WASHINGTON — Hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars are being squandered on waste, fraud, and abuse each year, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent shockingly claimed in a recent interview.
Somewhere between 5-10% of the total federal budget gets gobbled up by wrongdoers each year, Bessent said, citing data from the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
“If we can narrow that number, President Trump asked for a $500 billion increase in the defense budget to fortify the 10 to 20 years of neglect,” Bessent told journalist Christopher Rufo in a recent interview.
“If we need to flex up our military budget, if we can get rid of this waste, fraud, and abuse, we can finance a safer, sounder US with that, without taking on more debt. Sounds like a pretty good outcome to me.”
A GAO analysis found that between $233 billion and $521 billion was lost annually due to fraud during fiscal years 2018 through 2022.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is hoping to slash Uncle Sam’s fraudulent payments. REUTERS
President Trump has sought a 50% increase in military spending to prepare the US for turbulent geopolitical times. REUTERSSince fiscal year 2003, improper payments — separate from fraud — have likely cost taxpayers about $2.8 trillion, the GAO also found.
Federal spending has jumped dramatically in the time since the GAO study was conducted, meaning fraudulent expenditures could’ve shot up in the time since as well.
Washington spent about $7.01 trillion in fiscal year 2025 and ran a deficit of about $1.8 trillion. Interest payments on the $38 trillion national debt totaled about $970 billion, more than what the US spends on its military.
Last week, Trump declared that he would like Congress to prepare a $1.5 trillion military budget due to “troubled and dangerous times” on the global stage.
Trump had tapped tech tycoon Elon Musk to helm the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which was tasked with tackling wasteful government spending.
Musk departed that role this past spring, and DOGE has since wound down.
GOP lawmakers passed a series of spending cuts last year, but also enacted tax cuts. REUTERSConcerns about government spending have grown in recent weeks amid revelations about massive fraud roiling Minnesota’s welfare system, with one federal prosecutor estimating $9 billion had been stolen since 2018.
Some 98 people have been indicted since 2022 over the growing Minnesota fraud scandal, where groups set up nonprofits that billed the state for social services such as day care, food aid and more, but neglected to actually provide those services.
The scandal entailed the largest known COVID-19 era relief fraud, Feeding Our Futures, a since-defunct nonprofit that bilked taxpayers of over $250 million.
Last week, Vice President JD Vance announced that the Justice Department is establishing a new assistant attorney general to spearhead a fraud probe into Minnesota and other states across the country.
“It is going to be a nationwide effort because unfortunately, the American people have been defrauded in a very nationwide way,” Vance said at the time.
Beyond fraudulent government spending, the Internal Revenue Service estimates that it has failed to collect hundreds of billions of dollars worth of taxes owed.
The IRS most recently projected that the so-called “tax gap” was about $606 billion as of fiscal year 2022.
