Jesse Watters Primetime Interview with DOGE Team [Part 1]

**Key Points from Jesse Watters Primetime Interview with DOGE Team (Part 1):**

1. Introduction to DOGE Meeting:
- Jesse Watters was invited by Elon Musk to attend a weekly 10 p.m. DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) meeting at the Eisenhower Building.
- Watters aimed to observe the meeting without interrupting, likening it to a board meeting, but promised to interject if bored.

2. Treasury Department Oversight Issues:
- The Treasury processes $5 trillion annually but previously lacked budget codes, making it unclear what payments were for.
- A $4 billion COVID fund in the Department of Education had no receipt requirements, leading to misuse (e.g., renting Caesar’s Palace and stadiums for parties).
- DOGE implemented a simple rule requiring receipts for fund drawdowns, which halted requests as no one complied, even though fake receipts were acceptable.

3. Fraud Escalation:
- Fraud starts small but grows brazen over time if unchecked, escalating to large-scale misuse like renting stadiums.
- The DOGE team expressed frustration but noted becoming numb to repeated discoveries of fraud.

4. Small Business Administration (SBA) Issues:
- The SBA issued $330 million in loans to ineligible recipients, including people over 115 years old (likely deceased) and under 11 years old.
- Loans were also given to individuals with future birth dates (e.g., 2165), indicating fraud or errors.

5. Inter-American Foundation (IAF) Mismanagement:
- The IAF, with a $50 million annual budget, spent only 58% on grants (e.g., alpaca farming in Peru, pea marketability in Guatemala), with the rest consumed by management and travel.
- GAO estimates only 10-15 cents of every dollar reaches intended recipients due to multiple layers of subcontracting and theft.
- Most funds never left Washington, D.C., benefiting local contractors.

6. Contractor Fraud:
- A contractor was overheard advising a colleague to falsify billable hours by creating unnecessary PowerPoints to cover onboarding delays, which is under investigation.
- Many grants and programs are cloaked in noble rhetoric (e.g., “save the baby pandas”) but lack evidence of impact, with no documentation provided when requested.

7. United States Institute of Peace (USIP) Misconduct:
- The USIP, a small agency, was the most resistant to DOGE’s oversight, with loaded guns found in its headquarters, contradicting its peace-focused mission.
- The agency spent on private jets and paid $130,000 to a former Taliban member for vague “generic services.”
- USIP’s chief accountant deleted over a terabyte of accounting records hours after DOGE’s arrival, but the data was recovered with help from some employees.
- USIP diverted unspent congressional funds ($55 million/year) into a private bank account without oversight, funding events and jets.
- DOGE referred the accounting deletion to the FBI and DOJ as illegal evidence destruction.

8. Government Agency Proliferation:
- The number of federal agencies has grown from 4 at the nation’s founding to over 400 today.
- President Trump signed two executive orders to reduce agency numbers, prompting DOGE’s investigation into agencies like USIP.

9. Deferred Resignation Program:
- DOGE offered a program allowing government employees to resign, collect pay and benefits for eight months, with ~80,000 participants.
- Resistance came from external critics calling it a “trick,” but participants benefited, leading to plans for additional rounds (Fork 2 and Fork 3).

10. Long-Term Mission:
- DOGE’s work is a long-term effort to curb waste and fraud, aiming to remove funding for problematic grants to slow future misuse.
- The team anticipates challenges if political control shifts, but structural changes aim to make restarting fraud difficult.