Elon Musk and co-chair Vivek Ramaswamy claim to be able to cut $2 trillion from the annual federal budget. However, this target is unrealistic. To put it into perspective, a recent chart shows projected federal spending in fiscal year 2025, with Social Security accounting for the largest single program.
Musk’s proposed cuts primarily target “waste, fraud, and abuse” rather than entitlement programs like Medicare and Medicaid. He suggests mass head-count reductions across the federal bureaucracy, large-scale audits of federal contracts, and cracking down on unauthorized spending by Congress. However, this approach is unlikely to achieve Musk’s goal without congressional action.
If successful, cutting $2 trillion would eliminate the US’s $1.9 trillion deficit and put the country into surplus for the first time since 2001. Nevertheless, identifying and eliminating such a large amount of spending is impractical. The current chart illustrates projected federal spending in fiscal year 2025, highlighting the complexity of the issue.
Source: https://www.vox.com/policy/387382/musk-trump-balance-budget-doge