in the nearly four decades between Reagan’s junkyard dogs and the period covered by the 2024 GAO report, Washington officials really didn’t know how many federal tax dollars were actually lost every year. Even with the new estimate, officials conceded that gaps in available data across the government produced “challenges in producing fraud estimates, such as limited available fraud-related data and use of varying terms and definitions of fraud for recording data. These data gaps and variability result in information that cannot be readily compared or consolidated to determine the extent of fraud across the federal government.”
It’s now 2026, and they still don’t know for sure, but one thing has become all but certain: Far more of the federal government’s $7 trillion in annual spending than previously estimated is lost every year to professional criminal fraudsters, undeserving and even dead benefit recipients, over-priced procurement contracts, unjustified reimbursements, and numerous other ways.
That realization is driven by the results of the unprecedented efforts starting in January 2025 of President Donald Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance, House Committee on Oversight and Government Affairs Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, and others on Capitol Hill to go after waste, fraud, and abuse on a scale never before attempted and with weapons too long ignored.
Veteran federal spending analyst Cato Institute Director of Budget and Entitlement Policy Romina Boccia summarizes the state of play.
A system that enables the theft of billions would never be used for the theft of elections.
More: Stephen Miller says he believes that the fraud and waste being uncovered by the Anti-Fraud Taskforce is so widespread, that dealing with it could balance the budget
Update: Russ Vought at OMB has just overhauled $1 TRILLION in federal grants by adding: Strict E-Verify requirements, English-language rules, and political appointee oversight to ensure taxpayer dollars go to American citizens first.
