Treasury Secretary Bessent believes 10% of federal budget is fraud and theft.

I saw this news blurb running on the Real America's Voice news banner this morning so I decided to see what Google AI knows about this.....

From Google AI,

quote:

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U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has stated his belief that up to 10% of the total federal budget is lost annually to fraud and theft.

He made these comments in a recent interview, citing data from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to support the claim that hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars are being squandered each year.

Key Details

Claimed Amount: Bessent states that roughly 10% of government spending, an amount potentially ranging from $300 billion to over $500 billion annually, "disappears due to fraud".

Cited Source: He referenced a GAO analysis which found that between $233 billion and $521 billion was lost annually to fraud during fiscal years 2018 through 2022.

Improper Payments: The GAO also found that since fiscal year 2003, improper payments (which include errors and waste, in addition to fraud) have likely cost taxpayers a cumulative total of approximately $2.8 trillion.

Proposed Use of Recovered Funds: Bessent has linked the recovery of these funds to the Trump administration's priorities, suggesting that eliminating this waste could help finance a stronger U.S. military budget (President Trump has proposed a significant increase in defense spending) without incurring more debt.

Focus on State-Level Fraud: Bessent has designated Minnesota as "ground zero" for an intensive crackdown on fraud in federal benefits programs, which he described as a "national rollout" of investigations into other states.
Bessent is currently the 79th United States Secretary of the Treasury, having been confirmed by the Senate in January 2025.
$600B of annual fraud, roughly 10% of government spending ...
Jan 7, 2026 — The General Accounting Office, believes that there is somewhere between $300B- $600B of annual fraud, roughly 10% of go...

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I think Bessent is low with his estimate of 10% of the budget being fraud and theft, but let's use the 10% estimate.

A $7 trillion federal budget in 2025 equates to $700 billion in theft from US taxpayers.

And we've all been sitting on our hands for decades letting these SOBs steal our hard earned money while at the same time destroying the USD with their out of control deficit spending.



The only way out of this mess is a balanced budget amendment coupled with abolishing the current federal reserve monetary system and figuring out a more reasonable and fiscally responsible monetary system, put all the pressure on congress to be fiscally responsible with full audits of the money disbursed from the federal government every 2 years. Better yet, take all social programs away from the federal government and place that responsibility at the state level....that should stop $3-4 trillion in tax remittances to the federal government from US taxpayers.