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

Modern Wisdom

Chris Williamson

Society & Culture, Health & Fitness

4.7 • 4.6K Ratings

🗓️ 9 October 2025

⏱️ 176 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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… Sponsors: See discounts for all the products I use and recommend: https://chriswillx.com/deals Get up to $350 off the Pod 5 at https://eightsleep.com/modernwisdom Get $100 off the best bloodwork analysis in America at https://functionhealth.com/modernwisdom Get 35% off your first subscription on the best supplements from Momentous at https://livemomentous.com/modernwisdom Get a Free Sample Pack of LMNT’s most popular flavours with your first purchase at https://drinklmnt.com/modernwisdom 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? Extra Stuff: Get my free reading list of 100 books to read before you die: https://chriswillx.com/books Try my productivity energy drink Neutonic: https://neutonic.com/modernwisdom Episodes You Might Enjoy: #577 - David Goggins - This Is How To Master Your Life: https://tinyurl.com/43hv6y59 #712 - Dr Jordan Peterson - How To Destroy Your Negative Beliefs: https://tinyurl.com/2rtz7avf #700 - Dr Andrew Huberman - The Secret Tools To Hack Your Brain: https://tinyurl.com/3ccn5vkp - Get In Touch: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chriswillx Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/chriswillx YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/modernwisdompodcast Email: https://chriswillx.com/contact - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:21.6	That's chriswilliamson.com.
0:24.9	All right.
0:25.5	Let's get into it.
0:27.1	You got a new job.
0:28.0	Congratulations.
0:29.2	How'd that happen?
0:31.5	I had a lot of friends who reach out to me from the administration saying that they really needed help doing, really looking
0:40.4	into IRS modernization. It's one of the worst managed IT projects in the government. I think maybe
0:46.5	second only to the VA's attempt at implementing an electronic health record system. It's about
0:52.2	$15 billion over budget. It was actually started
0:56.4	right around the time I was born, and it's still ongoing. It's still five years away. It was
1:01.1	five years away in 1991. It's still five years away. So they said they really needed somebody
1:07.5	to look into this and see if we could fix it. So I've always wanted to do
1:15.8	government service. It's a thing that has been important to me. I care a lot about the future of
1:22.0	the country, especially the national debt. But I kind of assume this would be a thing that I would do in my 50s after I'm retired,
1:29.8	but my wife really encouraged me to give this a go. So about six months ago, I made the plunge,
1:37.0	and here I am. What are you? I'm the chief information officer of the Treasury Department.
1:43.7	That's my official role. What's that mean? What's that guy do? So the chief information officer of the Treasury Department. That's my official role.
	...

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