Posted on Feb 14, 2025
Trump’s Mission: Tackling Trillions in Government Waste | Pizza Time
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In a shocking revelation that has surprisingly not dominated the headlines, Brian Glenn, White House reporter for Real America’s Voice, raised serious concerns about government malfeasance during a briefing with White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. With President Trump delivering on promises to tackle government waste, Glenn inquired about the enormous sum of $2.7 trillion in improper payments, identified as having gone overseas via Medicare and Medicaid through fraudulent channels. These findings were initially brought to light by a diligent investigation conducted by a subcommittee chaired by Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, revealing the alarming scale of fraudulent government payments.
Trump’s Mission: Tackling Trillions in Government Waste | Pizza Time
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Posted 10 mo ago
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Lt Col Charlie Brown It's about time the government did something about wasteful spending. It might even be possible to balance the budget and start paying down the national debt if the democrats will let us.
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SGM Jeff Mccloud
That would require austerity measures at this point.
And you've seen the reaction to this in other countries.
If entitled Americans were asked to live with austerity measures, they would make JAN 6 look like a church picnic.
And you've seen the reaction to this in other countries.
If entitled Americans were asked to live with austerity measures, they would make JAN 6 look like a church picnic.
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Charlie, while improper payments, especially fraudulent ones, are a systemic issue that have been a long-standing issue for the government, here’s some clarification behind the $2.7T figure without the partisan rhetoric.
For those that are actually interested in seeing the data behind the statements from the 'left' and the 'right', look through the GAO reports on the consolidated financial statements of the U.S. Government* as well as the reports on the country's fiscal health*, because the government hasn't learned one simple lesson that everyone that is in a hole is told - first of all, stop digging.
Specific to the overpayments/fraud, many of the more vocal talking heads on the left are downplaying it (for no other reason than being ideologically opposed to the current administration) and the more vocal talking heads on the right are overplaying it for much the opposite reasons. When they do present information, like most things, the ideological talking heads will give you only the data and/or remove the context that best supports their view.
That $7.2T has been known for about a year now because it came from the U.S. Government Accountability Office's report on improper payments that was published last year (GAO report GAO-24-106927*, published March 26, 2024). Agree that hardly any note it appeared in the press or from the political talking heads (i.e., politicians) though in the past it was likely more from only a few having a ‘spending is out of control’ axe to grind instead of deliberately downplaying it.
A small clarification - the information that was attributed to FY24 (the “last year” comments) is incorrect and is for FY23.
An improper payment is one that should not have been made or were made in the incorrect amount. Just like comparing rectangles and squares, not all improper payments are fraudulent (but all fraudulent payments are improper), so just because a payment is improper does not mean it was fraudulent.
Specific to some of the claims that were made:
• (claim by reporter) $2.7 trillion in improper payments to Medicare, Medicaid, overseas, to people who should not have gotten it.
$2.7T was the figure that the GAO reported as an estimate of improper payments from 2003 through 2023. The total was for all improper payments in the federal government, not just “Medicare, Medicaid, overseas, to people who should not have gotten it”
• (claim) Last year $170B were wasted in payments to dead people, criminals, or those no longer eligible for government programs
Aside from it being from 2023 and not 2024, it is mostly true as there were more than $175B in estimated overpayments in 2023 according to the GAO report.
However, the claim that the money “was wasted” is out of context as this does not factor in recovered/returned/canceled funds and implies that the overpayments were due to negligence or some other failure at the agency. For example, using the datasets for 2023 from http://www.PaymentAccuracy.gov*, of the $175B in overpayments, $144.7B were out of the control of the agency – Still an overpayment and shouldn’t happen, but the agency wasn’t at fault for the overpayment.
Complete context about http://www.paymentaccuracy.gov - Government auditors have found that while it should have total visibility, currently it only has limited information because about half of the agencies are not compliant with the requirements of the Payment Integrity Information Act of 2019 with the most common cause of noncompliance are reporting programs that have an error rate above the established threshold (10%). Of note, DoD hasn't reported valid improper payments for 13 consecutive years and HUD hasn't reported valid information on their two large programs (~2/3rds of their total expenditures) for 7 consecutive years*.
• (claim) Last year $44B were made in payments that could be here or not, they just don’t know.
Not completely accurate. While some of that $44B might be payments “that could be here or not”, the $44B figure is for payments that could not be determined to be in error or not due to missing data.
• (claim) $746B went up in flames during the prior administration due to inaccurate record keeping or outright fraud.
If you change “went up in flames” to “improper payments”, then it is mostly accurate, otherwise it is wrong. $746B is the amount of improper payments during the first three years of the previous administration. To add context, the total improper payments for the FYs of the prior administrations were:
• Trump (2017-2020): $672.8B
• Obama (2009-2016): $964.5B
• Bush (2005-2008): $201.5B
Keep in mind that $746.2B for the prior administration covers the first three FYs and that the figures are unadjusted for inflation (for example, that $201.5B figure from Bush would be about $300B in today’s dollars).
• (claim) Medicare or Medicaid are the biggest contributors to improper payments
Completely true. Together, Medicare and Medicaid made up 43% ($101.4B) of the improper payments in FY23.
---------------------------------------------------------
* GAO report 25-107714 (The Nation's Fiscal Health: Strategy Needed as Debt Levels Accelerate) - https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-25-107714
* GAO report 25-107421 (Financial Audit: FY 2024 and FY 2023 Consolidated Financial Statements of the U.S. Government) - https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-25-107421
* http://www.PaymentAccuracy.gov - An official U.S. government website managed by Office of Management and Budget which contains, among other things, information about current and historical rates and amounts of estimated improper payments.
* Congressional Research Service report R48296 (Improper Payments: Ongoing Challenges and
Recent Legislative Proposals) - https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R48296
* GAO report on Improper Payments - https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-24-106927
For those that are actually interested in seeing the data behind the statements from the 'left' and the 'right', look through the GAO reports on the consolidated financial statements of the U.S. Government* as well as the reports on the country's fiscal health*, because the government hasn't learned one simple lesson that everyone that is in a hole is told - first of all, stop digging.
Specific to the overpayments/fraud, many of the more vocal talking heads on the left are downplaying it (for no other reason than being ideologically opposed to the current administration) and the more vocal talking heads on the right are overplaying it for much the opposite reasons. When they do present information, like most things, the ideological talking heads will give you only the data and/or remove the context that best supports their view.
That $7.2T has been known for about a year now because it came from the U.S. Government Accountability Office's report on improper payments that was published last year (GAO report GAO-24-106927*, published March 26, 2024). Agree that hardly any note it appeared in the press or from the political talking heads (i.e., politicians) though in the past it was likely more from only a few having a ‘spending is out of control’ axe to grind instead of deliberately downplaying it.
A small clarification - the information that was attributed to FY24 (the “last year” comments) is incorrect and is for FY23.
An improper payment is one that should not have been made or were made in the incorrect amount. Just like comparing rectangles and squares, not all improper payments are fraudulent (but all fraudulent payments are improper), so just because a payment is improper does not mean it was fraudulent.
Specific to some of the claims that were made:
• (claim by reporter) $2.7 trillion in improper payments to Medicare, Medicaid, overseas, to people who should not have gotten it.
$2.7T was the figure that the GAO reported as an estimate of improper payments from 2003 through 2023. The total was for all improper payments in the federal government, not just “Medicare, Medicaid, overseas, to people who should not have gotten it”
• (claim) Last year $170B were wasted in payments to dead people, criminals, or those no longer eligible for government programs
Aside from it being from 2023 and not 2024, it is mostly true as there were more than $175B in estimated overpayments in 2023 according to the GAO report.
However, the claim that the money “was wasted” is out of context as this does not factor in recovered/returned/canceled funds and implies that the overpayments were due to negligence or some other failure at the agency. For example, using the datasets for 2023 from http://www.PaymentAccuracy.gov*, of the $175B in overpayments, $144.7B were out of the control of the agency – Still an overpayment and shouldn’t happen, but the agency wasn’t at fault for the overpayment.
Complete context about http://www.paymentaccuracy.gov - Government auditors have found that while it should have total visibility, currently it only has limited information because about half of the agencies are not compliant with the requirements of the Payment Integrity Information Act of 2019 with the most common cause of noncompliance are reporting programs that have an error rate above the established threshold (10%). Of note, DoD hasn't reported valid improper payments for 13 consecutive years and HUD hasn't reported valid information on their two large programs (~2/3rds of their total expenditures) for 7 consecutive years*.
• (claim) Last year $44B were made in payments that could be here or not, they just don’t know.
Not completely accurate. While some of that $44B might be payments “that could be here or not”, the $44B figure is for payments that could not be determined to be in error or not due to missing data.
• (claim) $746B went up in flames during the prior administration due to inaccurate record keeping or outright fraud.
If you change “went up in flames” to “improper payments”, then it is mostly accurate, otherwise it is wrong. $746B is the amount of improper payments during the first three years of the previous administration. To add context, the total improper payments for the FYs of the prior administrations were:
• Trump (2017-2020): $672.8B
• Obama (2009-2016): $964.5B
• Bush (2005-2008): $201.5B
Keep in mind that $746.2B for the prior administration covers the first three FYs and that the figures are unadjusted for inflation (for example, that $201.5B figure from Bush would be about $300B in today’s dollars).
• (claim) Medicare or Medicaid are the biggest contributors to improper payments
Completely true. Together, Medicare and Medicaid made up 43% ($101.4B) of the improper payments in FY23.
---------------------------------------------------------
* GAO report 25-107714 (The Nation's Fiscal Health: Strategy Needed as Debt Levels Accelerate) - https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-25-107714
* GAO report 25-107421 (Financial Audit: FY 2024 and FY 2023 Consolidated Financial Statements of the U.S. Government) - https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-25-107421
* http://www.PaymentAccuracy.gov - An official U.S. government website managed by Office of Management and Budget which contains, among other things, information about current and historical rates and amounts of estimated improper payments.
* Congressional Research Service report R48296 (Improper Payments: Ongoing Challenges and
Recent Legislative Proposals) - https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R48296
* GAO report on Improper Payments - https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-24-106927
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