*

Musk cost-cutting targets agencies disliked by

conservatives,

not major budget contributors

*

DOGE claims $37.69 billion savings to date - a fraction of

its

$2 trillion target

*

Nine of the government agencies in Musk's sights were

mentioned

in Project 2025 report, including Education Department

By Tim Reid, Helen Coster, James Oliphant

WASHINGTON, Feb 12 (Reuters) - The first phase of the

rapid-fire effort by Tesla CEO Elon Musk and President

Donald Trump to cut waste from government agencies appears

driven more by an ideological assault on federal agencies long

hated by conservatives than a good-faith effort to save taxpayer

dollars, according to two veteran Republican budget experts.

Since Trump's inauguration on January 20, Musk has dispatched

members of his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to

scrutinize sensitive personnel and payment information in

government computer systems and led a successful drive to

dismantle two agencies - one that provides a lifeline to the

world's needy and another that protects Americans from

unscrupulous lenders.

But Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former Republican director of the

Congressional Budget Office (CBO), said the agencies Musk and

Trump have targeted to date account for a tiny fraction of the

overall federal budget, which is projected to reach $7 trillion

this fiscal year, according to the CBO.

"They are not going to go into agencies that are doing

things they like. They are going into agencies they disagree

with," Holtz-Eakin, who has participated in past tax and

spending negotiations in Congress, told Reuters.

Trump, a Republican, says he is "very proud" of what he

describes as a vital initiative to turn off the spigot of

wasteful spending. With Musk standing behind him in the Oval

Office, Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday broadening

DOGE's remit, telling government agencies to work with DOGE to

cut staff and limit hiring.

Speaking to reporters, Musk responded to critics who say he

is an unelected official who has been granted unprecedented

authority by the president to dismantle parts of the U.S.

government. "You can't have an autonomous federal bureaucracy.

You have to have one that's responsive to the people," Musk

said.

He pledged to find $1 trillion in savings through his

efforts to identify fraud and waste in the government.

An online DOGE "live tracker" claimed on Tuesday that the

department has saved taxpayers $37.69 billion since it began

work on January 20 but did not provide evidence of how that

figure was reached.

Of the 15 agencies Musk's team have targeted so far, nine were

singled out for elimination or downsizing in Project 2025, a

controversial 900-page blueprint compiled by conservative

think-tanks to remake the U.S. government. The document claims

many federal government agencies have been taken over by a

left-wing elite who use taxpayer dollars to push a liberal

agenda that is "weaponized against conservative values".

Trump distanced himself from the project during the 2024

election after an uproar over some of its more far-reaching

proposals, but a number of the authors are now in his

administration.

Bill Hoagland, a former Republican staffer and director of

the Senate Budget Committee for more than 20 years, said the

cost-cutting efforts so far have been designed to play to

Trump's base, and have been "low hanging fruit for ideological

reasons."

"The playbook has not been for the dollar savings, but more

for the philosophical and ideological differences conservatives

have with the work these agencies do," Hoagland said.

CONSERVATIVE TARGETS

There is little disagreement in Washington on the need to

cut waste and fraud and make the U.S. government more efficient.

The complaint by federal workers and Democratic lawmakers is the

blunt force approach favored by Musk has upended the lives of

thousands of public servants overnight.

Musk's team have taken over or sent DOGE workers into the

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), charged

with providing weather forecasting and climate data; the

Department of Education, whose mandate includes prohibiting

discrimination in schools and colleges; the Consumer Financial

Protection Bureau, which protects consumers from exploitative

lenders; the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID),

the government's main foreign aid organization; and the Federal

Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which responds to natural

disasters.

Many Republicans have long seen these agencies as pushing

liberal agendas that are harmful to U.S. interests. Together

they constitute a fraction of federal spending. USAID disbursed

about $72 billion in aid in fiscal year 2023, according to

government figures, or around 1% of total federal outlays.

Conservatives have talked about closing the Education

Department since Republican Ronald Reagan was president in the

1980s, in the belief that the federal government has no business

being involved in schools and universities. More recently Trump

and his allies have accused the department of foisting "woke"

policies such as advocating for transgender players on girls'

sports teams.

NOAA has been widely criticized by Republicans for what they

say is an exaggeration of climate change threats, while USAID is

accused of sending billions of dollars in aid each year to some

countries not seen as American allies.

Republicans have also railed against the CFPB since its

creation in the wake of the 2008 financial crash, declaring it

an example of liberal overreach.

Last week as Musk's staff entered the agency, he posted "CFPB

RIP" on his X social media account and on Monday staff were sent

home and the agency was shuttered. Firings of some probationary

staff began Tuesday night, according to a recipient of a

termination letter and people familiar with the matter.

Stephen Moore, a former economic adviser to Trump who

welcomes DOGE's effort, said he opposes spending taxpayer

dollars on government bureaucrats pushing liberal policy

agendas.

"If you walk down the halls of USAID or the Department of

Education you're not going to find any conservatives," Moore

said. "It's really important they defund the left."

Musk, DOGE and the White House did not respond to requests

for comment for this story.

MUSK'S TWEETS

Musk has also used his X social media platform to attack

several agencies targeted by DOGE, according to a Reuters review

of 1,120 of his posts between February 3 and February 10, a week

in which DOGE staffers began expanding their reach.

He agreed with an X user that USAID was part of a system

involved in "money laundering" taxpayer dollars "into far-left

organizations", and repeated the baseless conspiracy theory that

FEMA was helping people to enter the country illegally.

The Government Accountability Office, a congressional

watchdog agency, estimates that the U.S. government loses

between $233 billion and $521 billion each year due to fraud and

improper payments.

The real test for Musk and Trump, Holtz-Eakin and Hoagland

said, will be whether and when they tackle the huge drivers of

government spending: Social Security, the government-run pension

system; Medicare, a government-run health insurance program for

seniors; and Medicaid, which provides health insurance for low

income families.

Together they account for nearly half of the federal budget, and

are popular with Republican and Democratic voters. Trump said on

the campaign trail Social Security and Medicare are off the

table.

Yet members of DOGE recently accessed payment systems at the

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, suggesting Medicare

may not be exempt from cuts.

Hoagland agreed that any attempts to tackle the big

entitlement programs will be politically treacherous.

"That is where the rubber is going to hit the road,"

Hoagland said. "They will have a lot more difficulty

ideologically and politically going after those."