Posted on 01/04/2025 6:45:42 AM PST by MtnClimber
The fiscal year 2024 data are in, and they show that the Biden administration has overseen a record $926 billion in improper and unknown federal payments since 2021.
That is 38 percent more than the Trump administration’s $673 billion total over four years, and it’s only 4 percent less than the Obama administration’s $962 billion total over eight years. Moreover, all of these figures are underestimates as they only account for about 68 programs out of the more than 2,000 that the federal government operates. The Biden administration’s $926 billion total translates to more than $7,000 for every household in America. That’s about seven months’ worth of groceries for a family of four, or three mortgage payments for the average homeowner.
Despite the high price tag of improper payments — which are payments made to the wrong people or in the wrong amount — there’s been little attention and zero consequences for government agencies that regularly squander taxpayers’ dollars. Instead of penalties, agencies with increasing improper payments are rewarded with bigger budgets. More than a quarter of the programs that track improper payments reported improper payment rates of 10 percent or higher in 2024. Major refundable tax credits such as the earned income tax credit, the American opportunity tax credit, and the refundable portion of Obamacare’s premium tax credit all exceeded a 27 percent improper payment rate.
Most improper payments consistently flow through the federal government’s health insurance programs. Last year, Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program sent out $87 billion in improper payments — enough to pay for the health insurance premiums of 9.7 million individuals or 3.4 million families.
Almost no household could afford to consistently spend a significant portion of its budget on wrong payments. So how and why is this commonplace in the federal government?
Most improper payments are the result of agencies’ failure to confirm that someone is who he says he is and that he is eligible for the payments he receives. Sometimes, improper payments are outside of agencies’ control. For example, it can be hard to verify whether someone who claims the child tax credit, the earned income tax credit, and other child-dependent benefits such as food stamps actually had that child living with him for at least half of the year. Even then, there are things agencies could do — such as refusing to process tax returns with child-related benefits until after April 15 so that the IRS can verify that the same child isn’t claimed on more than one return, or cross-reference the addresses of children who receive school lunch benefits with the addresses of the individuals claiming them as dependents.
Much of the time, however, agencies fail to use data that are available to them, ignore recommendations from their inspectors general, and outright defy legal requirements for fraud protection.
Consider the Small Business Administration’s Restaurant Revitalization Fund, which issued 30.3 percent of all its payments, or $8.7 billion, improperly. According to the SBA inspector general’s report, most of this was due to the SBA’s simply ignoring planned and legally required protocols. For example, the agency awarded $552 million to 901 applicants that had active holds on a file the SBA was supposed to check. And it issued $7.9 billion in awards to about 63,000 applicants despite the fact that only 24 percent of those applicants had cleared the IRS validation test.
While Congress’s attempts to crack down on improper payments have been all bark and no bite, the same can’t be said of Elon Musk or Vivek Ramaswamy, who have been tasked with running a new, nongovernmental Department of Government Efficiency.
In a November 19 post on X, Ramaswamy called out the SBA’s current leadership for rejecting its inspector general’s recommendation to stop sending payments to people who are on the Treasury’s Do Not Pay list and concluded, “This kind of flagrant waste needs to end. Time for @DOGE.” Cracking down on improper payments provides an opportunity for the DOGE to save up to $1 trillion over ten years even before it shrinks or eliminates any government programs. The DOGE will need Congress’s help, however, to ensure lasting changes.
And yet improper payments are only a symptom of the disease of excessive government spending. The federal government spent $3.8 trillion on transfer payments last year. That’s $29,000 per household. Since 2005, transfer payments and improper payments have grown twice as fast as the economy. The DOGE’s efforts to improve government efficiency must therefore include both reducing improper payments and getting the federal government out of things it has no business doing.
RACHEL GRESZLER is a senior research fellow at the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at the Heritage Foundation.
DOGE has a lot to tackle.
The Obama/Biden administration has been a disaster.
“”DOGE has a lot to tackle.””
Where to start? So many agencies to choose from.
The money situation in this country could be very, very different. Government sucks it all up, “loses it” and then spends it in very bad ways. With any luck, government is about to get a heck of a lot more honest and efficient.
WHEN do we get to see this? In other words a Financial Statement - P&L - of what the feds do to us. I don’t recall ever seeing one.
Financial Report of the United States Government
The Financial Report of the United States Government (Financial Report) provides the President, Congress, and the American people with a comprehensive view of the federal government’s finances, i.e., its financial position and condition, revenues and costs, assets and liabilities, and other obligations and commitments. The Financial Report also discusses important financial issues and significant conditions that may affect future operations, including the need to achieve fiscal sustainability over the medium and long term.
The Department of the Treasury, in coordination with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), prepares the Financial Report, which includes the financial statements for the U.S. Government. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is required to audit these statements. The Financial Report is compiled primarily from individual federal agencies’ audited financial statements and related information included in the agencies’ financial reports. Inspectors General are generally responsible for annually auditing the financial statements for their respective agencies. The agency and governmentwide financial statements are generally required to be prepared in conformity with U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) as promulgated by the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB).
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While Congress’s attempts to crack down on improper payments have been all bark and no bite.
Another a dog and pony show in action.
“”Inspectors General are generally responsible for annually auditing the financial statements for their respective agencies.””
Excerpt from my prior post - this is what’s wrong - well, ONE of the many things that are wrong. ANNUAL AUDIT by IG’s...They have always been a day late and a dollar short - Always closing the barn door after the horse has been stolen. How about AUDIT as you go? Catch it as it’s happening?
Kind of like having an employee stealing from a business - you know it, watch it for 12 months, let it continue and then FIRE THEM or prosecute them for theft! That’s all the IG’s do in any of the agencies.
I say IG’s are a total waste of our money!!!! I have said often - USELESS!
Under Zero, I happened to notice that the required refugee reports to Congress stopped cold.. We. Know why now, don't we.
“”let it continue and then FIRE THEM or prosecute them for theft!””
Forgot - OR WRITE A REPORT ABOUT IT....One thing we do know - IG’s do know how to write reports!
Eenie meenie miney mo.
The biggie is the unknown ones. Bet Jill has lined up a bunch for the Biden Mob to continue getting $$$$ funneled into her purse.
Sorry - had to look up SAR....why we love the internet. Where do you find the refugee reports - WH website or ???
I have no clue who would or could track Biden offshore accounts...Perhaps it will be done after 1/20/25..will have the right guys on the job!!!
improper payments — which are payments made to the wrong people or in the wrong amount
The ORR
They’re now backfilled I see. Made up numbers.
I came across the lack thereof in, oh, 2010 or so.
https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/documents/orr/orr-arc-fy2021.pdf
“”then they bankrupt seniors when they’re old and need medical care””
Can you explain what you mean by that? WHO bankrupts seniors?
I know the feds pay insurance companies who offer Medicare Advantage $$$ per insured but where do you get the $100,000 from? I’ve heard/read figures but nothing like that.
At some point, without endless regime change wars, “improper payments”, “proper payments” (ridiculous spending), bailouts, etc...wouldn’t we experience significant deflation?
If we are only experiencing 3%-8% inflation WITH all of that ridiculous spending, imagine how much less it would be if we ran a tight fiscal ship.
Maybe the reason the Republican are so quick to vote for Continuing Resolutions, war funding, bailouts, etc... is because they fear the short term implications of deflation.
“improper payments”. Maybe that’s why I didn’t get paid, I was unwilling to do the improper or unusual.
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