance. However, it may be more and more difficult for him to push changes in American expenses. He had “shot” several times and dismissed employees who had to be hired again. Therefore, he loses support even among the Republicans. Some of his ideas are also blocked by the Supreme Court, which does not agree to some cuts. Moreover, Donald Trump himself said that Musk should use a “scalpel”, not “ax” in the government's budget cuts.
Read also: “Elon Musk's drama. Closeness with Trump is tested by Tesla. A huge crisis, loses a fortune“.
Sources: “Financial Times“, AP, Barron's