DOGE promised to clean up Govt. waste but failed when it ignored these two billion dollar programs

By Staci-lee Sherwood

The promise of DOGE was that it would clean out government waste.  We all know the federal government runs programs that cost way more than they should.  Accountability seems to be a thing of the past.  In the end it’s the taxpayer who pays for all these mistakes. What happened to those DOGE refund checks?  They were just a selling point with no basis in reality.  Here are two glaring programs that should have been chopped by DOGE but weren’t.

At a time when the federal government is running a deficit of at least $40.000.000,000,000, yes you read that right, every program and policy that costs taxpayers more money must come under real scrutiny.  You don’t need to know math to see the lies the world sees.  The plan to kill half a million Barred Owls, called B.O.M.S. which stand for Barred Owl Management Strategy, will cost an estimated $1 BILLION dollars.  The reasoning is to save another species, the Spotted Owl.  This is really just another ploy to scam money out of unsuspecting taxpayers who aren’t familiar with this latest ‘environmental program’.

Barred Owl program scam

The Spotted Owl population is in decline. However that has been going on long before the Barred Owls started expanding their territory.  Expansion of territory is more about loss of current habitat and not a willful takeover of the Spotted Owl’s.  In fact these two species can and do co-exist and often breed together. The federal government,along with coaxing by some self-serving environmental groups, make great allies.  Many of these nonprofits just want to pad their accounts rather than save wildlife.  Some of these groups receive tens of millions of non taxed donations while it mostly sits in a bank rather than be used on programs.  They both play to their supporters with words designed to trigger blind support when a deep dive into the finances is required.

The truth is unregulated and over logging has caused the Spotted Owl population to plummet, not another species.  That could be easily remedied with better enforcement of existing laws.  How can the so called scientists be so blind?  Money can buy any study to have any finding for the right price.  This isn’t just cruelty to the owls but cruelty to taxpayers who have to constantly pay for these inane programs that have no real benefit. 

500,000 to be killed for loggers

Wild Horse & Burro program scam

The other program that costs taxpayers hundreds of millions without giving any benefit is the ongoing Wild Horse and Burro roundups.  Every year those the federal government hired to round up our wild horses and burros make millions doing so.  These aren’t working cowboys but multi millionaires.

According to in depth analysis by The American Wild Horse Conservation organization it’s estimated to have cost taxpayers nearly half a BILLLION dollars just since 2004.  The cost includes holding pens, hiring those to do the work, helicopters and bait trapping among other things.  This has been going on since the 1970s.  One can imagine the billions the government has already wasted.  This money could have gone to repairing old infrastructure, funding hospitals, schools and local law enforcement but it didn’t.  After 50 years of roundups the government has wasted billions of dollars with nothing to show for it.  Furthermore the horses aren’t the ones doing the damage.  They actually restore the ecosystem and help prevent wildfires.  The growing expense of wildfires is also into the billions of damage.

Where is DOGE in all of this? 

They conveniently neglected to peruse all the federal programs because this one should have been the one right at the top of the list.  If you think anyone in government cares about spending taxpayer money they don’t, it’s like Monopoly money to them. Republicans have claimed for years they are the hawkish conservative party when it comes to taxes.  Not true. 

Since 2000 the past three Republican administrations have not only expanded the government, by the creation of the Homeland Security Department, but also increased the deficit.  Are they truly hawkish on taxes as they claim, or more cozy with Democrats than anyone suspected?  Regardless of party this is a huge waste of taxpayer money at a time when the economy is struggling, the market is highly volatile and most households struggle to make ends meet.  Ask yourself is this really the best way to spend our money or could it be used more wisely to pay down the ever increasing deficit?