A video of former President Barack Obama discussing the “tough decisions” involved in cutting massive government waste and going “after every dime” has resurfaced, prompting comparisons to President Trump and Elon Musk’s efforts today.
The clip, posted by the White House in June of 2011, features Obama announcing a new effort to cut government waste. Viewers couldn’t help but notice the similarities between his comments and today’s efforts by Musk and his crew at DOGE.
“Everyone knows that getting rid of the deficit will require some tough decisions. And that includes cutting back on billions of dollars in programs that a lot of people care about,” Obama explains.
“But what should be easy is getting rid of the pointless waste and stupid spending that doesn’t benefit anybody. Waste we should be getting rid of even if we didn’t have a deficit.”
The video accompanied an executive order titled “Delivering an Efficient, Effective, and Accountable Government.”
If you’re wondering why the DOGE-like effort to cut waste and fraud failed, Obama eventually announced that his Vice President, Joe Biden, would spearhead the effort.
“We need to go after every dime,” Obama declared. “We need to make government work for you.”
“That’s why, starting today, I’ve asked the vice president to lead a renewed effort to hunt down misspent tax dollars in every agency and department of this government. We’re calling it the ‘Campaign to Cut Waste,’ and I know Joe’s the right man to lead it, because nobody messes with Joe.”
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Everybody messed with Joe, turns out.
While annual expenditures remained relatively flat during Obama’s term, they rose sharply during Biden’s presidency. The king of waste and fraud.
Find more statistics at Statista
Trump and Musk have come into the picture in 2025 and offered similar commentary to Obama’s, and the leftists in politics and the media have collectively set their hair on fire.
“We have to reduce spending to live within our means. That necessarily involves some temporary hardship, but it will ensure long-term prosperity,” Musk said at a telephone town hall before the election.
The resurfaced video of Obama prompted Musk to note the similarities.
“Obama sounds exactly like [DOGE]!” he wrote on X.
Obama sounds exactly like @DOGE!! https://t.co/k92s04pJdY
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 14, 2025
President Trump, at his joint address to Congress earlier this month, railed against “appalling waste” in government and insisted his administration “will be ending the flagrant waste of taxpayer dollars.”
“We’re gonna find out where that money’s going, and it’s not going to be pretty.”
Democrats in the chamber sat on their hands, refusing to applaud or even acknowledge the effort to cut the waste. Trump could have quoted Obama’s words above verbatim, and they would have reacted similarly.
Imagine that. Trump and Musk are carrying out Obama’s agenda when it comes to “getting rid of the pointless waste and stupid spending,” and Democrats now view such a notion as extreme and quite possibly the end of democracy.
Who knew Barack was such a radical thinker?
DOGE is finding billions of dollars in wasteful spending, and the Democrats are losing their minds as they realize their gravy train and woke projects are coming to an end.
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