August 6, 2026
Much DOGE, very ouch
Obviously, DOGE Did Not Save Money
DOGE promised a money-saving miracle, but commenters say the receipts were fantasy
TLDR: A watchdog report says DOGE’s huge money-saving claims were badly exaggerated, and actual government spending barely changed. Commenters split between furious “obvious scam” reactions, alarm over real-world harm from cuts, and a smaller camp saying the idea sounded good but was botched.
The crowd is absolutely not buying the victory lap. A new Government Accountability Office report dug into DOGE’s giant claims of federal savings and found a lot of smoke, mirrors, and numbers that didn’t hold up. Some leases were already being ended before DOGE even existed. Thousands of contracts it bragged about cutting were apparently not actually cut. And after all the hype? Federal spending still landed at about $7 trillion, basically right where experts expected it to be. Ouch.
The comment section came in swinging. The harshest mood was pure “we told you so”. One commenter summed up the rage with a brutal line about “serial liars” having a “rabid fanbase,” while others treated the whole thing like a long-overdue fact-check on a flashy stunt. There was also a darker turn: one user pointed out that while the savings may have been fuzzy, some cuts had very real consequences, arguing that the shutdown of aid programs likely cost lives. That took the story from embarrassing spreadsheet drama to something much more serious.
But not everyone was fully anti-DOGE. One softer take said the idea of using tax dollars better is still appealing — the real failure was the sloppy execution. And perhaps the spiciest meta-drama? People were stunned that National Review, a longtime right-wing outlet, was saying this so plainly. For some commenters, that was the real headline: when even old allies are rolling their eyes, the party may be over.
Key Points
- •The GAO reviewed $110 billion of DOGE’s claimed savings from contracts, grants, and leases and found substantial portions unsupported or misstated.
- •The article says 108 of 264 leases listed by DOGE for termination were already in the termination process before DOGE was established.
- •DOGE claimed to have terminated 13,476 contracts, but the GAO found nearly 2,000 of those contracts were not terminated.
- •Of $61 billion in claimed contract savings, nearly $35 billion was either uncorroborated or tied to contracts that were not terminated, according to the article’s account of the GAO report.
- •The article says federal spending totaled $7 trillion in 2025, matching the CBO’s pre-inauguration projection, while the 2026 projection was revised upward from $7.3 trillion to $7.45 trillion.