Almost a year ago, Elon Musk said he was "100 percent certain" that federal entitlement fraud in Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and the like far outstripped any private fraud scam.
He was right.
And his efforts to use the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) were met with welcome enthusiasm by conservatives but angered a lot of Democrats and Leftists. Despite that, when Musk stepped back from DOGE in May, the program had saved $160B and cut more than 250,000 government jobs.
“In the grand scheme of things, I think we’ve been effective,” Musk said at the time. “The federal government is a gigantic beast — very complicated — and so if you’re trying to figure out how to stop waste and fraud, you’ve got to map the territory. That required three months of intense effort, and you have to build the team as well.”
Today, DOGE updated its website and it shows that the savings have now exceeded $215B, which works out to about $1,335.40 per taxpayer.
🚨DOGE BREAKING: DOGE has updated its website, estimated savings are now $215 billion. pic.twitter.com/6MxdxFF920
— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) January 8, 2026
Musk himself reposted the update himself, and he's been hammering the fraud issue, warning continued misuse of tax dollars will bankrupt America.
Unless stopped, the fraud in California, Minnesota and elsewhere will keep increasing until it bankrupts the entire country https://t.co/UAQOMIM53Z
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 8, 2026
He even said fraud is likely at least 20 percent of the federal budget.
My lower bound guess for how much fraud there is nationally is ~20% of the Federal budget, which would mean $1.5 trillion per year. Probably much higher. https://t.co/T6URzaqHqY
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 29, 2025
Social media users would like to see more cuts to wasteful spending.
Thank you @DOGE. Now check into every state for irresponsibility and misuse of federal funds. Federal law takes precedence. The Feds took too long in enforcing the fact that sanctuary cities and states were illegal to begin with decades ago. Shut them down. Arrest politicians. https://t.co/sTlAstzub6
— WildViperLady (@wildviperlady) January 8, 2026
The Minnesota fraud scandal has made it very clear that we are spending way too much money, and do not need to tax anyone more to pay for social programs. At least $9 billion was wasted in Minnesota, money that should have been used to help Americans who are truly in need.