Summary
Elon Musk falsely claimed an $8 billion saving on a canceled contract that was actually worth only $8 million, significantly inflating its reported $55 billion in total savings.
The error, first identified by The New York Times, was based on an incorrect figure in federal procurement records.
Additionally, DOGE’s accounting has been questioned due to inconsistencies in its reported savings, including counting already-paid portions of contracts and taking credit for office closures when Joe Biden was still president.
DOGE has not publicly addressed the mistake.
So I don’t understand how they can even know what the “savings” would be? Wouldn’t all of these contract terminations be “for convenience” meaning the government will have to pay a settlement to the contractor for cancelling?
Let’s say it’s 50% completed, so we know we have 50% funds unpaid. You cancel the contract, but the contractor wants another X% for materials they already purchased. How do we know what the savings would be already?
Because it’s all lies. They are reporting, very generously, the total amount allocated to the things cut. There has been no deep investigation as to their connections or dependencies or completion percentage. They didn’t read every contract to figure out what canceling it would mean because THEY won’t be paying for it. We will.