US federal spending just hit a record $603 billion in February, in spite of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E) tearing through government agencies with mass firings and budget cuts.
Treasury data released Wednesday confirms that spending still jumped by $40 billion compared to last year, a 7% increase, exposing how difficult it is for the Trump administration to shrink the size of government.
D.O.G.E has already axed tens of thousands of workers, canceled thousands of federal contracts, and halted grants, claiming $100 billion in savings. But the Monthly Treasury Statement for February shows that most agencies kept spending high, wiping out the reductions.
Elon had promised to cut $1 trillion late last year, but so far, the biggest expenses—Social Security, healthcare, defense, and debt payments—remain untouched.
D.O.G.E keeps cutting, but spending keeps rising
Despite Elon’s $4 billion-a-day budget-cutting strategy, the largest federal spending categories barely shrank. The Department of Education managed to cut $6 billion, but that didn’t stop the overall spending spike.
D.O.G.E’s influence is already deep inside government agencies, including the State Department, the Treasury, and the Department of Health and Human Services. Government workers have been fired by the thousands, and budgets have been slashed at multiple departments.
But Jessica Riedl, an economic policy expert at the Manhattan Institute, said these reductions are too small to make a difference. “D.O.G.E savings are so small as not to be identifiable in monthly spending totals,” she said.
Even Marco Rubio’s efforts to reduce spending at the U.S. Agency for International Development barely registered. The agency’s budget was cut in half from $547 million to $226 million, but that amount was wiped out by a $5 billion increase in healthcare spending and an $8 billion rise in Social Security payments.
Riedl pointed out that 75% of all federal spending goes to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, defense, veterans, and debt interest, none of which D.O.G.E has touched. “There is zero indication that such savings have actually been identified,” she said.
Meanwhile, Treasury direct spending skyrocketed by $29 billion since last year, largely due to a $10 billion increase in monthly debt payments and a $14 billion surge in tax credits.
Trump orders Elon to slow down as lawmakers push back
Elon’s budget-cutting campaign is now facing pushback from Donald Trump himself along with some Republican lawmakers.
During a Cabinet meeting on March 5th, Trump told Elon that individual agencies still have control over hiring and budgets, effectively limiting D.O.G.E’s reach.
Trump warned Elon to use a “scalpel” instead of a “hatchet”, signaling that the mass firings and aggressive cuts might be too disruptive.
Several Republican lawmakers are also raising concerns. Some agencies have been forced to rehire employees for critical roles, including nuclear safety oversight, after Elon’s cost-cutting led to staffing shortages.
Meanwhile, federal judges are stepping in to stop Elon’s cuts. Last week, the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration must release $2 billion in foreign aid funds that D.O.G.E had previously blocked.
Despite the setbacks, Elon is doubling down on D.O.G.E’s cost-cutting mission. On Monday, he announced plans to double D.O.G.E’s staff and target major spending categories like Social Security, setting up another fight with Trump and Congress.
Federal judges demand Elon’s records in intense legal battle
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan ordered Elon and D.O.G.E to disclose records about federal downsizing efforts, responding to a lawsuit from 14 Democratic state attorneys general.
They argue that Elon has wielded unconstitutional power, making decisions that damage their states. Chutkan’s ruling forces Elon to identify D.O.G.E officials embedded in government agencies and explain the scope of his authority. He has three weeks to comply.
Chutkan did not force Trump to testify or provide documents, but her ruling is the first time a judge has ordered Elon to release internal records in a legal challenge to his government restructuring.
The Trump administration is resisting the legal discovery, insisting that Elon is merely a senior White House adviser protected under executive privilege. But Chutkan ruled that the document requests were narrow enough to proceed.
But Elon’s legal troubles are stacking up. Another federal judge in Washington recently ordered D.O.G.E and three government agencies to make officials available for questioning about the budget cuts, though that ruling did not require Elon himself to testify.
Another federal judge ruled that D.O.G.E must go through thousands of pages of documents to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request from a liberal watchdog group.
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This articles is written by : Nermeen Nabil Khear Abdelmalak
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