Tag Archives: Government Accountability Office (GAO)

Eliminating Fraud In Government

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On January 5th, Issues & Insights posted an article with a suggestion for ending government fraud.

The article notes:

Some are estimating that more than half of federal income tax revenues are devoured by fraud. This should not come as a shock. A massive government that funds everything from small businesses to health care to child care to housing is a rich target for thieves. Sharply reducing its size would limit the opportunities to steal from taxpayers.

Bandits have been defrauding of the U.S. government on such a colossal scale that even the legacy media has had to cover it, at least somewhat. The Minnesota Somalis looting the public fisc blew the lid so high that now smart folks are finding institutionalized fraud far, wide, high and low.

As noted in a March executive order, “the Government Accountability Office estimates that the federal government loses between $233 and $521 billion annually to fraud.” That higher number might be in reality a low-end estimate, because the money flows from Washington from a number of orifices outside the Treasury Department, and an accurate tracking is simply not possible.

We say this because in fiscal 2024, non-Treasury disbursing offices “were estimated to be responsible for 181 million payments totaling over $1.5 trillion,” says the White House, roughly 22% of the entirety of federal dollars disbursed. Combine this fact with the fraud that is being uncovered and it’s obvious we’ve reached crisis levels.

The article concludes:

The only logical solution is to limit the possibilities by thoroughly downsizing the beast, which has grown well beyond the point to which its size has nurtured and sustained the “professionalized the pathways of corruption” and “is doing many more things than can be done with tolerable honesty.”

We are realists and understand that shrinking Washington is about as easy as threading a needle with a rope.

But Donald Trump was elected to decrease the length, width, and depth of the federal government, and while his efforts after eight years will be modest at best, Americans do have the ballot box to elect presidential and congressional candidates who will continue what he started. Maybe the Minnesota scandal is a watershed moment that will anger voters enough for them to understand what they have to do.

Shrinking government was at the root of the founding of the Tea Party. Unfortunately, some of the people involved in that movement have either aged out and become complacent. It is time for everyone to get involved in putting pressure on the government to downsize and cut spending.

One Problem With ObamaCare

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On Monday, The Federalist posted an article about the problem of fraud in the ObamaCare subsidies.

The article reports:

In recent months, these pages have recounted myriad reports of fraud in Medicaid and on the Obamacare Exchanges. The Congressional Budget Office and others have noted millions of potentially erroneous or fraudulent enrollees, who are receiving tens of billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded subsidies.

On Wednesday, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) added to the reports pouring in. Its preliminary analysis raised additional questions about fraud relating to Exchange subsidies, providing yet another reason for Congress not to extend the enhanced Covid-era subsidy regime that expires at the end of the month. 

…During the last plan year, GAO noted that “we either were not requested to provide the federal Marketplace [i.e., Exchange] with documentation or generally did not provide what was requested, yet our four fictitious applicants received subsidized coverage for November and December 2024.” In one example, the federal Exchange sent a letter that “confirmed the applicant’s income based on documentation we submitted,” even though GAO had not sent any such documentation.

This year, GAO said the Exchange “initially approved coverage for 19 of our 20 fictitious applicants,” with the only exception being “when the broker we were working with stopped responding to us.” In another case, the Exchange cut off coverage after the fictitious enrollee did not provide citizenship documentation. But in total, nine months into the plan year in September, “coverage for 18 [of 20] fictitious enrollees remained active,” totaling over $10,000 per month in taxpayer subsidies paid to insurers on behalf of nonexistent enrollees.

One example of fraud:

In 2023, a total of 58,000 Social Security numbers received subsidies yet also matched Social Security Administration death data. These instances included more than 7,000 numbers “where the reported date of death occurred prior to enrollment” in the Exchange, and more than 19,000 numbers where “matches had different names and dates of birth” between the Exchange database and the Social Security Administration database, a potential sign of “synthetic identity fraud.”

The article concludes:

Regardless, lawmakers should not spend another $350 billion (plus interest) throwing good taxpayer money after bad, even as one government report after another shows Exchange-related fraud remains out of control. After incurring more than $38 trillion in debt, Washington should finally realize it has run out of other people’s money to spend on such profligacy.

It is past time to make the subsidies go away and find a better way to do healthcare.