"The pledge to balance the budget by eliminating fraud is an old one. Clinton, Reagan, Obama and Biden all said they would wring out fraud and they never got close to the pot of gold at the end of that rainbow. Moreover, the idea that we could remotely come close to balancing the budget by eliminating fraud is ludicrous."
"The deficit at the end of fiscal 2025 was $1.8 trillion. The Government Accountability Office estimates that the amount of fraud in the federal government stands between $233 billion and $521 billion. Even at the best, eliminating every possible dollar of fraud would only cut the deficit by a little more than 25%."
"One is that no one really knows how much fraud there is. Money can leak like water from an old water main-you know how much you're putting in, you have a fair idea about what's coming out and you can't always tell where the leaks are along the way."
President Trump announced a war on fraud led by Vice President Vance, claiming it could balance the budget overnight. However, this pledge repeats unfulfilled promises from Clinton, Reagan, Obama, and Biden. The federal deficit for fiscal 2025 reached $1.8 trillion, while the Government Accountability Office estimates federal fraud between $233 billion and $521 billion. Even eliminating all fraud would only reduce the deficit by approximately 25%. The memo to Vice President Vance acknowledges that previous administrations' anti-waste campaigns generated headlines but disappointing results. Two critical challenges exist: determining actual fraud amounts remains difficult, and distinguishing between poorly managed programs and criminally fraudulent ones is complex.
Read at Nextgov.com
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