Elon Musk’s DOGE Just Published the Federal Waste Database. Here Are the 10 Most Insane Line Items
DOGE published the federal waste database. TrendEdge found the 10 most insane line items: $4,117 per motivational poster, $2.7M for cocaine-addicted quails, $6.4M to 14 companies at one house.
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The Department of Government Efficiency released its federal spending database this week — and while critics debate DOGE’s authority and methods, the database itself is a remarkable document. TrendEdge went through it so you don’t have to.
What we found should make every American furious regardless of political affiliation.
The 10 Most Absurd Federal Expenditures
1. $2.7 million: Study on whether quails become “more promiscuous” after consuming cocaine. NIH-funded. Ongoing.
2. $4.1 million: “Inclusive excellence” consulting contracts at the Department of Interior, 2022-2024. Zero deliverables filed.
3. $890,000: Grant to research “the negative psychological effects of capitalism” at an institution with $12 billion in endowment funds.
4. $3.2 million: State Department funding for a “gender lens investing” program in Pakistan that has no documented outcome metrics.
5. $1.4 million: Pentagon contract for motivational posters. Delivered: 340 posters. Per poster: $4,117.
6. $7.8 million: USAID program to “promote LGBTQ+ rights” in countries that have criminalized homosexuality — with zero documented policy changes over four years.
7. $500,000: Study confirming that people who exercise regularly are healthier than those who don’t.
8. $2.2 million: Interpreting services contract where the vendor was paid for 8,000 hours of work but only 340 hours of actual translation was ever requested.
9. $1.1 million: Consulting fees to advise the IRS on “change management” while the IRS simultaneously failed to implement recommendations from the prior change management consultant.
10. $6.4 million: Federal contracts issued to 14 companies that are registered at the same residential address in suburban Maryland.