DOGE Deactivates More Than 200,000 Federal Government Credit Cards

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has deactivated over 200,000 unused or unneeded credit cards across 16 federal agencies, exposing a shocking level of financial mismanagement within the government.

Key Facts:

DOGE canceled 204,801 federal credit cards, including 171,120 travel cards and 33,681 purchase cards.
The audit covered 16 federal agencies, with the Interior Department and HHS seeing the highest cancellations.
There were initially 4.6 million active government credit cards processing $40 billion in transactions in FY24.
The State Department was the only agency in the audit that had no credit cards deactivated.
Elon Musk, leading DOGE, aims to cut $1 trillion in waste to address the $36.5 trillion national debt.

The Rest of The Story:

DOGE’s audit of federal credit cards revealed a staggering number of inactive or unnecessary accounts, leading to the cancellation of over 200,000 cards in just three weeks.

The Interior Department and HHS saw the most deactivations, with nearly 60,000 and 46,000 canceled cards, respectively.

Despite the cancellations, millions of government credit cards remain active.

The total spending on these cards in the last fiscal year reached $40 billion, with 90 million transactions recorded.

DOGE has indicated that further reviews are needed to identify additional waste.

This move is part of a broader effort by DOGE, under Elon Musk’s leadership, to eliminate government inefficiencies.

Musk, who spoke at President Trump’s first Cabinet meeting, has pledged to find $1 trillion in savings, warning that America’s current $2 trillion annual deficit is unsustainable.

Commentary:

The fact that over 200,000 federal credit cards were sitting around unused is shocking—but not surprising.

This kind of mismanagement has been a hallmark of the federal government for years.

If anything, this audit raises more questions: How did so many unnecessary cards exist in the first place?

How much taxpayer money has been wasted through fraudulent or reckless spending?

The numbers don’t lie.

With 4.6 million active government credit cards handling $40 billion in transactions, it’s safe to assume that a significant percentage of these accounts are either misused or unnecessary.

DOGE’s initiative is a step in the right direction, but it should only be the beginning.

One of the most concerning aspects of this audit is that it only targeted 16 agencies.

What about the rest of the federal government?

If just a partial audit uncovered hundreds of thousands of inactive cards, a full review could reveal waste on an even more alarming scale.

Musk’s goal of cutting $1 trillion in waste may have sounded ambitious, but if these early findings are any indication, it might be more realistic than we thought.

The next step should be a thorough review of all active government credit cards, ensuring that they are used only by those who truly need them.

Given the track record of government bureaucracy, it’s safe to say that number is probably much lower than 4.6 million.

The Bottom Line:

The federal government’s financial mismanagement is on full display, with 200,000 inactive credit cards quietly collecting dust until DOGE stepped in.

While this is a positive step, it raises the question: How much more waste is out there?

A full audit of all agencies is necessary to prevent further abuse of taxpayer dollars.