#1004 - Sam Corcos - Inside DOGE, The IRS & How to Scam the US Government

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Oct 9, 2025

Sam Corcos, former CEO of Levels and current CIO at the U.S. Treasury, unveils the striking realities within the government. He discusses the chaos in IRS modernization, shedding light on outdated practices like reliance on fax machines. Sam shares his journey into politics, misconceptions about government operations, and the challenge of implementing meaningful change amid bureaucracy. He also tackles the complexities of procurement, the importance of retaining technical talent, and how to effectively navigate the murky waters of waste and fraud.

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00:00 / 00:00

CIO Role Evolved Without Tech Standards

Most government CIO roles evolved from librarian-like functions and lack consistent technical qualification requirements.
Sam Corcos argues this mismatch caused decades of poor IT decisions at agencies like the IRS.

00:00 / 00:00

Putting 50 IT Leaders On Leave

Sam recommended putting roughly 50 IRS IT leaders on administrative leave during peak tax season to replace non-technical decision-makers.
The move sped decisions and unblocked multi-year projects almost immediately.

00:00 / 00:00

Top-Down Courage Unblocks Work

Top-down willingness to make hard calls dramatically accelerates government delivery.
After leadership changes at the IRS, items stuck for years began delivering in weeks.

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Sam Corcos is an entrepreneur, CEO of Levels, and a special advisor to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

What’s really happening inside the U.S. government? For the first time, a DOGE insider exposes the chaos, corruption, and dysfunction plaguing Washington. How did America’s most powerful system lose its way, and can we climb out of this financial and technological free fall?

Expect to learn what is currently happening inside DOGE, why Sam decided to step into a political position, Sam’s biggest misconceptions he had about the government before he went inside, how the government actually operates internally, why it’s so hard to make change in the government, how to scam the US government, how to solve the government contract problem, how the IT in the government got so dysfunctional and how we might get out of this, what the IRS actually does and if tax collection is actually viable to help the debt problem, and much more…

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Timestamps:

(0:00) Becoming Chief Information Officer of the Treasury Department

(6:22) The Politics of Working in Politics

(11:19) What It’s Really Like Working for the US Government

(25:05) How Do You Change the System?

(37:46) What Has Sam Sacrificed for the Government?

(43:51) The Procurement Process is Broken

(53:47) How Much Money Does the Government Really Spend?

(01:01:28) Why is Finding Engineers Proving Difficult?

(01:10:56) Are Young People Favoured for Government Jobs?

(01:15:54) US Media is Fuelling Federal Mistrust

(01:25:55) DOGE is More Than a Meme

(01:30:04) How Does DOGE Save Money?

(01:38:05) Why Spending Cuts are So Important

(01:43:02) Modernisation Isn’t the Answer

(01:48:55) Is Data Security at Risk?

(01:55:09) The Reduction in Force Process is Brutal

(02:00:58) What Sam Would Go Back and Change About DOGE

(02:10:06) What Does the IRS Actually Do?

(02:16:32) How are Tax Policies Really Enforced?

(02:25:52) People are at the Core of DOGE

(02:35:26) How Long Will It Take to Fix IT Systems?

(02:42:14) What Have Been the Biggest Changes in Sam’s Work?

(02:52:32) How Will Systematic Changes Stick?

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