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 .

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

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