As the US spends taxpayers’ money, while reaching a mushroom, it seeks cuts | Elon Musk News

As a Government Efficiency Department (Doge), led by Elon male, searches for federal computer systems to reduce the programs funded by taxpayers, a technologically billionaire says his team works to reduce three dollars from a deficit.

“The overall goal is to try to draw a trillion of dollars from a deficit, and if the deficit is not under surveillance, America will bankrupt,” Musk said last week during a joint interview with President Donald Trump With Fox News’s Sean Hannity.

Thousands of federal employees have been discharged and several programs and departments have been closed because Trump’s administration has launched its plan to reduce federal consumption.

Musk said Trump was handed over a Deficit $ 2 trillion dollars When he took his duty for the second time and claimed that fraud and waste in the Government were most of this.

Officially, a fiscal year deficit 2024. He was more than $ 1.8 trillion.

Well, is there a musk shot in cutting $ 1 trillion from that deficit? Mathematically, yes. As a practical thing, it would be difficult.

While Musk and his critics throw statistics, here are some points that know that the government consumes $ 6.8 billion dollars of taxpayers.

What does the government spend money on?

The largest pieces of federal budget go to mandatory consumption. These programs do not need the annual costs that Congress has approved. They include:

Social insurance (about 20 percent).

Medicare (about 15 percent).

Interest on federal debt (about 12 percent).

Medicaid and other mandatory health programs (almost 11 percent).

The benefits of veterans, military and civilian retirees (below 6 percent).

Food brands and other security net programs (more than 5 percent).

A separate consumption category covers discretion programs that Congress pervows annually.

Discretioning consumption is two categories: defense and non-defense. Defense includes the military; Unsurious includes any other federal agency, such as the Department of Justice and Transport and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Mandatory and discretionary calculations of consumption are not equal in size: about three quarters of federal consumption comes from mandatory consumption or interest on debt.

How much ‘mandatory’ is a compulsory consumption?

Mandatory consumption programs on autopilot until Congress has made a change in the rules and the president sign it into the law. Thus, they are a little more protected than discretionary wear, which must be fought in the Congress every year. But except for interest payments – which cannot be neglected without serious damage to national creditworthiness around the world – to be “mandatory” does not mean being untouchable.

If Congress and the President want to reduce social security fees, Medicare benefits or any other mandatory program, I can.

Trump promised that he would not reduce social security or Medicare. In combination with interest, these federal consumption categories collectively make up almost half of the total number. If that promise holds, it narrows Doge’s capabilities to reduce consumption for $ 1 trillion.

Trump said in an interview with Hannity that Medicaid would not be “touched”. If it is beyond the borders, then the options are further narrowed.

What about a reduction in discretionary consumption?

Options become more intricate when it comes to discretionary consumption.

Discretioning consumption was about $ 1.8 trillion in 2024, approximately half in defense and half in non -refraction.

Trump promised to sign a “record” campaign military financing, which would mean increasing current levels.

If Trump follows, it would mean that discretioning consumption without a dam would take over the cutting head. However, discretioning consumption without a dam was about $ 960 billion last year, which does not consist of a target mouse of $ 1 trillion, even if it is reduced by 100 percent.

What would it mean to reduce discretionary consumption without a dam?

If Musk relying on a discretioning consumption that does not address to reach $ 1 billion dollars, it would mean that you get rid of basically everything the federal government does besides defense, compulsory programs and interests.

In addition to the pentagon, no department or agency makes up more than 7.3 percent of discretionary consumption. The biggest issues of veterans are followed by health and human services with 7.2 percent. Stocks between 3 percent and 5 percent include homeland security, education, housing and urban development, traffic and energy.

What about increasing revenue rather than reducing costs?

Instead of reducing consumption, the deficit could also be reduced by increasing taxes (or a combination of tax increase and consumption reduction). But Trump promised not to do it; He has committed to sign a “middle class, a higher class, lower class, a reduction in a large business class tax.”

The practical effect of tax reduction would be to increase the deficit if everything else remains the same. So, if tax reduction occurs, Musk’s recommended consumption reductions should work even harder to reach its goal of $ 1 trillion.

Trump has another revenue of revenue to work with: tariffs. But when it comes to dealing with a deficit, the tariffs face two challenges.

One question is that independent assessments of potential tariff revenues are modest. The Tax Foundation for the right center estimated that the first year of tariff on China, Canada, Mexico and other countries would bring $ 140 billion.

The second question is that the American economy could lose enough tax revenues from the influence of tariffs to reduce or delete a gain in the treasury in tariff income. The Tax Foundation predicted that Trump’s tariffs could reduce Americans’ revenues by close to 1 percent, risking to generate less tax revenues.

How much musk can save by reducing federal workforce?

So far, some of the highest cuts under Trump have arrived in the federal workforce, where tens of thousands of workers have either been discharged or bought.

The federal workforce employs approximately 3 million people, or about 2.4 million without counting the US Postal Service workers, which has aspects and federal agencies and private business. The number of 2.4 million does not include approximately 1.3 million active military personnel.

For civilians, the greatest employer is the Ministry of Defense, followed by the Veterans’ Questions Department (about three quarters of workers are directly employed at hospital and health clinics in VA). The Ministry of Homeland Security is the third one, followed by the Ministry of Justice and the Treasury Department.

Estimates have consistently revealed that employee federal fees are approximately 6 percent of the total federal consumption or approximately $ 350 billion in recent years.