--- title: "As DOGE Tries to Cut Costs, Its Expenses Are Growing Larger and Larger" description: "Elon Musk's DOGE's spending more than doubled from $6.75 million to $14.4 million between January 30 and February 8." date: "2025-02-11" modified: "2025-02-11" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/elon-musk-doge-expenses" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "doge" - "elon musk" - "government" --- # As DOGE Tries to Cut Costs, Its Expenses Are Growing Larger and Larger ![Elon Musk's DOGE's spending more than doubled from $6.75 million to $14.4 million between January 30 and February 8.]() *\Image: Jim WATSON / AFP\* Billionaire CEO and White House advisor Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has amassed roughly 30 staffers with the goal of slashing the US government's budget. As it's targeted president Donald Trump's number one bogeyman — diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) — something ironic is happening: even as it's trying to cut costs across the government, the so-called department's expenses are ballooning. As [*Business Insider* reports](), DOGE's spending more than doubled from $6.75 million to $14.4 million between January 30 and February 8, according to its latest [financial filings](). While that's still quite a bit less than the roughly $60 million the Biden administration set aside for the United States Digital Services last year — the department was reincarnated as DOGE — it's nonetheless a sign that Musk is quickly racking up bills, despite employing [underqualified high school grads](), [drug sellers](), and [racist shitposters](). Meanwhile, according to DOGE's dubious back-of-the-envelope accounting, the department is [purportedly saving the government]() "approx. $1 billion/day." "A good start, though this number needs to increase to \> $3 billion/day," DOGE's official X account [tweeted]() late last month. DOGE has gloated about canceling [government subscriptions to news outlets]() and consulting contracts related to "[executive coaching]()." But considering the mountain of legal complaints filed against the nascent entity, DOGE will likely have some much steeper bills to pay in the upcoming months and possibly years. In just a matter of weeks, Musk's group of young lackeys — who have torn through sensitive data at lightning speeds without the necessary clearances — have already amassed a litany of lawsuits from [district judges](), [religious groups](), [teachers' unions](), [federal worker unions](), the [American Foreign Service Association](), and [22 attorneys general](), to name a few. And as plenty of experts have since pointed out, DOGE's indiscriminate combing through sensitive data is likely[ illegal](). Who will foot the bill for the ensuing legal challenges remains to be seen. Besides, we've already seen the Trump administration bristle at the legal blowback, with Trump [accusing judges]() of "intolerable judicial overreach." If the judicial system will survive Musk's coup is also a hotly contested subject these days; Congress, meanwhile, has [mostly sat on the sidelines](). Apart from ballooning expenses, DOGE at least won't have to give the richest man in the world a paycheck, as *BI* points out, since he's a "special government employee." **More on DOGE:** *[One of Elon Musk’s DOGE Staffers Used to Sell Ketamine Professionally]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()