#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 He discusses the chaos in IRS modernization, shedding light on outdated practices like reliance on fax machines.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

Waste Often Hides Behind Auto‑Renewals

Waste, fraud, and abuse blur into gray areas where long-term vendor renewals and unused licenses persist unnoticed.
Sam found multi-million-dollar contracts with zero activated licenses auto-renewing for years.

00:00 / 00:00

Make Engineering Lead By Engineers

Put technical leaders in charge and require technical interviews for engineering hires.
Recompose engineering orgs so 'engineering is for engineers' to improve hiring quality.

00:00 / 00:00

Hiring Rules Block Young Talent Pipelines

Hiring processes shifted away from effective internship pipelines and now favor minimally qualified candidates.
Competitive rules and veterans' preference often block recruiting high-potential young talent.

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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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