HOT TOPICS | Is DOGE Lying About Cutting Costs?! - February 19th, 2025
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What is Don Lemon's opening take on the Doge 'cost-cutting' claims?
Howdy, everyone. Good morning, America and Europe and Canada and from all over the world and Africa. Everyone, let me know where you're streaming from this morning. Thank you for joining us. Hot topics at 10 o'clock. Hello from Uruguay, someone on TikTok says. Holy schmoly. All over. Good morning, everybody. Let me know where you're streaming from, where you're watching us stream live. I'm so glad that you're here. We have been going through a fantastic show prepared for you. Portland, Oregon loves Don Lemon. Thank you, Norman Sowers. Montreal, I said that. Durham, North Carolina. Okay, do you guys, did you guys see this interview with Donald Trump and Elon Musk?
This whole interview, I'm going, where's J.D. Bantz? What is J.D.
Bantz thinking about this? And there's some lawyers somewhere going, they were, I mean, I'm sure they were taking more notes than at the Super Bowl with Kendrick Lamar for Drake. Because there's a lot of stuff in this interview that we're going to talk about. And also, is it lying? Misinformation, as they say? Are they doing it purposely? Or do they just not know what's going on? Because the math ain't mathing.
When it comes to Doge, we know that kids can't read code.
So they're like, people who are 150 years old are getting Social Security. Nope, they're not. It's a computer coding called Cobalt, and it defaults to 1875. So you see, if they don't know you, we told you the whole thing. If they don't know the person's correct date of birth, you know, some old people, like, we weren't sure exactly how old my grandmother was because the records weren't so great back in the day. So someone like my grandmother, because they weren't sure if she was like 1919, 1917, 19, they weren't sure. So someone like her, they may just default on the thing like, date of birth not exactly known. So this computer thing defaults to 1875. And then they say, oh my gosh, you have all these people.
And if people, perhaps they are immigrants, legally, they come, they don't really have their proper birth certificate or whatever. It doesn't sort of jive with how America does it. Right? And then... The computer goes 1875, and then all of a sudden it's fraudulent because these folks are supposedly getting Social Security checks. But it's just like the Doge teens don't know how to read the code. And here's the problem. They don't know how the government works, right? And because they don't know how the government works, they're screwing things up. They're messing with people's lives, livelihoods, checks, all of that, money, because they don't know. But the math ain't mathing. The last few days, the Department of Government Efficiency, DOJ, has been proven to be anything but efficient.
I wonder if they're costing us money for their wastefulness, for their inefficiency. There's nothing efficient about taking a buzzsaw to the federal workforce, randomly firing patriots and experts. And the talent drain and the brain drain and the history, the sense of history, all of that, all of that drain on the government. You know, I have a very, very wise friend who used to run a media companies business. And he says the same thing about these folks who are coming in now and they're just slashing, slashing, slashing, slashing these media companies. And he said they're taking the heart out of the companies, which really is that's why people work for these companies.
Why does Don say 'the math ain't mathing' about Doge's announced savings?
That has everything to do with morale. And my friend has a very good saying. Because when he ran these media companies that I know, they were amazing. People wanted to come to work. Seriously, just a great, great, great CEO. And every time I want advice, I go to him. And I say, hey, I'm going to tell what his name is. What is going on with all of this? And, you know, all of these cuts that are happening at all of these companies. And they're getting rid of the best people. And why are they hiring second-tier people on the air like the JV? And he goes...
Don, they know the cost of everything and the value of nothing. Because some things you have to pay for.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is Don Lemon's opening take on the Doge 'cost-cutting' claims?
0:14–4:37
2
Why does Don say 'the math ain't mathing' about Doge's announced savings?
4:37–42:47
3
How did Doge reportedly misstate an $8 million contract as $8 billion?
42:47–57:43
4
What does the New York Times reporting reveal about Doge's $55 billion total claims?
57:43–1:14:13
Speakers
4 identifiedMore from The Don Lemon Show
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