Trump and Musk Team Up to Create DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency

The purpose of DOGE is, supposedly, to cut away the excess spending in government, and there are a lot of programs and job positions that have reportedly already been added to the chopping block.

Former President Donald Trump and Elon Musk are reportedly working together to create a new government department called DOGE, which stands for the Department of Government Efficiency. The purpose of this department is to reduce government overspending, and several programs and job positions are already facing the chopping block.

According to Fortune, Trump and Musk may also be planning to change the way money is counted or at least the appearance of your change jar. This is because, according to the site, the penny may be on the list of things they plan to eliminate.

In fact, the DOGE account on X has already posted about the penny.

The penny costs over 3 cents to make and cost US taxpayers over $179 million in FY2023.

The Mint produced over 4.5 billion pennies in FY2023, around 40% of the 11.4 billion coins for circulation produced.

Penny (or 3 cents!) for your thoughts.

“The penny costs over 3 cents to make and cost US taxpayers over $179 million in FY2023,” the post reads. “The Mint produced over 4.5 billion pennis in FY2023, around 40% of the 11.4 billion coins for circulation produced. Penny (or 3 cents!) for your thoughts.”

According to Fortune, the US Mint reported that the cost to produce a single penny rose to 3.69 cents last year, while the cost to produce a nickel was 13.78 cents. This marks the 19th consecutive year that the cost of producing one of these coins has exceeded its face value.

Fortune reports that DOGE mistakenly attributed the $179 million loss solely to the penny when it was actually the combined loss from making both the penny and the nickel.

However, it does seem silly to lose money making money. So it will be interesting to see if the nickel also becomes a target and how they might go about eliminating the penny.