15% corruption in govt giveaways and how to fix some of it

 

COVID19 spawned govt payments; Corruption stole much of it. People got scared with Covid19 and shut down all manner of things, then to compensate USA spent $2T to help people in addition to the money they already hand out.  When that much money is thrown out to the public, there is bound to be fraud.  Now we find out that SNAP (Food stamps) programs doubled (now at 15% of the spending) the fraudulent claims, TANF(welfare) did the same. Then came the COVID payments and we still don’t know how much went outside the country.  Federal govt estimates $281B was lost by the Feds in 2021 just due to overpayment of legitimate recipients.  How much went to the Prince in Nigeria? Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, which oversaw the outflow, says, “Typically Government doesn’t have much of an incentive to prevent fraud.” No kidding, Sherlock!  Add to this the constant 13% fraud in Medicaid and other procurements, and the time is ripe for a new administration to start tackling waste.  Here’s some solutions: Equip those EBT cards they use for SNAP for user security like banks with debit cards. No more “apply by internet”; must be in person or by authorized representative. Make contract vendors have insurance bonding for reimbursing recipients when their identity is stolen. If some outfit wants reimbursed for 1000 wheelchairs they claim they sold to Medicaid people, make they prove their identity, show expenses, and provide a list of recipients. If a bureaucrat authorizes a system that hands out over 5% of the money to fraudsters, give him a pink slip. I guess I’m a taxpayer and am ticked over being fleeced.

Don't get me started about the $6T that Biden spent mainly on green stuff.