DOGE paid 144,000 federal workers $6.7 billion to sit at home and do nothing. That was the efficiency plan. A 435 percent spike in paid administrative leave. Six times the salary cost of the year before. The program was called “Fork in the Road,” and it was sold as a way to trim the fat. The GAO just showed everyone what it actually trimmed: seven billion dollars from the treasury, for the privilege of having fewer people do the work.
Then the agencies started rehiring. Over 20,000 new hires by June, same kinds of roles they’d just paid people to leave. Billions to empty the chairs and then more money to fill them again. The administration says the cuts will save $20 billion a year going forward. That math only works if you skip the $6.7 billion already spent and the cost of training replacements for people you just paid to walk away. The fork led to a ditch. They’re now paying to pave the ditch and calling it a road.