Chris Curl,
Editor
May 22, 2025
Remember the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)?
It was supposed to be a bold new approach to slashing federal spending. But fast-forward to today, and DOGE is quietly fizzling out, overshadowed by a big shift in Washington’s priorities.
Instead of trimming the fat, the focus has moved to cutting taxes—even if that means running up the national tab.
And for investors, that could spell big things for assets like gold and Bitcoin.
What Happened to DOGE?
When Elon Musk took the reins at DOGE after Trump’s election win, expectations were sky-high. He came in aiming to chop as much as $2 trillion from the federal budget. Eventually, he scaled that back to a more realistic (but still ambitious) $150 billion. But even that has proven tough to pull off.
DOGE ran into hurdles almost immediately.
Musk staffed the agency with folks from his companies—think SpaceX and Tesla—but their outsider status didn’t play well in D.C. Agencies pushed back hard. Courts got involved. Judges even ruled that DOGE’s attempts to dig into federal systems violated privacy rules. In short, the government’s immune system kicked in.
Even Republicans in Congress weren’t all that eager to make Musk’s proposals law.
As the Washington Post noted, it’s been tough to get even a small piece of DOGE’s ideas across the finish line. At the same time, the GOP had its hands full trying to pass a big tax cut package.
Musk Steps Back, Congress Moves On
By spring 2025, Musk had started to scale down his role. He told reporters he’d only spend one or two days a week on DOGE going forward, instead focusing more on Tesla (which, to be fair, was having a rough quarter). He also made it clear he wasn’t calling the shots anymore—just offering advice.
Meanwhile, all eyes turned to the One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act—a sweeping piece of legislation that includes major tax cuts, military funding, energy investments, and yes, some spending cuts.
But let’s be honest: it’s mostly about the tax cuts.
The bill proposes $4 trillion in tax reductions and just $1.5 trillion in spending cuts. That’s a $2.5 trillion gap. So instead of balancing the books, it’s adding to the deficit. For deficit hawks, that’s a hard pill to swallow. For investors in hard assets, though? It could be exactly the kind of environment they’ve been waiting for.
Gold and Bitcoin: The Big Winners?
So why do rising deficits matter for gold and Bitcoin?
Historically, gold tends to shine when government finances get shaky. There’s a strong negative correlation between fiscal health and gold prices. When deficits grow and confidence in the dollar drops, gold often takes off. Case in point: in the 2000s, when President Bush’s tax and spending policies blew up the deficit, gold went on a tear.
And it’s happening again. Already this year, gold hit record highs of nearly $3,500 back in April. Investors are clearly nervous about where U.S. fiscal policy is headed, and gold is benefitting.
Bitcoin’s also on the rise. After news of the new tax bill and a U.S.-China trade thaw, it climbed to a new all-time high past $109,000. Investors see crypto—especially Bitcoin—as a hedge against inflation and a weakening dollar. With the national debt growing by a staggering $1 trillion every 100 days, that kind of fear isn’t unwarranted.
The market is waking up to a new reality: rising deficits mean digital assets like Bitcoin aren’t just speculative plays—they’re serious safe havens. This is due to Bitcoin’s fixed supply of 21 million coins—that’s all there will ever be as opposed to a sea of increasingly worthless Federal Reserve notes.
DOGE’s journey shows just how hard it is to change the way Washington spends money.
Despite early momentum and support from the top, the initiative hit wall after wall—legal, political, institutional. Now, with the spotlight shifting to tax cuts and looser fiscal policy, the appetite for deep spending reform seems to be fading fast.
That shift has big implications for markets. As deficits balloon, assets like gold and Bitcoin that thrive on fiscal uncertainty will keep climbing. Whether DOGE’s ideas make a comeback or not, investors are already betting on a future of bigger deficits—and they’re positioning accordingly.
To put it simply: the swamp will not be drained. Make sure your wallet isn’t either.
Keep coming back,
Chris Curl
Editor, Daily Profit Cycle