Justin Glawe points out today that DOGE has so far identified $0 worth of fraudulent spending:
A month into Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s much-hyped efforts to root out fraudulent and wasteful spending by government agencies, not a single instance of fraud or waste has been discovered.
....None of this has stopped Trump, Musk, congressional Republicans, and their allies in rightwing media from breathlessly highlighting millions of dollars’ worth of spending as examples of fraudulent government programs.
Nowhere in those lists of programs — like the USAID initiatives that White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has been lambasting for weeks, including the tortured and incorrect claim that US taxpayers funded “condoms for Gaza” — is anything that even Musk or Trump themselves have identified as “fraud.” Instead, the goalposts for DOGE have silently moved from finding fraud and corruption to simply pointing out and cancelling government programs that Trump and Republicans simply don’t support.
This is actually a little surprising. Fraud as a percentage of federal spending is pretty small, but it still amounts to a lot of dollars. If you wanted to highlight fraud, it wouldn't be hard to find. There are new real cases of Medicare and Medicaid fraud all the time, along with some lesser known programs, and it wouldn't take much to dig them up and flog them hard on Fox News. You only need two or three to make it look like we're drowning in fraud.
So why not do it? First off, Trump and Musk probably don't really care. Second, it does require actual work to root out real fraud. And third, even the MAGA crowd might be a little cynical these days about "waste fraud 'n abuse." Maybe it's just been overused.
where's the fraud? the same place the voter fraud is. in their fucking heads.
100% correct. And if they were so concerned about fraud then why did Trump fire the inspector generals? It's all just keep repeating lies and most of MAGA will believe it.
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Fourth, example of Medicare Fraud include entities like United Healthcare or Senator Rick Scott's former company. You know, big contributors and Republican-friendly corporations.
+100
I worked in the Medicaid Agency in NJ. The fraud that we uncovered was done by providers. Billing for services not provided was rampant until both CMS and the FBI started getting involved.
Adding to this, the Rick Scott example might be better described as a case of "attempted" fraud.
The fraudulent practices were discovered, and the company was fined $1.7 billion "in what was at the time the largest healthcare fraud settlement in U.S. history."
Adding to this, the Rick Scott example might be better described as a case of "attempted" fraud.
The fraudulent practices were discovered, and the company was fined $1.7 billion "in what was at the time the largest healthcare fraud settlement in U.S. history."
It's amazing how rarely this episode is ever mentioned, given Scott's current role in the Senate.
As Paul Krugman likes to point out, one of the best examples of waste in the federal government is Medicare Advantage, in which the taxpayers overpay insurance companies.
Trump and Musk don’t care about fraud. They’re breaking the government, and that’s clearly the intent.
"They’re breaking the government, and that’s clearly the intent."
I wish Americans could figure that out.
"Second, it does require actual work to root out real fraud."
This. There are no programs called "big fraud" in the federal government. You have to actually know what you're doing. Such skill exists in say, inspectors general.
And firing those who root out waste, fraud and abuse seems to be a feature of the recent purges.
"Second, it does require actual work to root out real fraud."
I think that's the biggest reason. Identifying fraud takes some understanding of how the program works, what the program requirements are, and how the payment system works. I'm sure every major program (like Medicare or Medicaid) already has a department that handles fraud. If you were serious about it, you would work with them to beef up fraud enforcement, or at least go looking for a few nice examples for PR purposes.
But they don't want to do that. Musk just wants his kiddies to get access to a db, run a few queries, and find "waste". That's why their numbers aren't valid, most of their cuts/holds are indiscriminate, and the few targeted cuts they've touted are usually based on misunderstandings.
In Musk's mind, he's going to look in the Social Security db and find a hundred million people receiving benefits for dead people. That's just stupid. But he's too lazy to be anything but stupid.
"I'm sure every major program (like Medicare or Medicaid) already has a department that handles fraud."
Yes. They were called variations of "Office of Inspector General," and they were all eliminated a month ago, probably because they would've opposed 19 year olds mislabeling "programs we don't like" as "fraud."
I suspect that they are also doing some version of "Hey Grok, is this fraud?" over each transaction in the entire database. Which would appear to be unsurprisingly unsuccessful.
The fraud was committed during the campaign to elect Trump.
For the Moron-Americans who voted to support this clown show, "fraud" has always meant "any spending I think might benefit people I hate." For example, support for lower-income or disadvantaged Americans, among whom non-Whites figure disproportionately: it benefits Those People, so it is presumptively Bad, for which "fraud" is an acceptable synonym.
And for the sociopaths who are running the clown show, that's enough to claim any spending THEY don't like is "fraud." For example, any programs or offices such as USAID or pretty much every Inspector General, who had the temerity to question spending that benefited Musk personally &/or that might implicate the Orange Guy.
It's a symbiosis of stupidity and sociopathy. Thanks again, Republicans!
yep.
see also: illegal; unconstitutional
+10
"Moron-Americans" "sociopaths" "stupidity"
Careful there, pilgrim! Bob Somerby is watching! He absolutely hates it when members of "The Blue Tribe" say anything to suggest Our Fellow Americans aren't as smart, or as good as Us Lefties.
I’m taking the James Camille approach. Instead of getting my panties in a knot, I’m just going to sit back and watch this shitshow collapse on it self.
This is really the way to go. Stay mum and the Republicans must keep escalating in an attempt to provoke a reaction (and thereby distract their constituencies from unkept promises). These escalations are already broadly unpopular--further escalations will be even more unpopular.
"...a little surprising"?
You pointed to the explanation yourself: The tired phrase "waste, fraud, and abuse" -- going back at least as far as the Grace Commission of 1982 -- has *alway* meant "any spending the [Republican] speaker doesn't like," and nothing more.
It's Monday. On Mondays, Kevin is reborn with little to no knowledge of Republican behavior in the past.
Well the big fraud is committed by rich and well connected Republican politicians and donors so there is that. Just one example, Florida Senator Rick Scott made billions by defrauding Medicare and Medicaid and got away scott free. And then got elected governor and senator. Cool, right? Why would Trump and Musk want to put a stop to that?
I think you are correct, the core reason is to discover scams so that Leon/donnie can get a share. That is all.
For what it's worth, Trump insisting at constantly staying at one of his golf resorts after another, dragging the entire entourage along plus adult children, and then overbilling his own Secret Service detail for staying on his own premises, forcing them to rent pricey golf carts and all the rest .... Well, isn't that the very definition of "waste"? and "fraud"? and most definitely "abuse"?
+1. Well it's not if its committed by Trump, a Republican or a fraudster who has a good connection with either of the first two.
This isn't the kind of fraud they're interested in.
These guys are convinced that the government is engage in massive illegal practices where they just take money and give it away to whoever the hell they want. That's not usually how it works; most fraud involves someone else defrauding the government. The government itself is not usually in on it, although they are sometimes. The Fat Leonard affair comes to mind, for example, that was out-and-out fraud. But for the most part, its people defrauding the government. The calls are not coming from inside the house.
It's worth noting that this has happened to Musk before. When he took control of Twitter he was absolutely convinced he'd find a vast left-wing conspiracy within it, silencing conservative voices and elevating liberal ones.
And when he got control of it it turned out that wasn't true; that in fact Twitter consistently worked the other way around, favoring conservatives rather than liberals.
Musk consistently refused to accept that reality and eventually tried to publish "The Twitter Files" as a smoking gun, which were deservedly laughed at.
You're overthinking it. Bbleh above has it right. "Fraud, waste and abuse" has meant "any spending I personally don't like" for conservatives for my entire lifetime (born 1977). The GOP is perfectly fine with actual known multimillion-dollar fraudsters like Rick Scott being in their ranks.
+1
pssst
they are not actually interested in finding fraud.
+1
This
I think reviving the "where's the beef?" campaign would be helpful/fun here. Most people don't know (aren't old enough to know) the actual reference, but know the phrase. Having it come from so long ago is icing on the cake.
Wingnut-to-English translation: "Waste fraud & abuse" == "money being spent on people who aren't rich white men"
The name ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ is fraudulent; not only have they not shown any evidence of fraud, but also no evidence of waste, abuse or inefficiency. All for the same reason, finding any of those requires serious investigation, study and understanding, and ‘DOGE’ is deeply unserious. It is theater, and cover for the cuts that Trump, Musk and the oligarchs really want, the regulatory agencies, inspectors general, prosecutors— anyone who could restrain abuses by the oligarchs’ businesses. Including the myriad ways that Musk will misuse the vast troves of data he has been harvesting.
+1
Sadly, in the US, theatre seems highly regarded.
I wish they'd go back to watching Shakespeare. I'd settle for them just watching Cats over and over, as long as I don't have to join them.
Of course there's fraud. The majority of it being committed by people like Rick Scott and we all know we can't have that type of fraud exposed.
The IRS uncovers quite a lot of fraud. Of course, that's NOT what the rich folk who are committing it are referring to when they speak of fraud in government.
good point, downsizing IRS pretty likely to lead to more fraud, not less
I mnea, government agencies are already reuqired to report on improper payments (both under and over payments). The original law was signed by Bush (the son). It was then replaced by a law signed by...wait for it...Trump!
The Federal Government evern has a website to track them. :
https://www.paymentaccuracy.gov/
So yeah, this has been subterfuge all along.
BTW, eliminating improper payments isn't always easy though it obviously deoends on the program. For example, in the School Lunch/Breakfast Programs, improper payments come about because of decisions made at the local school level (normally simple errors). The Feds can provide training and technical assitance. But I don't think anyone wants the Feds to go into schools across the country and actually adminsiter those programs at the local level.
"If you wanted to highlight fraud, it wouldn't be hard to find. (...) You only need two or three to make it look like we're drowning in fraud." That's precisely what they'll do if they get in real trouble.
You simply misunderstand what Elon means by "waste, fraud, and abuse." To his way of thinking, any government program that doesn't require a contract with one of his companies is, by definition a waste. If it pretends it doesn't need his AI, i has to be a fraud. And anything that doesn't make him and his sponsor richer is simply an abuse of power.
The point almost everybody's missing so far is that dogie's job here is to throw out a smokescreen of things they can *call* fraud. The label is what matters, not the truth of the accusation. (Remember, all trump wanted from Zelensky was to *say* there was going to be an investigation of Hunter, not that there actually was one.) The idea behind spewing this garbage is to snow people into accepting it when the convicted felon administration and henchcritters in Congress stop entire programs on these completely false premises.
Take Social Security. So Musk says close to 19 million people over 100 are zombies whose accounts supposedly (he insinuates) get payments even though they're almost surely dead. People who are on SS look at each other over diner coffee and say "gee, that's bad. I don't know anybody who's cheating like that, I don't know anybody else who knows anybody like that, everybody I know who gets it earned it, but boy there sure are a lot of cheats out there. Damn government can't keep anything straight."
Step 2 is massively slashing SS payments. People on SS then tell each other, or are told, "well they didn't want to do it but they had to, there was so much fraud and cheating going on, now of course nobody I knew did that but it was all those other people out there ruining it for all us good folks."
IOW lying on this huge scale is about convincing people who know very well that they aren't cheating, and that nobody they know or know of is cheating, of something else-- that there really might be huge cheating going on Out There Somewhere. And that this is why their own benefits will have to be eviscerated, and why SS taxes will continue to be collected but benefits won't be paid out to people who are now under 45, something like that. The confusion is the point.
Krugman always says the federal government is basically an insurance company with a big military, in terms of where the money is spent. If you want to shovel a huge tax cut to billionaire buddies and big business buddies, you go where the money is to finance it. And this is how a flim-flam artist would go after the money.
As it happens, we have at least two people at the tip of our pyramid who are flim-flam artists.
Too bad not focused on for-profit scams like Trump U.
"If you wanted to highlight fraud, it wouldn't be hard to find."
It is if you're stupid.