Your taxpayer dollars and mine were paying for a special makeup artist at the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) — that is, until DOGE got involved.
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cut contracts with a ceiling value of around $17 billion altogether over the last three weeks. It seems as if the waste and fraud in our federal government is endless, and DOGE has to wade through an absolute mountain of corrupt insanity as it tries to restore fiscal responsibility to the government.
DOGE usually releases a contract update at the end of every week. On Oct. 18, DOGE shared the results of its work from the previous four days. During that time, DOGE helped agencies end 150 wasteful contracts that altogether possessed a ceiling value of $3.2 billion and will represent a savings of $240 million.
These included “a $67k USAGM ‘makeup artist’ contract, a $107k Dept. of War services contract for a ‘group fitness instructor’, a $5.2M HHS contract for ‘professional support services in South Africa’, and a $276k USAGM broadcasting contract for the ‘Armenian radio program’.”
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We really shouldn’t have a government media agency at all. Government media was hardly what the Founding Fathers envisioned when they enshrined freedom of the press in the Bill of Rights. And why the blazes is our U.S. media agency funding an Armenian radio program? How is that justifiable as vital to our national interests?
Great work by @ENERGY ending 321 wasteful awards, saving the US Taxpayers ~$7.5B, mostly in uneconomic “green” grants. https://t.co/Wdt0bcc1Br
— Department of Government Efficiency (@DOGE) October 3, 2025
The contract cutting occurs every week. On Oct. 10, DOGE had similar good news about saving us taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. “Over the last 5 days, agencies terminated and descoped 108 wasteful contracts with a ceiling value of $5.8B and savings of $397M,” DOGE posted on X.
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The post continued that the eliminated contracts included “a $3.1M State Dept. education contract for ‘Tanzania National Coordination Office Development’, a $46.5k US Agency for Global Media lease for ‘office space for the Voice of America East Asia and Pacific Service’, a $5.8M HHS training contract for ‘organizational development, executive coaching, and leadership training’, and a $44M State Dept. contract for ‘professional services in Doha, Qatar’.”
Finally, back on Oct. 4, DOGE announced the termination and descoping of 94 wasteful contracts that altogether had a ceiling value of $8.5B and presented a savings of $546M. These included “a $533k Dept. of Commerce consulting contract for ‘editing support services to the Fisheries Resource Division’ and a $61M HHS research contract for ‘solutions to support innovation in pursuit of affordable and better healthcare.’”
DOGE now is finally doing exactly what we taxpayers have been hoping and praying the federal government would do for decades — namely, slash hundreds of contracts that are useless, expensive, and unconstitutional.
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