| DOGE, the incoming Trump administration advisory panel headed by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, has been posting on X, the social media platform owned by Musk, about the federal government's spending. The posts have featured a mix of facts and figures, including those drawn from a USA Facts chart and a Reader's Digest article on "11 Bizarre Things the U.S. Government Actually Spent Money On." One tweet said: "In FY2023, the U.S. Government spent $6.16 trillion while only bringing in $4.47 trillion. The last budget surplus was in 2001. This trend must be reversed, and we must balance the budget." Another tweet highlighted dubious federal spending such as "$2.5 million on a Super Bowl Ad for the Census." Musk has spoken of trimming $2 trillion from the federal budget. The 2024 fiscal year that ended in September had outlays of $6.8 trillion, according to the Congressional Budget Office, so Musk's goals would require nearly a 30 percent reduction in spending. In fact, Musk's target is very close to the annual budget deficit of $1.9 trillion. Coincidentally or not, these tweets show the impossibility of achieving DOGE's goal of eliminating the budget deficit without significant increases in revenue — or slashing programs for the elderly. There's also an added complication: Spending on old-age programs is only going to go up. We dug deep into the numbers. Click the link to read the full fact check. | 
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