The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk, has intensified its efforts to expose and eliminate financial mismanagement within the federal government. Over the weekend, the agency revealed a staggering discovery: more than $300 million in loans had been issued to children under the age of 12 during the COVID-19 pandemic. This alarming misuse of funds is part of a broader investigation into fraudulent loans distributed by the Small Business Administration (SBA) in 2020 and 2021. The recipients of these loans were listed with social security numbers that did not match their names, raising serious concerns about oversight and accountability.
Further complicating the issue, DOGE uncovered another shocking case of misallocated loans: the SBA had approved over $333 million in loans to individuals reported to be over 115 years old. In one particularly bizarre instance, a 157-year-old person was granted a $36,000 loan. These loans included funds from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL), both designed to support struggling businesses during the pandemic. The fact that these funds ended up in the hands of individuals who could not possibly be legitimate business owners underscores a major failure in the system’s safeguards.
President Donald Trump addressed these troubling findings in a speech to Congress, highlighting the extent of inaccuracies within the Social Security database. He pointed out the presence of millions of centenarians, with some listed as being as old as 360 years. Trump expressed outrage over the continued disbursement of funds to these questionable accounts and vowed to prioritize efforts to rectify these errors. This revelation has fueled calls for greater scrutiny of government spending and increased pressure on agencies to eliminate fraud.
In its mission to cut wasteful expenditure, DOGE also announced the cancellation of a $10.3 million contract from the Department of Agriculture. Ironically, this contract was intended to identify unnecessary spending but was itself deemed nonessential. This is just one of 162 contracts terminated by the agency, amounting to potential savings of $90 million. Although DOGE has yet to disclose which other departments were affected, the move signals a serious commitment to curbing waste.
Elon Musk has continued to push for more aggressive action against government inefficiency, recently meeting with House Republicans to discuss plans to identify and eliminate up to $1 trillion in unnecessary spending. While acknowledging that mistakes may happen along the way, Musk emphasized the importance of addressing them swiftly and staying focused on the bigger goal. This partnership between DOGE and legislative leaders suggests that more revelations and reforms may be on the horizon as the fight against government waste gains momentum.