Elon Musk, leader of the Department of Government Efficiency, said he was told that there is about a $100 billion annual payment of entitlements to individuals without a Social Security Number or even a temporary identity number.
Musk made this known in a statement through his X account on Saturday, clarifying what DOGE Team and US Treasury have jointly agreed on in the past few days.
Recall that DOGE, backed by US President Donald Trump, swung into action to cut costs across agencies, including the US Treasury Department and the US Agency for International Development, USAID.
Explaining DOGE’s efforts at the Treasury Department, Musk said, “Yesterday (Friday), I was told that there are currently over $100 billion per year of entitlement payments to individuals with no SSN or even a temporary ID number. If accurate, this is extremely suspicious.
“When I asked if anyone at Treasury had a rough guess for what percentage of that number is unequivocal and obvious fraud, the consensus in the room was about half, so $50 billion per year or $1 billion per week!”
“This is utterly insane and must be addressed immediately,” he stated.
This comes as a DOGE is pushing for access to US Treasury Department payment records.
As of the earlier hours of Saturday, US District Judge Paul Engelmayer blocked DOGE from accessing the personal financial data of millions of Americans in Treasury Department records.
Recently, DOGE dismantled USAID, affecting all, but roughly 600 members of its 10,000-plus staff around the world who were placed on leave.