Summary

Elon Musk falsely claimed an $8 billion saving on a canceled contract that was actually worth only $8 million, significantly inflating its reported $55 billion in total savings.

The error, first identified by The New York Times, was based on an incorrect figure in federal procurement records.

Additionally, DOGE’s accounting has been questioned due to inconsistencies in its reported savings, including counting already-paid portions of contracts and taking credit for office closures when Joe Biden was still president.

DOGE has not publicly addressed the mistake.

  • Auli@lemmy.ca
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    13 hours ago

    I mean Elon himself has said don’t trust what he says.

    • KeenFlame@feddit.nu
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      3 hours ago

      Yeah did you guys not get the memo that they are dismantling “objectives” to install a fascist dictator, openly? You don’t need to try to find flaws, they are the flaw

  • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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    19 hours ago

    So I don’t understand how they can even know what the “savings” would be? Wouldn’t all of these contract terminations be “for convenience” meaning the government will have to pay a settlement to the contractor for cancelling?

    Let’s say it’s 50% completed, so we know we have 50% funds unpaid. You cancel the contract, but the contractor wants another X% for materials they already purchased. How do we know what the savings would be already?

    • HasturInYellow@lemmy.world
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      18 hours ago

      Because it’s all lies. They are reporting, very generously, the total amount allocated to the things cut. There has been no deep investigation as to their connections or dependencies or completion percentage. They didn’t read every contract to figure out what canceling it would mean because THEY won’t be paying for it. We will.

  • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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    23 hours ago

    It’s not shocking. None of this is shocking. They have a playbook. They published it YEARS before the election. They said they would use the playbook. They are using the playbook. It’s not a surprise. You’re not allowed to be surprised by this. Fucking stop it. Holy fucking christ.

    • P1nkman@lemmy.world
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      6 hours ago

      But, but… Trump said he had nothing to do with it? He’s hurting the wrong people!

      I sincerely hope both of them dies from a natural deaths, but it should happen within the next few hours.

  • IHeartBadCode@fedia.io
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    2 days ago

    I saw him claim a $8.2M contract savings. Looked it up, was only a $1.6M. They are routinely inflating numbers because they have no idea how to read the data that’s in front of them.

    Contract was 12FPC222F0160. They just took the full awarded amount and ran with that, not seeing or not caring that it was opened in 2022 and had paid out 80% it’s outlay already.

    These people have no idea what they’re doing and they routinely display that lack of knowledge. There is no value of what Musk is posting that can possibly be treated as credible. This is likely why they keep not posting the full contract listing they cancel everyday. They have no idea how to read these things. They’re just picking the largest number on the screen.

    • baru@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      To add: If you cancel a contract that was 80% finished then that is not a saving. It means you likely wasted 80%.

      It really feels like penny wise, pound foolish. Only focusing on what’s paid out and thought about the benefit.

      Though the simplistic approach is likely intentional.

      • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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        19 hours ago

        Also doesn’t the Government have to pay a settlement if they terminate a contract for convenience?

        We are just going to end up paying out a lot of money for nothing.

    • Clent@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 day ago

      Never contribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by dumb fuckery.

      I have seen no proof that Trump or Musk are smart. It can all be explained by birth lottery and survivorship bias.

      • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        That phrase sucks. Apply Occam’s Razor. What is most likely? Realigning political climates adjusting geopolitical relations to fit, or that Musk and Trump are two big dumbs dumbs shitting all over the floor while shadow figures move them like mannequins? I think the fascists are just teaming up because its good for them.

        • Clent@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          13 hours ago

          If the world of full of dumb fucks. We are all literally equally fucking stupid. Someone will still rise to the top and our dumb fuckery will allow us to contribute that to them being the lesser dumb fuck.

          Go read animal farm but realize that the specifics of the animals doesn’t matter. Most people think, I would never act like those pigs because this kids the point. It could have just as easily been a team of horses that moved onto the house.

          We are all equally stupid, some of us are just less equally stupid than others. The statement is logically nonsense but language lets us lie to ourself by construction nonsense that our brain accepts as reality. We are all susceptible.

          Life is far more scary once one accepts that there is no shadowy secret cabal. This concept is just gods of a different natures. Brains are stupid and we’re all stuck inside of one.

          • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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            9 hours ago

            Thats exactly the point, my dirty animal friend. Its individuals acting in their best interest creating worse conditions for the group as a whole. Its all its ever been because once we could conquer scarcity we decided to horde it amongst ourselves and making arbitrary rules for having and not having. None of this is efficient. It exists so rich people can have their playthings when they want them and everything else is tertiary.

        • jj4211@lemmy.world
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          19 hours ago

          Can be both.

          JD Vance and the rest of the PJ2025 folks sit back and get their agenda rubberstamped and executed by two idiots that can be plied by hollow praise to feed their egos, screwing up along the way but in ways the PJ2025 are perfectly fine with.

  • ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org
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    2 days ago

    Don’t be so harsh. When I was 19, I struggled with powers of 10 in maths class too. I was too busy chasing girls. And those DOGE youngsters are even busier posting white supremacist stuff on X too!

    • thesohoriots@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      It’s funny, because if you mention Holocaust numbers they’re suddenly drawing equations across multiple chalkboards

      • OldManBOMBIN@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Yeah, but it’s the equivalent of the Pepe Silvia meme. The equations don’t mean anything. Only in this instance, when you look again, you see that it’s not an equation at all, but actually just a bunch of swastikas, 88s, 311s, and a 100%

  • ryper@lemmy.ca
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    2 days ago

    This administration is more likely to punish the NYT for finding the “mistake” than it is to punish anyone in DOGE for being involved in it.

  • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    “Mistake”

    These dogebag fElonYouth don’t give a fuck about accuracy or anything like that. It’s all about moving fast and breaking things, even if that’s a stupid slogan for stupid companies that don’t really have critical infrastructure when it comes to humanity, and government is not a business and should never, ever be run like a business.