For decades, government supervision experts and budget surveillance try to get someone – to listen to them in the need to exploit waste, fraud and abuse in federal spending, frustrating that Washington went to their calls for a system change.
Many were cautiously optimistic when President Donald Trump strengthened billionaires Elon Musk to bring improper consumption under control and modernize unpleasant outdated federal payment systems.
But in interviews with half a dozen of these guards, most said that she did not keep in mind.
Breakneck was remodeled by the Federal Mosus Department for the Efficiency of Government or Doga, it was unnecessarily politicizing the issue necessary to bring real-spending to eradicate them, said irregular spending, five experts for the benefits said .
“Elon Musk says we have shocking amounts of fraud and you are right, we don’t really care,” Senior Staff Prevention Expert, for a former member of the Independent Office of the Congress Responsibility for George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
“But examples that bring are silly, made red meat, made that people are amazed and horrified and shocked,” Miller continued, indicates some diversity, capital and inclusive artistic projects on a white house List of complaints US Agency for International Development Programs, some of which did not actually fund the agency. “It makes the government to sound like a mockery.”
Trump is during a Gusk dit this weekSaying without specificity that the group revealed “billions and billions of dollars in waste, fraud and abuse.” The White House did not respond to the comment request.
Miller and other supervision experts said that Musk emphasized some legitimate, long-lasting problems that the Federal Government failed to address both sides. Among them are should improve Government “Don’t pay“A checking system whether people are deceased or banned to receive federal payments because they are Blocked foreign nationals from countries under US sanctions, for example.
Publishing on xMusk noticed the need for the list of insecure persons “No Paying” do not be updated far more often, among other changes in the supervision he suggested. “There are crazy things, like, just the province of social security testing and we have people who are about 150 years old,” Musk told During the press.
Experts also pointed out on a stunning extent of the problem. Last year, the Government’s Responsibility Office said that in 2023. The Federal Government estimated 236 billion dollars of irregular payments, which includes those who were larger and less than they were to be.
“There are absolute waste, fraud and abuse, and there are improper payments, and there are inefficiency,” said Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, director of government affairs on the project of government supervision. “And they just come up with all kinds of reasons that basically descend to” too hard and we don’t want to do it. “”
On a House surveillance hearing This week Hedtler-Gaudette and other experts have proposed improvement Tracking and reporting requirements For federal spending and strengthening Verification of identity and assetsAmong other things, the mention of mass fraud in bone bone programs relief as evidence of pressure changes.
Surveillance experts say that there is an important difference between potential criminal activities such as fraud and separate, inherently subjective waste categories – a difference that often caught in the assessment of its efforts to reduce costs.
And musk and trump claimed that the dog was down Fraud and corruption Within the Federal Agency without providing certain evidence. Instead, the Official Website Doge It has largely emphasized the elimination of “wasteful contracts” related to dei, climate change, counseling and media.
“Waste is in the eye of the beholder – it is a political issue,” Bob Westbrooks said, former General Inspector for the Federal Government during Obama and the first Trump Administration. “We understand the difference between waste and fraud, I mean, in an irresponsible and reckless path. This causes the agencies to close. This causes people to lose their jobs.”
The Trump Administration quoted the problem of a widespread government “Waste, scams and abuse” in its efforts to stop the USAID work, Bureau for financial consumer protection and other agencies as well as on release thousands of federal employees. Successful efforts in the appreciation of agencies encouraged a wave of legal challenges that state the lack of transparency and violation of data privacy; The lawsuits are in progress.
Some supervisory experts and budget guards greeted the effort of musk Given the omissions of the Federal Government of deep seating to solve real problems with irregular payments.
“The tire has so many holes – you can’t do it anymore,” said Haywood Talcove, the General Director of Risk Solutions Lexisnexis for the Government, the company against the Congress this week. “You have people who are just great – they did things that others did not. I would give them a blow to it.”
Haywood emphasized that the comprehensive goal should not be just to prevent irregular payments such as scam, but also ensure that the government works for those who deserve federal assistance and were built in bureaucratic obstacles.
“People depend on the Government – the government is super important, and no one wants to be tortured with systems and processes,” he said. “Anyone who can fix it, we have to have there.”
But others have warned that the tears of the Federal Agencies could be completed in the name of improper spending, and by undermining the credibility of the Doge and encouraging trump cards and musk critics to overlook the real problem of irregular spending.
“The way to do so in and break things down,” Steve Ellis, the president of the taxpayers for common sense, a fiscally conservative budget guard, who criticized the bursts of more than a dozen federal inspectors, who performed unsurpassed agency supervision.
“These are people who were supposed to be their allies. And instead, they now alienated them,” he said.
2025-02-15 10:30:00
