Elon Musk's DOGE Targets IRS: Tax Agency in Focus for Budget Cuts

The new heads of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have an ambitious plan to cut spending by federal agencies by as much as $2 trillion, targeting several agencies for comprehensive budget cuts. One of the DOGE leaders, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, said he aims to cut federal spending for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Targeting the IRS Dynamic duo Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have pledged to direct spending cuts to federal agencies, with the goal of cutting the federal budget by as much as $2 trillion. DOGE leaders have said they will pursue budget cuts to federal agencies they consider cumbersome or outdated. Musk said one of these government agencies is the IRS: "The IRS is in trouble." Tesla's CEO pointed out that the IRS has been suffering from inefficiency and numerous scandals for many years while proposing a free tax filing application and conducting audits. He also wants to lay off a large number of employees, reducing what he sees as "excessive administrative growth". In a poll on X, Musk asked the online community how much the budget of the IRS should be. The federal agency is requesting an additional 20 billion dollars in funding. "The Tax Department just said they want to add 20 billion dollars. What do you think their budget should be: Increase, Maintain, Decrease, Delete?" he said.

The survey results show that 60.6% of those polled want to cut the budget of the IRS, while 29.9% voted to reduce the budget. Meanwhile, 5.6% said they support increasing the budget while 3.9% agree that the budget should be maintained. Other Agencies in Focus Musk and Vivek are closely monitoring the budgets of several federal agencies to cut government spending. This duo also targets another financial regulatory agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Musk recommends abolishing CFPB, raising concerns about the future of this agency. For Vivek, he wants to "drastically cut" in the Department of Education. President-elect Donald Trump has called for the dissolution of this department for many years, and it seems that it will happen when he returns to the White House. Vivek aims to cut defense budget Vivek also criticized the huge budget of the Department of Defense, saying that the Pentagon wastes about $125 billion a year on bureaucracy. However, SpaceX's $3.6 billion defense contract, owned by Musk, appears to be exempt from the DOGE budget cutting program Some critics argue that the function of DOGE overlaps with other existing agencies, believing that the effective management of the government may just be redundant. The Role of DOGE DOGE is intended to make government work easier. This name refers to Dogecoin, indicating the importance of Musk in the Trump administration. Musk's role in this department raises questions about how this could impact the value and reputation of Dogecoin in the market. After Trump won the election, the value of Dogecoin increased significantly. This is because Musk is working with the new government and has a history of promoting cryptocurrencies. Reports indicate that talking about DOGE at campaign meetings has caused the price of Dogecoin to rise. This suggests a direct correlation between political events and how the meme coin market reacts to them.