David Marchese

And a couple of weeks ago, they actually gave us one window into their work. They set up a website. Hmm. Basically, it's a kind of a primitive looking website. It looks a little bit like something off the dark web. That's the vibe.

It does. It looks like something where you're about to trade some kind of coin named after a cat or something. But the main feature of it, if you scroll down a little bit, is what they call the wall of receipts. It is about 2,200 different federal contracts and lists details about what agency held the contract, what vendor held the contract, and how much was saved by canceling it.

It does. It looks like something where you're about to trade some kind of coin named after a cat or something. But the main feature of it, if you scroll down a little bit, is what they call the wall of receipts. It is about 2,200 different federal contracts and lists details about what agency held the contract, what vendor held the contract, and how much was saved by canceling it.

It is also an effort to gamify it. There's a leaderboard of the agencies that have cut the most and agencies that have cut the least. And at the top of the page, highlighted in yellow, is sort of the main dollar figure, the top line number. It says that overall, Doge has saved, as of Friday morning, $65 billion.

It is also an effort to gamify it. There's a leaderboard of the agencies that have cut the most and agencies that have cut the least. And at the top of the page, highlighted in yellow, is sort of the main dollar figure, the top line number. It says that overall, Doge has saved, as of Friday morning, $65 billion.

No, it's a lot of money. It's about 1% of the overall federal budget, but it's a pretty small fraction of the $2 trillion that Musk said during the campaign that Doge could save. But what's valuable for us is not just the top line number.

No, it's a lot of money. It's about 1% of the overall federal budget, but it's a pretty small fraction of the $2 trillion that Musk said during the campaign that Doge could save. But what's valuable for us is not just the top line number.

More valuable is this wall of receipts because that's the only part of Doge's cuts that it has itemized, that it's backed up, that it sort of explained how it got to those numbers. And that's the one place where you can see step-by-step Doge showing its work.

More valuable is this wall of receipts because that's the only part of Doge's cuts that it has itemized, that it's backed up, that it sort of explained how it got to those numbers. And that's the one place where you can see step-by-step Doge showing its work.

Well, I worked with the Times upshot desk, a team of incredibly good data analysts and reporters. We downloaded all the contracts that were on that wall of receipts and started looking through them. And the first thing you realize really quickly is that there are not $65 billion worth of cuts on this wall of receipts.

Well, I worked with the Times upshot desk, a team of incredibly good data analysts and reporters. We downloaded all the contracts that were on that wall of receipts and started looking through them. And the first thing you realize really quickly is that there are not $65 billion worth of cuts on this wall of receipts.

The original list, which was posted in the middle of February, had about $16 billion worth of receipts. So this public accounting of what they did only accounts for a small portion of this much bigger number they're claiming. So then we start to look at the individual line items, the individual contracts they're saying they canceled.

The original list, which was posted in the middle of February, had about $16 billion worth of receipts. So this public accounting of what they did only accounts for a small portion of this much bigger number they're claiming. So then we start to look at the individual line items, the individual contracts they're saying they canceled.

And you notice one thing, which is that many of them, even by Doge's own accounting, accounted for zero savings. The original list had about a thousand entries, more than 400 of them. They said the contracts hadn't actually saved taxpayers a dollar.

And you notice one thing, which is that many of them, even by Doge's own accounting, accounted for zero savings. The original list had about a thousand entries, more than 400 of them. They said the contracts hadn't actually saved taxpayers a dollar.

Yeah. And again, that was on a small percentage. It was almost half of the original contracts. So once you move on from the surprising fact that so many of these contracts have zero savings, you start to notice some really sloppy accounting, some really sloppy mistakes. And in many cases, those mistakes make the savings seem much, much bigger on the wall of receipts than it was in reality.

Yeah. And again, that was on a small percentage. It was almost half of the original contracts. So once you move on from the surprising fact that so many of these contracts have zero savings, you start to notice some really sloppy accounting, some really sloppy mistakes. And in many cases, those mistakes make the savings seem much, much bigger on the wall of receipts than it was in reality.

Like what? Right off the bat, number one, the first biggest contract listed on the wall of savings when they first put it out was something that had an obvious problem in it. So they had claimed that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is a part of the Department of Homeland Security, had cut an $8 billion contract.

Like what? Right off the bat, number one, the first biggest contract listed on the wall of savings when they first put it out was something that had an obvious problem in it. So they had claimed that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is a part of the Department of Homeland Security, had cut an $8 billion contract.

And what's curious about that cut right off the bat and tells you that maybe there's something wrong there is that the entire budget of ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is about $8 billion.