OAN Staff James Meyers
2:11 PM – Tuesday, December 3, 2024
Illegal immigration has cost American taxpayers a blistering 2.6% of the entire U.S. government’s $6.1 trillion in federal spending for the entire 2023 fiscal year.
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This amounts to $150.7 billion, according to Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy’s new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
The staggering amount of cash going toward illegal immigrants entering and living in the U.S. would rival spending across other agencies.
The DOGE X account, which frequently shares other examples of apparently reckless government spending, provided inflation-adjusted comparisons with other major undertakings, such as the atomic bomb Manhattan Project ($30 billion), and the cost of constructing the Hoover Dam ($1 billion).
Besides illegal immigration, DOGE’s account has also targeted the National Institutes of Health (NIH), California High Speed Rail Project and grants for diversity in foreign nations.
The agency even went after the federal government for deciding to spend $2.5 million on a Super Bowl advertisement for the Census.
Musk’s account attacks the federal government for only using 12% of the space in their agencies’ headquarters in Washington, D.C. as an alarming amount of workers never returned back to the office after the COVID pandemic.
While the government still pays money for these office spaces, much of it goes unused or only partially utilized by employees.
Additionally, in the social media post sent out Monday evening about immigrants, Musk and Ramaswamy noted the comparison of this spending to other massive initiatives throughout U.S. history.
For example, the Apollo Space Program cost $257 billion when adjusted for inflation, which is about $1 billion more than what illegal immigrants cost taxpayers last year.
The crisis also cost over the course of just one year over $120 billion more than the top-secret World War II program to develop the first atomic bombs. The Manhattan Project cost $30 billion, when adjusted for inflation.
Furthermore, the Hoover Dam cost only $1 billion, the X post notes.
However, Musk and Ramaswamy aren’t necessarily looking to slash every program or initiative they analyze or attack on social media.
Another eye-opening fact was that the U.S. spent $150.7 billion on illegal immigration in 2023, which equals close to 19% of the entire U.S. defense spending in the same year.
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