List of Items DOGE Could Cut Include $1,200 Coffee Cups and 3-Cent Pennies…But That’s Not All!

The newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), spearheaded by President-elect Trump’s appointees Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, has already gained a powerful ally: Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa. A decade-long critic of federal waste, Ernst has provided DOGE with a list of inefficiencies she says are ripe for elimination. Her letter to Musk and Ramaswamy underscores her commitment as chair of the Senate DOGE Caucus, a body established to ensure the commission delivers on its ambitious promises.

Ernst emphasized urgency: “With $3 billion of interest being added to our national debt every day, the longer we delay tackling the problem, the further away the finish line gets.”

Targets for Reform

1. Costly Coins: Producing pennies and nickels costs taxpayers more than their face value—three cents for a penny and 11 cents for a nickel. Ernst suggests using cheaper materials to save millions annually.
2. Bloated Military Spending: The Pentagon paid $1,220 per cup for heated mugs and splurged on luxury items like lobster tails, foosball tables, and overpriced soap dispensers.
3. Use-It-or-Lose-It Spending: Federal agencies rush to exhaust budgets by September’s end, with OpenTheBooks reporting 10% of contracts signed in the fiscal year’s final week. Examples include $4.6 million spent on lobster tails and nearly $12,000 on a foosball table in 2018.
4. COVID Relief Fraud: Billions of pandemic relief dollars were fraudulently claimed, with some applicants using fake photo IDs, including pictures of Barbie dolls. Ernst criticized lax enforcement to recover stolen funds.
5. Unspent COVID Funds: Billions allocated for pandemic mitigation remain unspent, stuck in government slush funds instead of being reclaimed.
6. Empty Buildings: Nearly 8,000 vacant federal buildings sit unused. Efforts to sell them have been stymied by mismanagement and a lack of accurate property records.
7. Mass-Transit Boondoggles: Projects like California’s High-Speed Rail, now $100 billion over budget, and San Francisco’s Caltrain extension, costing $6.7 billion for 1.3 miles, epitomize wasteful spending driven by ideology over practicality.
8. Failing Infrastructure: Despite billions allocated for EV chargers and rural internet, progress has been negligible.
9. Bonuses for Failure: Federal employees and contractors have received millions in bonuses despite costly failures, including delayed projects and defective parts.
10. Unemployment for Millionaires: A quarter-billion dollars a year is spent on unemployment benefits for wealthy Americans.
11. Propaganda Spending: Federal agencies spend $1.5 billion annually on unnecessary swag like key chains and coloring books.
12. The United Nations: The U.S. contributes $15 billion to the U.N., which Ernst says funds activities that undermine national security, including cash handouts to migrants.

Senator Ernst’s comprehensive roadmap offers DOGE a clear starting point as it seeks to cut trillions from federal outlays, aligning with Trump’s pledge to streamline government operations.