Musk says his goal is to reduce the U.S. deficit by a trillion dollars without affecting essential services

Entrepreneur Elon Musk announced that his goal is to reduce the U.S. budget deficit by one trillion dollars, assuring that this goal is achievable without affecting essential government services and that Social Security beneficiaries "will receive more money" thanks to that.

During an interview with Fox News, the head of Tesla and SpaceX detailed that he can cut the annual federal deficit in half in just 130 days, which is the period in which he is legally allowed to serve as a special unpaid government employee. To achieve this, his team is averaging $4 billion per day, without interruption, working every day of the week.

A focus on efficiency and waste reduction

Musk, who leads the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has undertaken a restructuring of federal agencies with the aim of eliminating waste and fraud in government spending. According to what he explained, his team has identified areas where significant cuts can be made without affecting essential programs for the citizenry.

"America will be solvent," Musk declared, emphasizing that core programs will continue to operate and that Social Security recipients will even receive increased benefits thanks to the elimination of fraud and waste in the system.

"Legitimate people, as a result of the work of DOGE, will receive more Social Security, not less," he emphasized.

Layoffs and digitization: keys to the strategy.

Since January, Musk has overseen massive staff cuts and spending reductions at several federal agencies, including the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). However, he assured that the layoffs have actually been few in comparison to the government's total workforce.

In addition to budget cuts, the DOGE team is pushing for digital modernization of bureaucratic processes. Joe Gebbia, co-founder of Airbnb and project collaborator, stressed the need to digitize procedures such as public employee retirements, currently handled on paper, which slows down the efficiency of the system.

A challenge with expected resistance

Despite the progress, Musk acknowledged that the initiative faces resistance and criticism in some quarters. "We're going to get a lot of complaints along the way," he admitted. However, he insisted that this transformation could be "the biggest revolution in government since the original revolution."