OPINION:
Records are measures of crowning achievement, and the top spot is praiseworthy — usually. But earning the title of financial-waste champion is worthy of only a Bronx cheer. It’s hard to find a nation more deserving of the dubious honor of premier abuser of taxpayer money than the United States.
Washington has sent checks for more than $3 trillion in improper payments during the past 20 years, according to a report published Tuesday by the watchdog organization OpenTheBooks. If it were stacked in paper-thin one-dollar bills, the $3 trillion erroneously spent over the past two decades would stretch three-quarters of the way to the moon.
The most glaring misfire of the federal money machine occurred in the widespread hysteria of the pandemic, wrote OpenTheBooks founder and CEO Adam Andrzejewski: “Last year, in 2022, improper and mistaken federal payments totaled $247 billion. That’s about $20.5 billion per month, or more than $675 million every, single day.”
Last year saw Washington spit out dollars like a broken ATM, but financial prudence hadn’t been exactly exemplary in earlier years. “The mistakes since 2004 run at an average of more than $150 billion per year, or more than $400 million paid incorrectly every day,” Mr. Andrzejewski wrote.
America’s wastrel ways have escalated over time, and the pandemic propelled them to new heights.
“The greatest grift in U.S. history” is how The Associated Press described the theft of COVID-19 relief funds in a separate Tuesday analysis. “Fraudsters potentially stole more than $280 billion in COVID-19 relief funding; another $123 billion was wasted or misspent,” the report said. “Combined, the loss represents 10% of the $4.2 trillion the U.S. government has so far disbursed in COVID relief aid.”
Americans waiting for an apology from officialdom for frittering away hard-earned tax dollars shouldn’t hold their breath. From the bureaucracy’s perspective, mistakes are rationalized as a forgivable — if sloppy — means of keeping the wolf from the citizen’s door.
For example, the U.S. government paid about $60 billion to unemployment insurance fraudsters during the pandemic owing to an insurance claim system designed more for speed than accuracy. “The presumption of continued eligibility after the initial eligibility is determined requires states to provide a claimant notice and the opportunity to be heard before it can stop payments to the individual,” explained Kevin Brown, deputy chief financial officer at the Department of Labor, in response to an inspector general audit of improper payments.
Government rules that presume — rather than require proof — that an individual is eligible for free money constitute tacit faith in public honesty. Sadly, that presumption is frequently misplaced. “Folks kind of fooled themselves into thinking that [filing a fraudulent claim] was a socially acceptable thing to do, even though it wasn’t legal,” Justice Department lawyer Dan Fruchter told the AP.
For too long, Uncle Sam has operated on the notion that his job is to give away stuff. With profligacy the rule rather than the exception in Washington, it’s no surprise that people have become accustomed to grabbing government gelt to which they are not entitled.
It is sad that many Americans no longer believe “there is no such thing as a free lunch.”
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