In a revealing interview with Jesse Watters, Elon Musk and members of his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team exposed shocking details about how lax government spending has led to massive fraud and waste, all at the taxpayers’ expense. The findings were nothing short of eye-opening, as Musk’s team uncovered that something as simple as requiring receipts for payments had a profound impact on cutting fraud and improving efficiency within federal spending.

The Treasury Department’s payment system, which handles about \$5 trillion in payments annually, was revealed to be riddled with flaws. According to Musk and his team, the system previously lacked basic oversight. “When payments are made, there was formerly not a budget code on there. So if a payment was made, you didn’t know what it was for,” Musk explained. This failure to connect payments to a budget made it impossible to track taxpayer dollars and, unsurprisingly, led to rampant misuse of funds.

One of the most egregious examples of waste was tied to a \$4 billion COVID relief fund managed by the Department of Education. The program had no receipt requirement, allowing individuals to draw down funds without any verification. Musk’s team revealed that some of this stolen money was used for extravagant parties at high-end venues, including Caesar’s Palace and stadiums. “They found out money was being used to rent out Caesar’s Palace for parties, rent out stadiums, etc.,” Musk said, highlighting just how out of control the situation had become.

This gross mismanagement and fraud went unchecked for years, allowing small problems to balloon into full-scale abuse. Musk and his team argued that the government’s failure to tackle small-scale fraud early on allowed it to snowball, with perpetrators becoming more brazen in their actions. “Generally, the fraud starts out small and they try to hide it. But year after year, if nobody stops the fraud, it gets more and more brazen, and every year it gets bigger until they are literally renting out stadiums,” Musk noted.

But where others failed, DOGE succeeded. The team implemented a simple but highly effective solution: requiring receipts to be uploaded before any payments could be made. This straightforward step immediately shut down the abuse, with Musk revealing, “So the one change that DOGE made was the simple requirement that if you draw down money, you must first upload a receipt, and upon doing so, nobody drew down any money anymore.”

This no-nonsense approach to curbing wasteful spending stands in stark contrast to the burdens placed on everyday citizens and small business owners. Many online commenters expressed their outrage, pointing out the hypocrisy in how government agencies operate versus how individuals and businesses are treated. One commenter pointed out the irony: “WTH! The people owning businesses have to account for every little \[expenditure] when audited and the government just spends the tax money on this? Thanks DOGE for exposing this.”

Others were astounded by how such a simple solution had not been implemented sooner. “Amazing that DOGE took such a simple yet powerful step to stop wasteful spending. This is how you make a difference!” one commenter wrote, applauding the team for taking action where others had failed.

As the government continues to grapple with efficiency and accountability issues, Musk and his DOGE team are proving that even the most basic reforms can have a massive impact in stopping waste and fraud. It’s a lesson in common-sense governance that should be taken to heart by policymakers everywhere.