Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and a prominent figure in the tech world, recently expressed his surprise over the number of active credit cards issued by the U.S. government. In a post on X, Musk highlighted a significant contrast: the government has issued 4.6 million credit cards, which is double the number of federal employees, estimated at 2.1 million as of 2023.
This eye-opening information came from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which noted that they are currently auditing unused and unnecessary credit cards across 30 federal agencies. Musk remarked on this revelation, stating, “It’s crazy that there are twice as many active credit cards as there are government workers!”
The DOGE’s audit has already led to the deactivation of around 470,000 credit cards within these agencies. Just in March of this year, the agency reported that over 200,000 government credit cards were deactivated.
In February, the DOGE announced its commitment to improving credit card management within federal agencies to reduce costs. During the fiscal year of 2024, they identified that approximately 4.6 million credit cards were in circulation, resulting in around 90 million individual transactions.
As part of an effort to streamline federal spending, an executive order from former President Donald Trump initiated a temporary halt on the use of credit cards by federal employees, affecting several agencies, including the General Services Administration (GSA), NASA, and the Treasury Department. Experts point out that while the freezing and deactivation of these cards may lead to cost savings, it could also result in delays in government operations, making the overall impact uncertain.
