Via The Daily Caller: Biden-Harris Admin On Track To Oversee Massive $1 Trillion In Improper Payments, Watchdog Group Finds
The federal government spends hundreds of billions of dollars on improper payments every year, all at the expense of the American taxpayer. Last year, the federal government sent a whopping $236 billion to individuals or entities that, according to the Government Accountability Office, were ineligible to receive such payments. This brings cumulative improper payment estimates since reporting began in 2003 to $2.7 trillion.
Yesterday, Robert Schmad published a piece in The Daily Caller highlighting the Biden-Harris Administration’s role in adding nearly $1 trillion in improper payments to the $35 trillion national debt. The House Budget Committee is leading the charge on how to improve government efficiency and ensure the proper stewardship of taxpayer dollars.
Word on the Street:
Robert Schmad, Via The Daily Caller:
- “If current trends persist, the Biden-Harris administration will have made over $1 trillion in improper payments by the time President Joe Biden leaves office, according to a report released by the watchdog organization Open The Books on Thursday.”
- “An improper payment is a disbursement “made by the government to the wrong person, in the wrong amount or for the wrong reason,” per federal guidelines. The Biden-Harris administration, between 2021 and 2023, oversaw $801.4 billion in such payments after adjusting for inflation, according to the report.”
- “The amount of improper payments made by the administration in 2024 won’t be disclosed until after November’s election. Biden’s administration, however, has made well over $200 billion in erroneous payments each year since it has been in power, according to Open The Books.”
- “The Biden-Harris administration will cross the $1 trillion threshold “barring something unprecedented,” according to the watchdog.”
- “’President Biden and his successors must take more action to address the proliferation of improper payments, beyond mere rhetoric,” Open The Books director of communications Christopher Neefus told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “The sheer magnitude of misspent taxpayer dollars is tough to comprehend. Put into perspective, the most recent Pentagon funding bill cost $883 billion; that means the Biden administration will have misspent more than it takes to fund our national defense for a whole year.’”
- “High levels of waste are nothing new for the federal government, however, the Biden-Harris administration has taken it to the next level. Former President Donald Trump’s administration, for instance, disclosed $814 billion in inflation-adjusted improper payments during his four years in office, slightly over what the Biden-Harris administration erroneously disbursed in just three years.”
- “The plurality of the Biden-Harris administration’s erroneous disbursements in 2023 came from the Medicaid and Medicare systems, which dolled out $101.5 billion in improper payments that year, according to the report. Ongoing COVID-19 programs paid out tens of billions in improper payments as well.”
- “LexisNexis Risk Management estimates that there has been $1 trillion in COVID-19 aid fraud, The National Desk reported. Additionally, the Office of Personnel Management made hundreds of millions of dollars in benefit payments to dead people and prisoners, according to Open The Books. The Internal Revenue Service, meanwhile, incorrectly awarded $25 billion worth of tax credits.”
- “Money incorrectly paid out by the government isn’t always lost forever, though much of it is. Of the $235.7 billion the Biden-Harris administration erroneously spent in 2023, it managed to recover about $51 billion, according to the report.”
- “Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are aware of the massive amounts of waste and are seeking to rectify it. A bipartisan group of legislators in the House are pushing the Improper Payments Transparency Act, a bill introduced in May that would require the president’s budget request to identify common payment errors and formulate ways to address them.”
- “Government waste is contributing to the United States’ increasing national debt, which surpassed $35 trillion for the first time in July. Biden has bragged about cutting the deficit, however, a June Congressional Budget Office report found that his foreign aid and student loan policies were actually increasing America’s budgetary shortfall."
The Bottom Line:
The House Budget Committee is committed to improving congressional oversight of federal spending to detect and prevent improper payments and fraud.
Just this past spring, H.R. 8342, the Improper Payments Transparency Act, and H.R. 8343, the Enhancing Improper Payment Accountability Act, were reported favorably to the House as a result of the Budget Committee’s extensive work to reduce government-wide waste, fraud, and abuse.
Chairman Arrington and the House Budget Committee are leading the charge to combat improper payments in federal spending while simultaneously improving the nation’s budgetary outlook.
As Chairman Arrington has said, every dollar lost to improper payments and fraud represents a theft from the American people.
