The Efficiency Department of the White House Government, or Doge, was created by President Trump on January 20 with the mission of cutting federal expenditure. Since then, the working group led by billionaire Elon Musk says that he has saved more than $ 1 billion by canceling contracts for diversity, equity and inclusion, among other expenses, according to Doge’s Social Network Account.
But since it was launched on January 20, Doge has also caused several demands and has generated alarms of Democratic legislators and consumer defenders after he obtained access to the Department of the Treasury Payment systemwhich stores personal data for most Americans.
Doge supporters see their efforts as a way of controlling federal expend $ 36 billion. Trump has said he wants to cut programs that do not align with his policies and cut the Federal Labor.
“@Doge is trying to prevent dollars from their taxes from being stolen from waste and fraud,” Musk aware In X, its application of social networks, on February 4.
Critics of the working group say that Musk, who directs companies, including Spacex, who receive billions in government contracts, could participate in a job through DGE that can represent conflicts of interest with their private businesses, as potentially get access to data on federal competitors. Contracts
February 3 lawsuit Filed by two unions and a defense group of major Americans alleges that the Treasury department has illegally provided to Musk and dogs the private personal data of most US taxpayers.
This is what you should know about Doge’s operations and its role within the Trump administration.
What is Doge?
The acronym Doge is a wink to the support of Musk for a cryptocurrency called Dogecoin, which was created as a joke in 2021 by two software engineers and uses the image of a smiling dog Shiba Inu. (Dogecoin, whose price can be volatile, has thrown approximately one third of its value since the opening of January 20 of Trump).
When Trump launched Dog through an executive order Last month, he housed it within the executive branch, instead of creating it as an external advisory committee. The Order said that an existing White House Office called the US Digital Service of Doge of the United States.
The Executive Order also indicated that a Dux team of at least four employees, which could include Special government employeesIt would be assigned to each agency, such as the Department of Labor or the Treasury Department. These groups were for each of which included a team leader, an engineer, a human resources specialist and a lawyer.
These teams have the task of “a software modernization initiative to improve the quality and efficiency of the software throughout the government, network infrastructure and information technology systems (IT)”, according to the order of Mr. Trump The teams would also advise the agencies “on the implementation of the president’s Doge agenda,” says the executive order.
Establishing Doge within an existing unit focused on technology within OMB is “quite interesting,” said Robert Burton, a former OMB official who recently spoke in a web seminar on DIE organized by George Mason University.
“This works perfectly for Dege’s services: it is really the same type of mission, bringing these really intelligent private sector” to work in government technology, Burton said.
Is Elon Musk a government employee?
Musk is classified as a “Special Government Employee“Leavitt said on February 3.
A special government employee, or SGE, is someone “who works, or is expected to work, for the government for 130 days or less in a period of 365 days”, according to the Department of Justice.
The role, created in 1962 as a way of allowing the government to take advantage of experience outside the experience, can be paid or not. Because musk, which is classified as the richest person in the world, with a fortune Bloomberg Estimates of more than $ 400 billion: it is not paid for its work as SGE, it does not need to present a public financial dissemination report.
What has Doge done so far?
According to publications on the social networks of Dege and Musk, the working group is trying to identify federal contracts and expenses on issues that are not aligned with Trump’s policies, including Dei and foreign help.
“Doge has now saved taxpayers to more than $ 1 billion in Crazy Dei contracts,” Musk wrote on January 30.
Musk wrote in a November opinion article at the Wall Street Journal that he and his then Co-Partner Dux Vivek Ramasswamy aimed to cut $ 500 billion in annual federal expenses. That would represent about 7% of the $ 6.7 billion annual expenses of the federal government.
Experts warn These deep expense cuts could be problematic, since approximately two thirds of government spending are directed towards Social Security, Medicare, National Defense and Medicaid. While in the campaign before the presidential elections of 2024, Trump promised to protect Social Security and Medicare, which provide retirement and health benefits for millions of older people.
What is Doge in the Treasury?
Recently, Doge caused a protest of some taxpayers, democratic legislators and persecutors of the government after he obtained access to Treasury Department Payment Systemwhich is managed by a little -known unit called the Fiscal Service Office.
The Fiscal Service Office disburses billions of payments every year, including social security checks, federal tax and salary reimbursements. When pointing out somehow, he is saving money from taxpayers, Doge has said on social networks Posts which has rejected Dei contracts in the treasure, as well as has canceled the agency’s subscriptions to New York Times.
Doge’s access to confidential financial data has generated concerns about error potential, with Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, writing in a letter of February 2 the secretary of the Treasury, Scott Besent, to provide access to the Systems is “starting the false steps that could result in a global financial collapse that costs billions of dollars and millions of jobs.”
Others have marked the data security risks linked to Doge access to the personal information of taxpayers, such as the data of the bank account and social security numbers.
“The scale of intrusion in the privacy of individuals is massive and unprecedented,” said the demand of February 3 of the unions. “The action of Secretary Besent that gives people affiliated to Doge full, continuous and continuous access to that information for an unpopulated period of time means that retirees, taxpayers, federal employees, companies and other people from all areas of life will receive that your information will receive your information.
The musk “has complied with all federal laws,” said White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt, February 3.
What is Doge with USAID?
Mr. Trump and Musk have also taken objective in the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID, to return to an organization that Provide humanitarian aid to more than 100 countries.
Both men argue that much of the 60 -year -old agency’s expense is a waste. The agency’s supporters say that USAID is essential for national security, counteracting the influence of US rivals, while providing critical humanitarian assistance worldwide.
The officials working with Dogs sought access to the treasure payment system to prevent money from flowing to USAID, Associated Press reported, citing two people familiar with the matter.
In a letter of February 4 to the legislators, Treasury officials said that Doge’s technical capacity is limited to visualization Payment data, while federal expenses have not been affected.
What is Doge with Social Security?
Doge said on February 5 mail In social networks, the Social Security Administration “terminated its contract for the ‘marker of the gender initiative X’ and eliminated all references to the gender ideology of the applications that face the public.” The working group said the effort would save around $ 1 million.
A potentially greater problem is Doge’s access to the Treasury Department payment system because it processes Social Security payments for more than 70 million people and contains the social security number of most Americans.
Musk and his team “Now have access to the personal information of each Social Security beneficiary, and the ability to stop the payments of any federal program that they do not like,” Max Richtman, CEO of the National Committee to preserve Social Security and Medicare , a defense group for programs, he said on February 3.
The Treasury says that Dux has given “Read” Access to your payment system.
contributed to this report.
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