DOGE’s wild, unverifiable savings claims discredited in US government report

美国政府报告揭露：DOGE 所谓“节省开支”的说法荒谬且无法核实

It won’t come as a surprise that Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) didn’t save taxpayers nearly as much as it claimed. Analysis from outside the government showed savings claims were heavily inflated, and now the government’s own watchdog has said it wasn’t able to confirm savings claims made in DOGE’s so-called “Wall of Receipts.” 特朗普政府的“政府效率部”（DOGE）并没有像其声称的那样为纳税人节省了那么多开支，这并不令人意外。政府外部的分析显示，其节省开支的说法被严重夸大。现在，政府内部的监督机构也表示，无法证实 DOGE 在其所谓的“收据墙”（Wall of Receipts）上所列出的节省金额。

For example, DOGE reported savings of $49.2 billion from cutting grants, but almost none of it could be verified, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in its report yesterday. The GAO is the auditing and investigating arm of Congress and issued the DOGE report in response to a June 2025 request from Sens. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.). 例如，美国政府问责局（GAO）在昨日发布的报告中指出，DOGE 声称通过削减拨款节省了 492 亿美元，但几乎没有任何数据可以核实。GAO 是国会的审计和调查机构，此次针对 DOGE 的报告是应参议员加里·彼得斯（密歇根州民主党人）和理查德·布卢门撒尔（康涅狄格州民主党人）于 2025 年 6 月提出的要求而发布的。

“The Wall of Receipts did not provide sufficient information to verify the method DOGE used to calculate savings, or what the savings consisted of, for 13,553 of the 15,887 grants it reported as terminated. This corresponds to about 96 percent of the DOGE-reported grant savings,” the GAO report said. GAO 报告称：“在 DOGE 报告终止的 15,887 项拨款中，有 13,553 项无法提供足够的信息来核实其计算节省金额的方法，或说明这些节省的具体构成。这相当于 DOGE 所报告拨款节省总额的约 96%。”

Beyond grants, the GAO concluded that “DOGE did not use its stated methodology to calculate” most of the savings from contracts it reported as terminated, and that it exaggerated savings from terminated leases. “DOGE did not respond to our request for interviews or clarification,” the GAO said. 除了拨款之外，GAO 还得出结论称，DOGE 在计算其报告终止的大部分合同节省金额时，“并未采用其声称的方法论”，并且夸大了终止租赁合同所节省的开支。GAO 表示：“DOGE 没有回应我们关于采访或澄清的要求。”

In response to the report, Peters said that “Elon Musk and the Trump administration claimed billions of dollars in savings it could not substantiate, took credit for work already underway, and refused to show its work, all while putting Americans’ sensitive data at risk and hollowing out critical agencies.” 针对这份报告，彼得斯表示：“埃隆·马斯克和特朗普政府声称节省了数十亿美元，却无法提供证据；将已经在进行的工作归功于自己，并拒绝公开其工作过程。与此同时，他们还将美国人的敏感数据置于风险之中，并掏空了关键的政府机构。”

DOGE claimed $215 billion in savings

DOGE 声称节省了 2150 亿美元

The Musk-led DOGE tried to conduct much of its work in secrecy. Last year, Senate Democratic staff investigated DOGE activities at three agencies and found armed guards, locked doors, and windows covered with trash bags. Overall, DOGE’s Wall of Receipts website claims it saved taxpayers $215 billion through “asset sales, contract/lease cancellations and renegotiations, fraud and improper payment deletion, grant cancellations, interest savings, programmatic changes, regulatory savings, and workforce reductions.” 由马斯克领导的 DOGE 试图在保密状态下开展大部分工作。去年，参议院民主党工作人员调查了 DOGE 在三个机构的活动，发现那里有武装警卫、紧锁的大门，窗户甚至被垃圾袋遮挡。总体而言，DOGE 的“收据墙”网站声称，通过“资产出售、合同/租赁取消及重新谈判、欺诈和不当付款删除、拨款取消、利息节省、项目变更、监管节省以及裁员”，为纳税人节省了 2150 亿美元。

Even that figure was far short of Musk’s goal of $1 trillion. Trump and Musk claimed that DOGE would cut government waste, but its whirlwind approach resulted in what one Brookings researcher called “cut[ting] muscle, not fat.” The researcher found “25,747 occasions where the Trump administration abruptly fired people and then hired them back.” 即便如此，这一数字也远未达到马斯克设定的 1 万亿美元目标。特朗普和马斯克声称 DOGE 将削减政府浪费，但其雷厉风行的做法导致了一位布鲁金斯学会研究员所称的“切掉的是肌肉，而不是脂肪”。该研究员发现，“特朗普政府有 25,747 次突然解雇员工随后又将其重新聘用的情况。”

The GAO analysis examined a portion of the claimed savings, specifically $110.3 billion related to contracts, grants, and leases. Besides the $49.2 billion in claimed savings in grants, DOGE claimed $61 billion in savings from contracts and $113 million in savings from leases. DOGE reported making cuts affecting 15,887 grants, 13,440 contracts, and 264 leases. GAO 的分析审查了所声称节省金额的一部分，即与合同、拨款和租赁相关的 1103 亿美元。除了声称在拨款方面节省的 492 亿美元外，DOGE 还声称在合同方面节省了 610 亿美元，在租赁方面节省了 1.13 亿美元。DOGE 报告称其削减措施影响了 15,887 项拨款、13,440 份合同和 264 份租赁协议。

DOGE ignored “complexities and nuances”

DOGE 忽视了“复杂性和细微差别”

With contract cuts, GAO evaluated whether DOGE followed its own stated methodology for determining the amount of savings. It found that DOGE followed its stated methodology for 27.5 percent of reported savings and did not follow its stated methodology for 60.7 percent of savings. The GAO could not determine whether DOGE followed its stated methodology for the remaining 11.8 percent because of missing contract identifiers. 在合同削减方面，GAO 评估了 DOGE 在确定节省金额时是否遵循了其自身声称的方法论。结果发现，DOGE 在 27.5% 的报告节省金额中遵循了其方法论，而在 60.7% 的节省金额中并未遵循。由于缺少合同标识符，GAO 无法确定其余 11.8% 的节省金额是否遵循了其方法论。

“Even in cases in which DOGE followed its stated methodology, it did not account for many complexities and nuances of federal contracting or sufficiently identify limitations,” the GAO said. “For example, the savings reported for terminated contracts do not account for subsequent obligations and deobligations that may be associated with termination settlement costs or contract closeout. As such, the amount of reported savings is likely misstated. Finally, whether reductions in contract value will result in savings will depend on circumstances that are not yet known.” GAO 表示：“即使在 DOGE 遵循其方法论的情况下，它也没有考虑到联邦合同的许多复杂性和细微差别，也没有充分说明局限性。例如，报告中终止合同所节省的金额，并未计入可能与终止结算成本或合同收尾相关的后续义务和解除义务。因此，报告的节省金额很可能是不准确的。最后，合同价值的减少是否真的能转化为节省，取决于目前尚不明确的情况。”

Although DOGE claimed $113 million in savings from leases, the GAO said the lease cuts listed on the Wall of Receipts came to only $53.5 million. “Because DOGE declined to meet with us, we could not obtain an explanation for the error,” the GAO said. Moreover, of “108 of the 264 leases identified for termination on the Wall of Receipts, about $15.3 million of the total $53.5 million in savings, were already in process for termination when DOGE was established,” the GAO said. 尽管 DOGE 声称通过租赁节省了 1.13 亿美元，但 GAO 表示，“收据墙”上列出的租赁削减额仅为 5350 万美元。GAO 表示：“由于 DOGE 拒绝与我们见面，我们无法获得对这一错误的解释。”此外，GAO 指出，在“收据墙”上确定的 264 份终止租赁合同中，有 108 份（总计 5350 万美元节省额中的约 1530 万美元）在 DOGE 成立时就已经处于终止流程中了。

DOGE scaled back some of its claims in the year before GAO’s report. As of March 30, 2025, DOGE “reported 679 leases as terminated, totaling approximately $400 million in reported savings.” After that, “145 of the leases DOGE reported as terminated—accounting for about $346 million in reported savings—were removed from the Wall of Receipts because the leases were no longer being considered for termination,” the GAO report said. 在 GAO 报告发布前的一年里，DOGE 缩减了其部分说法。截至 2025 年 3 月 30 日，DOGE “报告称 679 份租赁合同已终止，报告节省总额约为 4 亿美元。”此后，GAO 报告称：“DOGE 报告终止的租赁合同中有 145 份（占报告节省金额的约 3.46 亿美元）被从‘收据墙’上移除，因为这些租赁合同不再被考虑终止。”

The GAO recommended “that the Executive Office of the President, through the US DOGE Service, should ensure that known data quality issues and limitations are prominently displayed on the Wall of Receipts.” GAO 建议：“总统行政办公室应通过美国 DOGE 服务部门，确保已知的质量问题和局限性在‘收据墙’上得到显著展示。”

DOGE ethics report lacking information

DOGE 道德报告缺乏信息

The GAO also issued a separate report this week on DOGE’s personnel and ethics activities. The GAO identified 206 DOGE personnel in the Executive Office of the President (EOP), many of whom also were detailed to other executive-branch agencies. “EOP officials told GAO that DOGE personnel within EOP receive the same ethics and records management training as other EOP personnel,” the report said. “However, EOP did not respond to GAO’s requests for access to training records and financial disclosures for DOGE personnel. As a result, GAO could not determine all DOGE personnel who received training or completed financial disclosures with EOP.” 本周，GAO 还发布了一份关于 DOGE 人事和道德活动的独立报告。GAO 在总统行政办公室（EOP）确定了 206 名 DOGE 人员，其中许多人还被借调到其他行政部门机构。报告称：“EOP 官员告诉 GAO，EOP 内的 DOGE 人员接受与其他 EOP 人员相同的道德和记录管理培训。然而，EOP 没有回应 GAO 获取 DOGE 人员培训记录和财务披露的要求。因此，GAO 无法确定所有接受过培训或在 EOP 完成财务披露的 DOGE 人员。”

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