Date: Monday, February 24, 2025
Author: Paul Herrin

DOGE—Elon Musk’s waste-chopping bulldozer—is exposing billions in fraud, Congress is cracking down the middle, and welfare’s bleeding us dry while lawmakers dodge the axe. This is the mess we’re stomping through—strap in.

DOGE’s swinging a sledgehammer. Time’s February 13 piece claims they’ve saved $55 billion already—hundreds of programs gutted, from cushy DEI gigs to dusty fed contracts. They’re not guessing—Karoline Leavitt’s tallying every dime on X, spotlighting a limestone mine where 700 paper-pushers process retirements 230 feet underground. That’s $1 billion of your cash in a cave—Time says DOGE’s team walked it, jaws dropped, and Musk’s tweeting pics to prove it. Reuters, on February 12, pegs it lower—$37.69 billion saved—detailing 586 contracts axed, like $2.1 billion in “miscellaneous” spending DOGE’s own graph flaunts. Sources differ, but the point’s clear: billions are bleeding, and DOGE’s got the receipts—$445 million slashed in two weeks alone. Fraud’s uglier—Trump’s Oval Office rant two weeks back screamed “billions lost”; USAID’s $30 million ghost lady (debunked but reeks) and Musk’s CMS “big money fraud” tweet back it up. X’s

@realdogeusa flags $3.4 million DEI grift at USPTO—petty cash next to Medicare’s $50 billion overpayment scam. This ain’t efficiency; it’s a heist on your wallet.

Congress? A fractured madhouse—Marjorie Taylor Greene’s “War on Waste” subcommittee, launched February 12 under Oversight, is a GOP battering ram. Greene’s grilling fraudsters, waving $2.7 trillion in improper payments since 2003—think Medicaid’s 20% fraud rate versus private sector’s 3%. Her Oversight hearing last week had witnesses like Dawn Royal (welfare fraud expert) spilling how bureaucrats bury the rot—$1 trillion in Medicaid mismanagement projected over a decade. GOP’s Mike Johnson’s all in, X-posting “shocking finds” February 10, but 32 Dem Senators fired back February 12—“hands off Medicare”—suing with 14 states to block DOGE’s Treasury dive. X’s

@OwenShroyer1776 says “DOGE’s just started”—Greene’s crew agrees, vowing real-time cuts, not two-year reports. Half the chamber wants blood; the other’s shielding the swamp—pick a side, this crack’s splitting wide.

Welfare’s the silent killer—Wall Street Journal’s September 11, 2024, op-ed by Phil Gramm and Jodey Arrington torches it: $64,700 yearly to the bottom 20%, up 780% since ‘67—$7,352 then, adjusted to 2022 dollars. That’s $1.1 trillion now, nearly 100 programs like Medicaid and food stamps gorging on your taxes. Work 2,000 hours, you’re at $70K; they get $64K for 500—middle and bottom incomes match after transfers. Social Security’s 88.9% payroll-funded, Medicare’s half-covered—welfare’s a pure general revenue sink, doubling its GDP share while D.C. naps. Gramm and Arrington call it “means-tested madness”—not safety, a trap. DOGE should carve this next—why’s Congress stalling?