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President Donald Trump holds a cabinet meeting, Wednesday, February 26, 2025, in the Cabinet Room. (Official White House Photo by Molly Riley)
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Wealth & Poverty Review Can DOGE Audits Save U.S. From Debt Market Collapse?

Originally published at Newsmax

In air combat over enemy territory, when the fighter plane encounters flak, the pilot knows he is over the target. The American people can be sure that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that was reactivated by Trump is over the target.

And it’s no surprise that many of the most vocal critics of Musk and DOGE have much to hide from their gaming political opportunities associated with direct and indirect access to huge sums of taxpayer funds.

Democrats’ opposition to DOGE markedly increased after USAID was shuttered following investigations and audits that uncovered the records of USAID diverting taxpayer funds to countless programs in countries all over the world that supported unmistakable patterns of an ideological and political agenda totally out of step with the majority of Americans and the needs of the people in USAID target countries.

As Musk’s DOGE began moving swiftly to audit every federal agency, Democrat panic has erupted, with some of the most vocal flak coming from those who have gained an inordinate net worth of tens of millions of dollars while serving as U.S. representatives and senators whose annual salaries are generally between $174,000 and $210,000.

Leading the charge in the U.S. Senate against DOGE is Chuck Schumer (net worth $75 million), and Elizabeth Warren (net worth $67 million). In the U.S. House of Representatives, the sharp critics of DOGE include Jamie Raskin (net worth $19 million), Maxine Waters (net worth $10 million), and Hakeem Jeffries (net worth $9 million.)

The prospect of auditing all sitting U.S. Senators and Representatives has quite a few of them panicking over the potential of having to prove how they made their money while serving in Congress on fixed salaries. Maxine Waters recently acknowledged on record: “We don’t know what all they have on us.”

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recently admitted that he could not account for half of the $175 billion military and financial aid received from the United States.

Why? If this is true, what are the short and long-term implications?

Economists and financial experts, like Dave Brat — Dean of the Liberty University Business School, Catherine Austin Fitts — former U.S. HUD Assistant Secretary and former managing director of Dillon, Read & Co., and Martin Armstong — founder of Armstrong Economics, agree that America’s current trajectory is alarmingly unsustainable.

Early DOGE findings suggest that crime and theft of taxpayer dollars in the U.S is the worst of any country in history.

Steve Quayle — prolific author, historian, and forecaster — believes that theft and stealing of taxpayers’ funds revealed by DOGE are at “off the chart levels.” In a recent interview he said, “of all the pirates in history, nobody can match the level of theft that has happened [in the United States].”

That DOGE is uncovering all this fraud and misallocation of taxpayer resources is vital, but there may be unanticipated consequences. Specifically, with DOGE digging up and exposing huge waste and fraud in government spending, investors may withdraw from Treasury auctions due to a loss of confidence in the near term. (There is some $28 trillion in U.S. Treasury bonds and notes coming due and rolling over from now through the next four years.)

The Trump administration needs to educate investors that whatever near-term dislocations occur, America’s economic future will be far more secure.

In order to prevent the U.S. debt markets from a liquidity crisis precipitated by a failed auction, an event likely to trigger defaults in the far larger $200+ trillion derivative market, creative solutions are needed to bridge whatever confidence gap may develop before the benefits of massive fiscal budgetary reform take hold.

Solving our fiscal crisis requires creative thinking and strong leadership, which Trump can do with decisive downsizing of government, and more reliance on external sources of government funding through tariffs rather than private sector taxation through the IRS and other agencies.

The president’s new “gold card” visa programs could potentially bring in trillions of dollars to the U.S. Treasury by providing a path to U.S. citizenship for $5 million U.S. entry fee.

Additionally, the federal government is resource-rich, being the largest landowner in the United States, owning some 640 million acres, or 28% of the country’s landmass, located primarily in 12 western states, including Alaska.

It is time to think outside the box and consider selling federally owned public land to American citizens with the mandate that mineral, oil and gas production from those lands be deregulated and accelerated, with a tax benefit-induced revenue share dedicated to paying down the U.S. federal debt.

Offshore oil and gas permitting and leasing should also follow the same path of accelerated permitting and revenue sharing.

In the near term, a crisis mentality can be averted and replaced by optimism by changing current fiscal trajectories. Markets would respond favorably as soon as deficit spending declines. And that happens when U.S. government revenue increases and spending decreases.

Scott S. Powell

Senior Fellow, Center on Wealth and Poverty
Scott Powell has worked in the corporate, academic, and research worlds. He has taught at two universities, served on two corporate boards, and been an entrepreneur—founding two companies. He has been Senior Fellow at the  Discovery Institute since 2012, after a six-year affiliation with Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. He has written three books and over 350 published articles in the Wall Street Journal, Investor’s Business Daily, Newsmax, The Federalist ,USA Today, Barron’s Financial, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, The Houston Chronicle, and some 50 other newspapers and journals in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. He delivered the valedictory address at his graduation from the University of Chicago with honors (B.A. and M.A.) and received his Ph.D. in economics from Boston University.