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DOGE Is Searching for Wasteful Spending. It Isn’t Hard to Find.

WSJ Original article ›
LyrArc Article Gist
A detailed breakdown of the the waste, fraud and improper payments in federal spending is shown in this WSJ report. . Of $4.1 trillion, a big chunk of the $6.7 trillion the US had in federal spending in 2024 according to CBO, 3.7% is self identified by agencies as improper payments or $149 billion. 90% of improper payments are overpayments. It reached a high of 7.1% of federal spending in 2021 during the pandemic when loose controls led to more improper payments. Only $22 billion was recovered for 2024. Outside agency control including state and local control where the federal and states are running programs is the single most difficulty in getting improper payments back.

Top government programs with improper payments are:

Health and Human Services

Medicare $31.7 billion

Medicaid   $31.1 billion

Medicare Advantage $19.1 billion

Medicare Prescription Benefit $3.6 billion

Treasury - Earned Income Credit $15.9 billion

Agriculture- Supplemental Nutrition Assistance $10.5 billion

Social Security Supplemental Security Income $6.5 billion

Labor- Federal and State Unemployment Insurance $5.1 billion



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