DOGE Weekly Watchdog: Musk’s DOGE Took A Chainsaw to Communities, Made Billionaires Richer. Trump Isn’t Stopping Now

This week, Elon Musk’s special government employee status ended, concluding his tenure as DOGE’s ringleader. But let’s be clear: Musk’s departure doesn’t change the fact that DOGE’s damaging cuts are ravaging communities across the country – raising families’ costs, making neighborhoods less safe, and threatening essential benefits like Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security – and that Trump’s crusade is just getting started.

In fact, Musk’s successor, Russell Vought, is one of the architects of Project 2025 who has a nearly 20-year record working on Republican efforts to cut Social Security and Medicare – including overseeing numerous Trump budget proposals, including at least one that significantly cut Medicare and Social Security over a ten-year period. 

It’s proof that DOGE’s extreme agenda, which is causing ordinary families to fall behind, is full steam ahead – as Trump and his allies in Congress push forward deep cuts to Americans’ essential benefits. Last week, Congressional Republicans advanced the largest cuts to Medicaid and SNAP in history – which would result in 14 million Americans losing health coverage, 3 million households without food assistance, and an increased burden for millions with higher education and energy costs. All while adding over $4 trillion to the deficit. 

That’s all to help push forward tax cuts for themselves and their billionaire buddies – with “the bulk of the financial benefits in the legislation […] flow[ing] to the wealthiest Americans.” According to recent analysis from Accountable.US, of the top 35 richest congressional Republicans—worth $2.5 billion collectively—28 sit on key committees overseeing cuts, and will all be able to take advantage of Trump-endorsed tax cuts aimed to benefit the wealthy. 

Americans’ deserve real government reforms to cut red tape, eliminate waste, and ensure taxpayers are able to access the services they pay for. That was never DOGE’s goal – instead Trump and Musk tried to gut Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, to line their own pockets and those of their billionaire friends with tax cuts – and the Administration is only just getting started.   

HOW TRUMP HIS ALLIES IN CONGRESS ARE HARMING FAMILIES 

• Forcing Americans to go hungry, eliminating food banks for those in need: Earlier this year, amidst DOGE’s efforts, the Trump administration cut nearly $1 billion in Department of Agriculture funding for food banks and domestic agriculture. Now, food banks in Virginia and Washington, DC are feeling the pain as they lose at least 1.4 million meals because of these DOGE-style cuts. The cruel and needless slashing of food programs  are hitting rural counties hardest, at a time when Americans are struggling with higher prices under Trump’s failed economic agenda. As the leader of a local food bank described it: “We’ve never before faced a situation like we are in now, where need is well beyond any disaster or financial crisis that we’ve seen, and the government’s response is to take food away. This isn’t about ideology. It’s about math.” With other experts noting that: “What’s happening in rural Virginia is not an outlier but part of a national trend: Food banks across the country are also seeing demand surge.” 
• Limiting our ability to respond to disasters like tornados, wildfires, and hurricanes: After Trump and Musk’s DOGE fired nearly  2,000 NOAA employees, including many responsible for managing extreme weather events, responding to natural disasters, and more, the damaging impact is becoming increasingly clear. Five former directors of the National Weather Service have warned that additional cuts to the agency’s staffing could lead to unnecessary deaths during severe weather including tornadoes, wildfires, and hurricanes. This month, as tornados swept through Kentucky, Missouri, and Virginia and cost 42 lives, a regional National Weather Service field office in Kentucky lacked staff to fully monitor the storm, and some offices have also scaled back balloon launches which collect weather data and assist with daily forecasting. 
• Axing preparation efforts for natural disasters ahead of hurricane season: As hurricane season begins, the Trump Administration axed FEMA’s strategic plan, which includes preparation for responding to natural disasters. In describing the importance of the plan, one FEMA employee said: “It’s our guiding star. We use this to decide agency priorities and pathways to achieve them. Without it, we’re adrift. It’s clear that the person steering the agency…is here to take it apart, one piece at a time.” 
• Experts sound the alarm on National Nuclear Security Administration disruptions, and the threat to national security: After Trump and Musk abruptly laid off hundreds of employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration before hastily attempting to rehire them, experts are calling the Administration’s disruption a “recipe for disaster.” The agency, which has fewer than 1,900 federal employees overseeing more than 60,000 contractors who build and maintain the U.S. nuclear arsenal, is struggling to fill crucial safety roles – threatening our national security. As a former NNSA official said, “I worry that understaffing will cause delays, ultimately, in our delivery of warheads to the military.” 
• Eliminating public library resources, cutting off educational opportunities: After Trump and Musk cut millions in funding for the Institute of Museum and Library Services, libraries across the United States are scaling back back on e-books, audiobooks and loan programs. The funding cuts have meant that: “Maine has laid off a fifth of its staff and temporarily closed its state library after not receiving the remainder of its annual funding. Libraries in Mississippi have indefinitely stopped offering a popular e-book service, and the South Dakota state library has suspended its interlibrary loan program.”

 SOCIAL CONTENT TO LIFT

• @accountable-us.bsky.social‬: ICYMI: Congressional Republicans are gutting investments that mostly benefit their own states. Their war on the Inflation Reduction Act could kill jobs, raise energy bills, and cost red districts billions—just to extend tax cuts for the ultra-rich. newrepublic.com/article/1953…
• @accountable-us.bsky.social‬: The poorest Americans would lose over $1,000. The top 0.1% would gain nearly $400K. That’s the congressional Republicans’ “big, beautiful bill”: less health care, fewer SNAP benefits—for you. Bigger tax breaks—for them. newrepublic.com/article/1955…
• ‪@accountable-us.bsky.social‬: 6 House Republicans betrayed a promise to protect Medicaid and now MILLIONS of Americans are at risk of losing healthcare.All this to pay for tax cuts to the wealthiest few. accountable.us/congressiona…
• @repdelbene.bsky.social‬: DOGE said its takeover of Social Security was to root out waste, fraud, & abuse but just 2 cases out of 110,000 were flagged to potentially be fraudulent. This red tape resulted in retirement claims processing slowing by 25%! 
• ‪@schiff.senate.gov‬: DOGE has failed at making government more efficient. If they’re looking to cut waste, fraud, and abuse, may I suggest President Trump’s request for a third Air Force One, a “gift” from Qatar that will cost a fortune to retrofit.

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Budget cuts by DOGE are hitting critical services hard—healthcare, farmers’ aid, research, veterans’ care, and Head Start programs. 

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