A Quick Tour of DOGE
Summarizing the website for lazy internet surfers
Elon Musk’s name is a frequent (constant) topic in left-wing media these days, and one common refrain coming from the talking heads is, “We’re all for cutting waste, fraud and abuse, but we need transparency in the process.” It is a complaint echoed throughout left-wing America. There seems to be a prevailing notion among our progressive friends that DOGE is doing everything in secret, only revealing their discoveries in interviews and memes.
If you only get your news from CNN, MSNBC or their online ideological partners, then yes, it would seem as though DOGE has no transparency or accountability. They accuse Musk’s team of being deliberately vague in their reporting while being deliberately vague in their reporting.
It occurred to me that a lot of people aren’t even aware there is a website that tracks all of DOGE’s movements in real time. I thought it would be helpful to take my readers through a quick tour of the site and give you a compact summary you can share and reference quickly. At the very least, it gives the mind a framework with which to view the media reporting about DOGE.
Welcome to the DOGE.gov tour. Please remain inside the vehicle at all times and don’t feed the animals.
DOGE HOME
The Home page is a direct feed from the DOGE X account. That account updates in real time, including media, memes, commentary…the whole shebang. It’s the one-stop shop for quick bites about DOGE activities.
SAVINGS
The savings tab includes a summary of savings, including what that means for individual taxpayers. It also includes an agency tracker and a list of contracts with descriptions and dollars saved via reform or cancelation. Per the statement on the site, the team is currently working to update weekly, with the goal of becoming efficient enough to update in real time.
Last updated March 30th, 2025. This will initially be updated weekly; over time, the website will improve and the updates will converge to real-time
PAYMENTS
On this page, taxpayers can see a list of payments the United States Government makes by agency, organization or request date. The website says the purpose is for transparency and reporting only. DOGE does not approve or disapprove these grants.
Previously, payments were often made without descriptions, receipts, or invoices; starting soon, a now-mandatory "brief, written justification ... submitted by the agency employee who approved the payment" will be posted here.
The payments listed here have been approved by the applicable agency and funds have been disbursed; DOGE has not approved nor disapproved any of these payments.
SPEND
A simple list of government agencies and what they spent in the 2024 fiscal year versus 2019. Of note - the Departments of Education, Treasury, and the EPA have all nearly doubled their spending (or more) since 2019. Perplexingly, the Small Business Administration went from half a billion dollars in funding in 2019 to a whopping 33 billion dollars in 2024.
Draw your own conclusions about that.
WORKFORCE
A stunning snapshot of the government workforce, including simple graphs. Visitors can view the workforce per branch, cabinet, and office.
REGULATIONS
This one is really interesting for us information nerds out there. DOGE breaks down the number of regulations levied by unelected bureaucrats, how many sections of regulations there are and how many words of regulation per agency. If you think this is a silly metric, imagine being a 21-year-old graduate trying to start a business or a charity to benefit her community but having to navigate 7 million words of regulation first. Over-regulation stifles innovation.
The final tab on the website is the JOIN tab, where you can apply to join the DOGE team if you possess the unique qualifications for this unprecedented team.
I understand people who didn’t vote for Trump’s agenda are angry and will keep complaining. That is fair and frankly, necessary. No agenda should exist in a vacuum. What is inexcusable is the claim that all of this is happening in the dark. It is not. This team has been extraordinarily transparent, which is probably why some people in our government are so furious.
Information is a weapon of war, as is lack of information. The DOGE team has chosen the forward side of the equation, choosing to arm Americans with the information they find rather than hoard that ammunition for themselves.
Everyone can see what DOGE is doing every single day. Better yet, they can see how our government - the same government that tells us all every day in many ways that we’re not paying our fair share - spends our VERY hard-earned money.
What’s the problem with that?
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