Elon Musk's 'Efficiency' Mission: Jobs Slashed, Spending SKYROCKETED?! What Even IS This?

WTF Just Happened

Okay, so remember when Elon Musk jumped in to run the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in early 2025? His grand plan was to ruthlessly hack away at government waste, shrink the federal workforce, and save us, like, trillions of dollars. Sounded ambitious, right? Well, buckle up.

By the end of the year, his agency is defunct, the federal workforce is significantly smaller, but somehow, some way, government spending didn't just stay flat—it actually rose by nearly 6%! What in the actual hell just went down?

Wait, HOW Did This Happen?

Musk's time at DOGE was a whirlwind of cuts. The federal workforce saw a whopping 9% reduction, dropping over 270,000 positions from January to November. We're talking massive layoffs and deferred resignations here, making it the largest peacetime workforce reduction in recorded history. Entire agencies, like USAID, were completely shut down and merged. Departments like Education and the FCC? They got slammed with deep spending cuts, too.

You'd think, logically, that fewer people and fewer agencies means less money, right? Right? Apparently not in this dimension. The Brookings Institution’s Hamilton Project, which tracks spending in real-time, confirmed it: federal outlays jumped from $7.135 trillion in 2024 to an eye-watering $7.558 trillion in 2025. The Cato Institute literally said,

"DOGE had no noticeable effect on the trajectory of spending."

So, how did a department focused on cutting spending manage to oversee such a gigantic increase? My brain hurts.

Are We Serious Right Now?

This is where things get truly bonkers. Musk promised to slash $2 trillion annually from the budget. Then it was $1 trillion. Then a measly $150 billion. And even that scaled-back goal? It completely evaporated!

• The audacity! We cut over a quarter-million jobs, yet the national bill somehow got bigger.
• Was this all just a performative stunt? Agencies like USAID, which spent $30 billion, vanished. Education saw a $40 billion cut. State Department, nearly $10 billion. But then...
• Spending surged elsewhere. Commerce, Justice, Homeland Security, and the Department of Defense all saw increased outlays. How does that make any sense at all?
• And let's not forget the silent killers: mandatory spending. Social Security payments shot up over $100 billion. Interest payments on the national debt? Another $100 billion hike as the debt itself swelled by $2 trillion. The Cato Institute basically threw its hands up, saying this part of the budget is on “policy autopilot” and that’s why DOGE failed. So... what was the point then, seriously?