Posted on 08/20/2026 8:22:23 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Instead of drawing out the big mystery over how much of your money Washington wastes on improper payments, I'll just tell you right up front: In the 20 years between 2003 and 2023, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimates the total money blown on payments made in error, or in the wrong amount, or with no documentation (!!!) is $2.7 TRILLION.
That's a two followed by a seven followed by 11 zeroes. That's almost double what we spent last year on Medicare/Medicaid combined, or on Social Security. It's triple last year's defense budget. It's almost triple the unconscionable amount we spent last year just servicing Washington's outstanding debt.
It is almost exactly the same amount Washington collected last year in personal income taxes. And if that doesn't make your blood boil, you must be reading this inside a walk-in freezer, chewing on a mouthful of Lopressor.
The incomprehensible numbers come from a Cicero Institute report earlier this year titled "Rebuilding Public Trust by Ensuring Accountability in Government Spending."
Dream on, right?
Here's this week's item from Cicero that drew my attention to the astonishing sum:
$2.7 TRILLION in improper payments has been reported by executive agencies since 2003 — per GAO, payments made in error, in the wrong amount, or without proper documentation.
If 'improper payments' were a country, it would be the 8th largest economy in the world — larger than the 2024 GDP of Italy, Canada, or Russia (IMF)....— Cicero Institute (@InstituteCicero) August 18, 2026
Maybe this is where you shrug and say, "Well, things could be worse."
And then that's when I'd say, "Oh, they are."
You saw that one coming, didn't you?
So let's take a close look at just how much worse,
(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
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And oh yeah, And that figure is just what gets reported. GAO estimates the government loses between $233 and $521 BILLION every year to fraud alone — a figure Treasury Secretary Bessent has cited as up to 10% of the entire federal budget.
Congress has passed five separate laws targeting the problem since 2002 — and improper payments still went from $35 billion to $236 billion a year.
The fix: track every dollar in public, fund outcomes, and judge auditors on money recovered — not reports filed.
CLAW IT BACK
The American taxpayer basically funds the antics of the entire world. Why?
We can safely assume the number is at least 10 times that. Include “unfunded liability” fund and it is probably 50 times that owed.
fits in here as well as anywhere, it’s quoted in Peter McCullough’s sustack in context of Fauci/Moreno
When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.
-Frédéric Bastiat’s The Law, 1850.
The $$$$ flowed to exactly where the Hussein/Biden/Harris Crime Syndicate desired.
Time to bring back the gallows.
I know that in a small town near me the village accountant approved a cost of over $1,000.00 to replace a single wheel bearing on a police car. This was some 20 years ago.
... Question: What is the difference between a Billion dollars and a Trillion Dollars ??? ..... Answer: Oh .... About a Trillion Dollars ....
.
When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.
-Frédéric Bastiat’s The Law, 1850.
True in every state in America. Lack of Christian ethics.
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