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The article shows that the vast majority of the increase is
Posted on: April 14, 2025 at 19:27:00 CT
JeffB MU
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from autopilot payments & gov't thwarting of other cuts:
Musk team’s $150 billion in savings barely dents $6.8 trillion in spending largely on autopilot, WSJ analysis finds
By Anthony DeBarros and James Benedict
April 11, 2025 5:30 am ET
Federal spending is higher since President Trump took office even as the Department of Government Efficiency slashes contracts, cuts jobs and ends diversity programs.
A Wall Street Journal analysis of daily financial statements issued by the Treasury Department found government spending since the inauguration is $154 billion more than in the same period in 2024 during the administration of former President Joe Biden.
DOGE claims cuts of $150 billion so far, but the Journal analysis found those efforts have yet to affect the bottom line.
And while the government’s income—taxes and revenues including tariffs—is also up, it isn’t enough to keep pace with higher spending.
Hard to tame
Last fiscal year, about 73% of federal spending went to interest on the debt and mandatory programs like Social Security and Medicare that operate on autopilot. That amounted to $4.9 trillion.
Federal Spending in FY2024
Mandatory spending includes programs that continue each year without new authorization from Congress, while discretionary spending is appropriated in the annual budget.
Mandatory: $4.9 trillion
Discretionary: $1.8T
Social Security
Department of Defense
$1.5 trillion
$807 billion
Net interest on the debt*
$881 billion
Other discretionary
Medicare
$1 trillion
$865 billion
Medicaid and CHIP†
$637 billion
Other mandatory
$1.1 trillion
*Interest is treated as mandatory spending although the CBO classifies it in its own category.
†Children's Health Insurance Program
Note: Figures are rounded.
Source: Congressional Budget Office
This year Social Security payments are $32.7 billion higher since Trump took office.
The increased costs are driven mainly by nearly 1.3 million new beneficiaries in the past year and a mandated 2.5% cost-of-living adjustment. DOGE says it is rooting out fraudulent claims and cutting staff, but Trump has promised to leave benefits untouched.
Medicare and Medicaid spending are similarly outpacing levels from a year ago, growing by about $29 billion since the inauguration. Increased enrollments and rising healthcare costs are helping fuel this growth. Combined, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid accounted for roughly 43% of federal spending in the last fiscal year.
Social Security benefits
Medicare and Medicaid
Note: Day 1 for 2025 is Jan. 20; dates for 2023 and 2024 are aligned to match the 2025 days of the week and account for the leap year.
Source: Treasury Department
Rounding out the mandatory spending increases is the rapidly growing cost of interest on the national debt, which DOGE chief Elon Musk says could eventually consume the entire federal budget if unchecked.
The U.S. has paid out $25.5 billion more in interest since Trump returned to the White House than in the same period in 2024. Rising interest rates and a growing national debt contribute to higher interest costs.
Interest on Treasury securities
$150 billion
Note: Day 1 for 2025 is Jan. 20; dates for 2023 and 2024 are aligned to match the 2025 days of the week and account for the leap year.
Source: Treasury Department
Stalled efforts
DOGE launched its cost-cutting with a shock-and-awe campaign terminating at least 25,000 probationary federal workers and slashing funds for foreign aid. Some laid-off government workers have gotten their jobs back, and the termination of probationary employees is currently being litigated.
Federal salary payments are $2.8 billion higher than a year ago in part because of a Biden-approved 2% pay raise in January. Additionally, thousands of other employees who took buyout offers remain salaried through September.
Federal salaries
Note: Day 1 for 2025 is Jan. 20; dates for 2023 and 2024 are aligned to match the 2025 days of the week and account for the leap year.
Source: Treasury Department
There is a chance that the buyout offers actually increased salary costs this year, said Martha Gimbel, executive director and co-founder of the left-of-center Budget Lab at Yale. Some employees who had planned to retire or leave the federal government may have instead accepted a buyout and remained on payroll.
Similarly, the administration’s efforts to curb U.S. Agency for International Development costs hit roadblocks. At first, spending was dramatically cut, the Treasury checkbook shows. In March, however, the Supreme Court rejected the administration’s emergency request to delay foreign-aid payouts, and in recent weeks spending has nearly returned to 2024 levels.
USAID
Note: Day 1 for 2025 is Jan. 20; dates for 2023 and 2024 are aligned to match the 2025 days of the week and account for the leap year.
Source: Treasury Department
Small DOGE wins
DOGE notched a few victories in a handful of the more than 100 spending categories tracked in the daily Treasury statement.
Spending by the Transportation Security Administration nearly flatlined for several weeks in February and March. Since Trump took office, the agency spent $22 million less in part by delaying spending on new uniforms, as well as curtailing travel and training costs, said Joe Shuker, a regional vice president for the American Federation of Government Employees TSA Council 100. In March, the Department of Homeland Security canceled the union contract that protected TSA airport security workers’ benefits.
A TSA spokesman said spending is also down because of a pause in paying invoices until a system for reviewing them is in place.
At the Education Department—targeted for closure “to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law” by a March 20 executive order—spending has dropped roughly $4 billion.
The full extent of DOGE’s efforts will likely play out over years.
Note: Day 1 for 2025 is Jan. 20; dates for 2023 and 2024 are aligned to match the 2025 days of the week and account for the leap year.
Source: Treasury Department
“I think the net effect of DOGE on federal spending, at least insofar as we can track it in the daily Treasury statement, has been pretty small,” said Don Schneider, deputy head of U.S. policy at Piper Sandler. “It will take time for those savings to accumulate, but it will also be dependent on the administration prevailing in court over some of these actions.”
Musk team’s $150 billion in savings barely dents $6.8 trillion in spending largely on autopilot, WSJ analysis finds
By Anthony DeBarros and James Benedict
April 11, 2025 5:30 am ET
Federal spending is higher since President Trump took office even as the Department of Government Efficiency slashes contracts, cuts jobs and ends diversity programs.
A Wall Street Journal analysis of daily financial statements issued by the Treasury Department found government spending since the inauguration is $154 billion more than in the same period in 2024 during the administration of former President Joe Biden.
DOGE claims cuts of $150 billion so far, but the Journal analysis found those efforts have yet to affect the bottom line.
And while the government’s income—taxes and revenues including tariffs—is also up, it isn’t enough to keep pace with higher spending.
Hard to tame
Last fiscal year, about 73% of federal spending went to interest on the debt and mandatory programs like Social Security and Medicare that operate on autopilot. That amounted to $4.9 trillion.
Federal Spending in FY2024
Mandatory spending includes programs that continue each year without new authorization from Congress, while discretionary spending is appropriated in the annual budget.
Mandatory: $4.9 trillion
Discretionary: $1.8T
Social Security
Department of Defense
$1.5 trillion
$807 billion
Net interest on the debt*
$881 billion
Other discretionary
Medicare
$1 trillion
$865 billion
Medicaid and CHIP†
$637 billion
Other mandatory
$1.1 trillion
*Interest is treated as mandatory spending although the CBO classifies it in its own category.
†Children's Health Insurance Program
Note: Figures are rounded.
Source: Congressional Budget Office
This year Social Security payments are $32.7 billion higher since Trump took office.
The increased costs are driven mainly by nearly 1.3 million new beneficiaries in the past year and a mandated 2.5% cost-of-living adjustment. DOGE says it is rooting out fraudulent claims and cutting staff, but Trump has promised to leave benefits untouched.
Medicare and Medicaid spending are similarly outpacing levels from a year ago, growing by about $29 billion since the inauguration. Increased enrollments and rising healthcare costs are helping fuel this growth. Combined, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid accounted for roughly 43% of federal spending in the last fiscal year.
Social Security benefits
Medicare and Medicaid
Note: Day 1 for 2025 is Jan. 20; dates for 2023 and 2024 are aligned to match the 2025 days of the week and account for the leap year.
Source: Treasury Department
Rounding out the mandatory spending increases is the rapidly growing cost of interest on the national debt, which DOGE chief Elon Musk says could eventually consume the entire federal budget if unchecked.
The U.S. has paid out $25.5 billion more in interest since Trump returned to the White House than in the same period in 2024. Rising interest rates and a growing national debt contribute to higher interest costs.
Interest on Treasury securities
$150 billion
Note: Day 1 for 2025 is Jan. 20; dates for 2023 and 2024 are aligned to match the 2025 days of the week and account for the leap year.
Source: Treasury Department
Stalled efforts
DOGE launched its cost-cutting with a shock-and-awe campaign terminating at least 25,000 probationary federal workers and slashing funds for foreign aid. Some laid-off government workers have gotten their jobs back, and the termination of probationary employees is currently being litigated.
Federal salary payments are $2.8 billion higher than a year ago in part because of a Biden-approved 2% pay raise in January. Additionally, thousands of other employees who took buyout offers remain salaried through September.
Federal salaries
Note: Day 1 for 2025 is Jan. 20; dates for 2023 and 2024 are aligned to match the 2025 days of the week and account for the leap year.
Source: Treasury Department
There is a chance that the buyout offers actually increased salary costs this year, said Martha Gimbel, executive director and co-founder of the left-of-center Budget Lab at Yale. Some employees who had planned to retire or leave the federal government may have instead accepted a buyout and remained on payroll.
Similarly, the administration’s efforts to curb U.S. Agency for International Development costs hit roadblocks. At first, spending was dramatically cut, the Treasury checkbook shows. In March, however, the Supreme Court rejected the administration’s emergency request to delay foreign-aid payouts, and in recent weeks spending has nearly returned to 2024 levels.
USAID
Note: Day 1 for 2025 is Jan. 20; dates for 2023 and 2024 are aligned to match the 2025 days of the week and account for the leap year.
Source: Treasury Department
Small DOGE wins
DOGE notched a few victories in a handful of the more than 100 spending categories tracked in the daily Treasury statement.
Spending by the Transportation Security Administration nearly flatlined for several weeks in February and March. Since Trump took office, the agency spent $22 million less in part by delaying spending on new uniforms, as well as curtailing travel and training costs, said Joe Shuker, a regional vice president for the American Federation of Government Employees TSA Council 100. In March, the Department of Homeland Security canceled the union contract that protected TSA airport security workers’ benefits.
A TSA spokesman said spending is also down because of a pause in paying invoices until a system for reviewing them is in place.
At the Education Department—targeted for closure “to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law” by a March 20 executive order—spending has dropped roughly $4 billion.
The full extent of DOGE’s efforts will likely play out over years.
Note: Day 1 for 2025 is Jan. 20; dates for 2023 and 2024 are aligned to match the 2025 days of the week and account for the leap year.
Source: Treasury Department
“I think the net effect of DOGE on federal spending, at least insofar as we can track it in the daily Treasury statement, has been pretty small,” said Don Schneider, deputy head of U.S. policy at Piper Sandler. “It will take time for those savings to accumulate, but it will also be dependent on the administration prevailing in court over some of these actions.”
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The article shows that the vast majority of the increase is - JeffB MU - 4/14 19:27:00