DOGE Uncovers Budget Line Item Issue That Made $4.7 Trillion in Government Payments ‘Almost Impossible’ to Trace

It could be here. It could be there. It could be almost anywhere.

So says the Department of Government Efficiency about almost $5 trillion in taxpayer money that has been spent on who-knows-what.

“The Treasury Access Symbol (TAS) is an identification code linking a Treasury payment to a budget line item (standard financial process). In the Federal Government, the TAS field was optional for — $4.7 Trillion in payments and was often left blank, making traceability almost impossible,” DOGE posted on X.

“As of Saturday, this is now a required field, increasing insight into where money is actually going. Thanks to @USTreasury for the great work,” the post said.

Musk noted that the problem should not take place going forward.

“Major improvement in Treasury payment integrity going live! This was a combined effort of @DOGE @USTreasury and @FederalReserve. Nice work by all,” he posted on X.

DOGE has been controversial because of the high-velocity impact of its analysis of government spending and recommendations to close loopholes and cut waste.

In a video posted to X last week, President Donald Trump said DOGE is an integral part of his efforts to cut government waste.

“We’re talking about trillions of dollars,” Trump said. “It will be, in the end, trillions of dollars being absolutely wasted and perhaps illegally. I would say certainly, in many cases, illegally.”

“I’m very proud of the job that this group of young people, generally young people, but very smart people have been doing,” he said. “They’re doing it at my insistence. It would be a lot easier not to do it, but we have to take some of these things apart to find the corruption, and we found tremendous corruption.”

“This is not some roving band. … This is methodical, and it is going to yield big savings,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said last week, according to the New York Post.

WTH is really going on inside our government?

We’re being completely ripped off by those supposed to help protect our way of life. @elonmusk @DOGE

“DOGE says it found nearly untraceable budget line item responsible for $4.7T in payments.”@realDonaldTrump People must be…

— General Mike Flynn (@GenFlynn) February 18, 2025

On Monday, DOGE posted that collectively, its estimated savings are a $55 billion benefit to taxpayers.

“Let’s balance the budget! DOGE’s total estimated savings are $55 billion, which is a combination of fraud detection/deletion, contract/lease cancellations, contract/lease renegotiations, asset sales, grant cancellations, workforce reductions, programmatic changes, and regulatory savings,” it posted.

Although Musk is the public face of DOGE, a new document said others do the actual work, according to Newsweek.

Joshua Fisher, director of the Office of Administration, issued a document saying Musk is “an employee of the White House Office” and “holds a position as a non-career Special Government Employee.”

“Like other senior White House advisors, Mr Musk has no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself,” he said, adding, “Mr. Musk is not the U.S. DOGE Service Administrator.”

Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.