Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) has a blunt take on why the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) hasn't delivered the spending cuts it promised: Congress just didn't do its part.

On Thursday, DeSantis took to X to react to the federal government posting a record July budget deficit of $432 billion. His verdict? "The failure of DOGE in one sentence."

In follow-up posts, he elaborated, arguing that DOGE's efforts to cut spending and reduce the deficit were doomed because Congress never turned its recommendations into law. "DOGE fought the Swamp and the Swamp won," he wrote.

DeSantis's frustration is understandable. He launched Florida DOGE in February 2025 with a mission to cut government waste, review state and local spending, and use AI to sniff out inefficiencies. By October 2025, the state said the initiative had identified nearly $1 billion in potentially wasteful spending across five local governments. By December 2025, the administration claimed broader efficiency efforts had generated $850 million in savings.

But at the federal level, the story is different. The Treasury Department reported Wednesday that the U.S. budget deficit for July hit its highest level since March 2021. The collective deficit for the first 10 months of the fiscal year rose to nearly $1.8 trillion, surpassing the same period in 2025.

Medicare spending surged to $174 billion in July, up from $103 billion in June, bringing the annual total to $955 billion. That made it the government's largest July expense, even exceeding Social Security and net interest on the national debt. The budget also absorbed $33 billion in tariff refunds and a $99 billion timing-related hit from benefit and Medicare payments.

DeSantis's solution? A federal balanced-budget or spending/debt-limit amendment to force Congress to act. He notes that 28 states have already certified support under Article V, which could pave the way for a constitutional convention.

His comments come on the heels of a proposal from Johns Hopkins economist Steve Hanke, who has urged the creation of a Government Transformation Task Force. Hanke argues for a new "fiscal Constitution" to impose discipline on the federal government, which he says is "flying blind" due to a lack of enforceable fiscal restraints and outcome-based measures. His proposal includes a call for a limited Article V constitutional convention to create a binding "debt brake."

So, is DOGE a failure? DeSantis would say it's more of an unfinished project. The ideas were there, the savings were identified, but without congressional action, they remain just that: ideas. And as the deficit balloons, the "Swamp" seems to be winning.