I & I Editorial Board“Michael, we’re bigger than U.S. Steel.” — Hyman Roth, “The Godfather Part II“
The mobsters in “The Godfather” set their sights way too low. If they really wanted to make it big time, they should have targeted federal entitlement programs instead of gamblers and drug addicts. Not only does it pay better, but you can count on one political party to look the other way.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) figures that fraudsters make off with more than $500 billion of federal taxpayer money a year, plus another $184 billion in “improper payments.”
That isn’t just bigger than U.S. Steel. That’s five times as big as the entire steel industry.
Every day, it seems, there are reports of fraud, most of it involving federal entitlement programs. Everyone knows about the massive fraud uncovered in Minnesota, Ohio, and California. But the stories just keep trickling in.
- Just last month, the Justice Department charged 455 defendants for what amounts to $6.5 billion in alleged false medical claims.
- Around the same time, Herbert Leon Kimble was arrested in the Philippines on charges that he ran a $1.2 billion Medicare fraud conspiracy.
- Investigators in Alaska charged 15 people with close to $2 million in Medicaid fraud.
- A Brooklyn, N.Y., retailer has been charged with stealing more than $640,000 in food-stamp benefits from people in Ohio.
The truth is, we have no idea how much fraud there is. The GAO estimate is more of a guesstimate than a reliable figure, and the top number on its range is probably too low, given the lackadaisical efforts states put into fighting fraud. In New Mexico, for example, a state with the highest share of people on food stamps, a legislative report found that the state followed up only 3% of the tips it received about fraud.
But even if the GAO is right, the amount of fraud rivals the output of several major U.S. industries, as a new paper from the Advancing American Freedom Foundation shows in an eye-opening chart.
Given that more than $4 trillion of the federal government’s $7.4 trillion budget is in the form of transfer payments, the scale of fraud shouldn’t be surprising.
What is surprising is how determined Democrats are to keep the fraud going.
When evidence of widespread fraud emerged in California and Minnesota, for example, the governors of both states attacked the Trump administration for pointing it out, while pretending that they are dealing with the issue.
When Trump moved to deny Medicaid funds to states rife with fraud, “Democrats slammed the crusade as a smokescreen for … Trump’s war against blue states, and an attempt to divert attention from GOP cuts to healthcare programs.”
When Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins asked states to turn over food stamp enrollment data and offered to partner with them to root out fraud, 21 Democrat-controlled states refused to do so on spurious privacy grounds.
When Republicans in New Mexico pointed out that the Democrat-controlled state “rarely verifies, seldom audits, and barely investigates fraud” in its food stamp program, Democrats responded that fighting fraud threatened to “restrict eligibility.”
And, as we noted back in December, Democrats attacked DOGE — which was a modest attempt to find waste, fraud, and abuse in federal agencies — with such ferocity that it sparked violent protests.
The problem is that, even without opposition from Democrats, the government’s anti-fraud efforts are like bailing out a sinking ship with a spoon. There’s too much money available to fraudsters. There are way too many holes in the programs that make them easy to rip off. And catching the thieves takes time and effort.
Rachel Greszler, who authored the Advancing American Freedom report, says that Congress has the opportunity this year to seal the gaps by including several provisions in a new reconciliation bill.
A comprehensive package built around full benefit reporting, eligibility verification, accurate measurement, mandatory cooperation, and skin-in-the-game accountability would help protect taxpayers, preserve benefits for those truly in need, and reduce the hundreds of billions of dollars currently lost to waste, fraud, and abuse each year.
The only people who could be opposed to these commonsense reforms are the criminals and their patrons in the Democratic Party.
— Written by the I&I Editorial Board
See also:
- For Today’s Democrats, Fraud Is A Feature, Not A Bug
- Just How Easy Is It To Rip Off The Federal Gov’t?
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There is lots of fraud in the private sector too. For example, fraud targeting private health insurance is much bigger than Medicare fraud. To claim that anyone is happy about it is a completely unfounded smear. It’s also absurd to talk about Doge as a serious effort to control it. Must I go into the facts and figures around this?
Yes, you really should go into facts and figures. Private insurance companies, I would think, aggressively pursue fraud simply because it is good business. However, the elected officials in the fraud states do not. And they probably do not because they personally benefit from the fraud and I for one am tired of my money being stolen from me.
Frauds and waste in the private sector are self-limiting. Too much fraud, not enough profit and the company go bankrupt. The Gov’t is way different… Need more money since waste & fraudulent claims have siphoned too much away … Raise taxes.
Govt fraud is like the scam telephone calls. It costs nothing to make calls/ claims but have big payouts. Until there’s a cost to the calls/claims fraud will continue. Only the taxpayers get the shaft.
Those “fraudsters” should be called for that they are: Thieves and armed robbers (since it is the government that forces us to pay the taxes which support the “fraudsters” way of life).
What is doubling depressing is that many of those “fraudsters” came to America with the purpose of committing the armed robbery of us taxpayers.
Congress should pass a law that applies to all money given away by the Federal Government: viz If you are not a citizen of this country stealing money from it is punishable by death.
Yes, this does sound like revenge, but it is (in my opinion) just and deserving punishment- and a good incentive for illegal immigrants not to invade our shores.
These entitlements that are defrauded and robbed from us are nothing but an extra key to the back door-a key which America gives away too freely.
Who’s happy about it? Let me guess: Donald Trump.
Wow, your TDS is on overdrive. You do realize that it was Trump who put together DOGE and JD Vance onto the waste, fraud and abuse of our taxdollars? It’s amazing that the left who LOVE fraud, waste and abuse are the only one’s defending it, hiding it and certainly not prosecuting the fraud because they set up the fraud; taught it to their thieving supporters and still want the spigot open. That’s why they whined about ending USAID, etc. Democrats would NEVER investigate fraud, waste and abuse because it always would expose them. Those behind it all, need to be going to prison.
What’s even more infuriating is that blue states have the highest number of useless government offices and political sinecures than just about any place. In Mass., they have 218 state organizations (see link below). That doesn’t include the Executive and Legislative branches. You can even sort the list by “topic”, so if you want to see how many agencies are devoted to “transportation”, you can. https://www.mass.gov/collections/massachusetts-state-organization-directory
What do these 218 orgs do? Regs, rules, fees, and services. These agencies are fat, bloated, riddled with fraud, and many are doing duplicate work. It’s a great job if you can get it, which is unlikely unless you know someone high-up in the state govt. It’s that corrupt.
Imagine if these state orgs had one motto: “the voter always comes first”. Oh, the horror! Instead, the motto seems to be “how can we screw the voter and maintain our power”. When you find out that taxpayers are paying the tuition for illegals in the state (like in other states), the sound you hear are your teeth grinding. Same with MassHealth, fuel assistance, SNAP, etc..
When the AG’s office announced they arrested roughly 11 people for SNAP fraud, my first thought was, that’s it? Only 11? Are you kidding me? When the corruption runs this deep, you get a press conference “show” touting these dreary numbers.
Under every rock is a taxpayer dollar being frittered away. And the voters keep pulling the lever for “blue”.
End all the fraud-ridden programs. All of them.
Democrat pols protect fraud because is their main source of funding.
Which make them ALL criminals.