Elon Musk and the DOGE Team Talk About Why Fraud | Political News

Fox News Senior Correspondent and host of “Special Report” Bret Baier sat down with Elon Musk and the whole DOGE group on Thursday. This is a step up from the particular person interviews performed with Musk and one or two of the members. While their work overlaps all of the authorities businesses, every DOGE member spoke to the findings at specific businesses like the Social Security Administration, the Office of Management and Budget, the Department of Health and Human Services, the National Institute of Health, the Department of the Treasury, and the Department of the Interior. 

Baier kicked off his questioning with Musk, asking what are the DOGE budgetary financial savings targets and what he thinks he is achieved up to now? 

MUSK: Our aim is to scale back the deficit by a trillion {dollars}. So, from a nominal deficit of two trillion to attempt to cut the deficit in half to at least one trillion. Or checked out in whole federal spending, to drop the federal spending from seven trillion to 6 trillion. We wish to scale back the spending by eliminating waste and fraud and scale back the spending by 15 %. Which appears actually fairly achievable. The authorities just isn’t environment friendly and there’s a lot of waste and fraud, so, we really feel assured that a 15 % discount might be performed with out affecting any of the essential authorities providers. In reality, making it higher. 

Baier requested, “What’s the most astonishing thing you’ve found out in this process?”

MUSK: The sheer quantity of waste and fraud in the authorities. It’s astonishing, it is mind-blowing. We routinely encounter waste of a billion {dollars} or more. Casually.

While the American people had no idea of the particulars, many of us have recognized for many years that this was the case. Worse, that prior administrations and lawmakers have given lip service to chopping fraud and waste for many years however didn’t give a rat’s heinie about truly doing something. Musk and the DOGE group gave full credit to President Donald Trump and to his Cabinet for permitting this exploration and correction to occur.

Now that DOGE is posting all this for everybody to see, we’re receiving the affirmation. Musk and the DOGE group all confirmed that some of the the reason why the waste is so prevalent and fraud is so simply executed are aged authorities systems which have a number of redundancies, various laptop systems from company to company that don’t discuss with one another, and the lack of accountability and safeguards within the businesses.

ELON MUSK: The ways in which the authorities is defrauded is that the laptop systems do not discuss to one another. So, if the laptop systems do not discuss to one another, then you possibly can exploit that hole. And fraudsters exploit that hole and take benefit. 

DOGE software program engineer Aram Moghaddassi identified a hole in the Social Security Administration operate that has been exploited by fraudsters and has obtained a lot press due to the hue and cry from the Democrats: the capacity to change banking info over the telephone.

Former SSA Commissioner @MartinOMalley: DOGE is taking money from beneficiaries, slowing down customer support, and shedding important staff. pic.twitter.com/tDJOTRDLro

— Social Security Works (@SSWorks) March 21, 2025

Moghaddassi mentioned that the Social Security Administration will get telephone calls on daily basis from people attempting to get them to change their banking info. DOGE has found that 40 % of these calls are from fraudsters.

🤯 One of the @DOGE group member simply revealed that almost HALF of the calls coming in to the Social Security workplace are fraud

“We learned 40% of the phone calls that they get are from fraudsters. That’s right. Almost half.” pic.twitter.com/nIVakOA3y2

— James Jinnette (@james_jinnette1) March 27, 2025

MOGHADDASSI: They steal people’s Social Security. They fake to be a retiree and they persuade the Social Security individual to change the place the money goes.

As a end result of the work of DOGE and this change, grandma’s advantages have a higher layer of safety from being stolen. 

Musk mentioned: 

MUSK: What we’re doing will help their advantages. Legitimate people, as a end result of the work of DOGE, will obtain more Social Security, not much less. I wish to emphasize that: as a end result of the work of DOGE, official recipients of Social Security will obtain more money, not much less money.  

Musk doubled down: Let the file show that I mentioned this, and it is going to be confirmed out to be true. Musk requested Baier to examine back on this in the future.

Another manipulation of the fraud hole found by engineer Steve Davis is over $300 million in Small Business Administration loans had been given out to people beneath the age of 11 and over $300 million distributed to people over the age of 120. Musk mentioned how this hole occurred, lamenting how fraudsters exploit the Social Security numbers of new child infants.

MUSK: They do horrible issues. They will see that a child has been born, they are going to steal that child’s Social Security quantity, take out a loan and depart that child with a dangerous credit ranking. That’s actually a child. Terrible issues are being performed is what we’re saying.

DOGE’s Anthony Armstrong, who’s working within OPM, pinpointed how this occurs.

ARMSTRONG: The purpose that is occurring is that the two systems aren’t speaking to one another. Right? So, you do not know at the Small Business Administration that you just’re giving a loan to a nine-month outdated, which occurred in a single case, since you’re not cross-referencing that with the Social Security Administration knowledge that has delivery dates. So, that very, quite simple repair eliminates great fraud. There are a number of systems throughout the authorities the place the systems aren’t talking with each other, and in the event you simply clear up that easy downside, you’ll clear up a big quantity of fraud.

Musk concurred:

MUSK: When I say our job is tech assist, I actually imply it. We have to repair the computer systems. If the computer systems cannot discuss to one another, you possibly can’t get analysis performed. If the computer systems cannot keep online, people will not obtain their Social Security. So, what we now have listed below are a bunch of failing laptop systems which are stopping people from receiving their advantages, which are stopping analysis from occurring, which are extraordinarily weak to fraud, and we’re fixing it.

Chief DOGE engineer Steve Davis mentioned that the quantity of points with the Social Security system:

Are huge. As an instance, there are over 15 million people which are over the age of 120 which are marked as alive in the Social Security system. 

BAIER: And that is an correct determine? 

DAVIS: Correct. Correct. This is one thing that has been recognized as a downside, a pre-existing downside since 2008, not less than from an IG report. So, there are some great people working at the Social Security Administration that discovered this, 2008, and nothing was performed about it. And so, 15 to twenty million Social Security numbers that have been clearly fraudulent have been floating round that might be used just for dangerous intentions, there could be no manner to make use of these for good intentions. So one of the issues the DOGE group is doing is rigorously, and very methodically, taking a look at these and making sure that any fraudulent ones are eradicated.  

Engineer Tom Krause is an element of DOGE in the Treasury Department. He pointed to the angle and tradition within the authorities, which perpetuates the lack of oversight and fraud. 

Why is that this allowed to occur at a financial degree? Well, it is truly fairly easy however alarming[…] 

It actually is the taxpayer’s money. One, we’re altering the tradition, the tradition has been not a lot of caring, and not a lot of dedication to do what’s proper relative to financial operations. There’s $500 billion of fraud yearly. There’s tons of of billions of {dollars} in improper funds and we won’t cross an audit. 

The DOGE group constantly identified that a personal company with this lack of financial controls would have gone beneath a long time in the past.

WATCH:

.@DOGE: We’re altering the tradition — the federal authorities can’t cross an audit! If this was a personal business, we’d all be fired. pic.twitter.com/z3ScQMVBzL

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) March 27, 2025

MUSK: We’re speaking about elementary financial controls, which are mandatory for any company to operate. If a industrial company operated the manner the federal authorities does, then it could instantly go bankrupt, it could be delisted, the officers could be arrested. The adjustments we’re putting in will allow the federal authorities to cross an audit, it can allow taxpayers to know the place the money goes and know that their hard-earned tax {dollars} are being spent properly.

Baier requested Musk about the pushback DOGE was receiving and what his response was. Musk declared:

MUSK: Well, that is a revolution. And I feel it is likely to be the largest revolution in authorities since the authentic revolution. But at the finish of the day, America goes to be in significantly better form. America will probably be solvent. The essential applications that people rely upon will work, and it is gonna to be a implausible future. Are we going to get a lot of complaints alongside the manner? Absolutely. One of the issues I realized at PayPal: You know who complains the loudest? What the most quantity of pretend righteous indignation? The fraudsters. Isn’t that loopy?

Musk additional warned:

MUSK: The purpose we’re doing this, is as a result of if we do not do it, America’s going to be bancrupt. It’s going to go bankrupt, and no person goes to get something.

If we do not do that, we’re sunk. Unless this train is profitable, the ship of America will sink. That’s why we’re doing it.

Baier posted the whole interview on his X account. 

WATCH:

Editor’s Note: Elon Musk and DOGE are bringing much-needed accountability to our out-of-control paperwork as they take a chainsaw to rampant waste, fraud, and abuse.

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