;How much has Elon Musk's Doge cut from US government spending?; How does Doge report savings?

[riversedge]

How much has Elon Musk's Doge cut from US government spending?
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn4j33klz33o?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us

15 hours ago Lucy Gilder, Jake Horton and the Data Science team

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How does Doge report savings?
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn4j33klz33o?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us

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Our analysis found only about half of these itemised savings had a link to a document or other form of evidence.
A chart comparing the initial pledges made by Elon Musk with current claimed Doge savings - listed is $2 trillion initial pledged, $1 trillion revised pledge, $160 billion current estimated savings, $61.5 billion in itemised savings, $32.5 billion savings with a receipt attached
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What's the evidence behind the biggest saving?

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The documents show a contract's start and end date, the maximum amount the government has agreed to spend, and how much of that has been spent.

David Drabkin, a federal contracts expert who helped develop the FPDS database, said the maximum figure listed should be treated with caution.

"FPDS does not reflect the actual paid price until some period of time after the contract has been completed and the contract actions have been recorded," he says.

"For example, when buying research and development into a vaccine no one really knows how much that's going to cost - so when a price is set, it's not a definite price but rather an upper limit."

So if Doge counts the maximum figure, that can represent projected spending over a number of years, rather than a direct saving from the country's yearly spending.

.webp

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