Bill Gates said the federal deficit "needs to be brought down" when asked about DOGE during a recent interview.

There are already some signals about which government expenses could be on the chopping block for Elon Musk's DOGE.

Musk isn’t introducing a novel idea. For years, people have advocated eliminating the penny, as pennies are rarely spent as change. And since the Covid-19 pandemic, more consumers are shopping online or avoiding physical currency altogether .

A penny-pinching tactic proposed by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency could be getting rid of the penny itself.