You’ve been robbed! The fraudsters and scam artists stole about $1,000 from each U.S. household in 2014, according to the latest report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO). And as you might have guessed, the problem has gotten much worse under President Obama.
According to the GAO report, “For the first time in recent years, the government-wide improper payment estimate significantly increased—to $124.7 billion in fiscal year 2014, up from $105.8 billion in fiscal year 2013.”
“Improper payments” is the GAO’s euphemism for fraud and theft, though it can represent some honest mistakes. There are 115.2 million U.S. households, which means the scammers are robbing taxpayers of a little more than $1,000 per household.
What are the primary sources of the fraud? Medicare at $60 billion, $17.5 billion for Medicaid, and $17.7 billion for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), a federal subsidy for low-income working people—including, we now know, those covered under Obama’s executive amnesty.
Notice that two of the largest sources of fraud are the two government-run health care programs. And it’s getting worse. While the GAO tags Medicare with $60 billion in improper payments, they were $44 billion in 2012 and $48 billion in 2010.
And Obama is encouraging even more fraud. The president’s health care law dramatically expanded Medicaid, though nearly half of the states are resisting that expansion—for now. And the president’s budget proposes a significant increase in the EITC.
To be fair, Obamacare included a provision to expand anti-fraud efforts, and threw $77 million at the problem, including $3.6 million for glitzy new state-of-the-art anti-fraud center. And yet Medicare fraud went up by an estimated $12 billion over the 2010 level.
But the fact is that the GAO likely underestimates the level of improper payments. For example, the current level of improper payments for Medicaid, $17.5 billion, seems low. Many people who have been closely involved with Medicaid think that fraud in that program is at least as high as Medicare.
And, of course, we can expect these improper payments to rise now that Obama has given the government even more control over the health care system and plans to give the EITC to those covered under his executive amnesty. He might even think this theft of taxpayer dollars isn’t so bad. The president believes redistributing money is the way to create jobs and spur economic growth, and the thieves are helping him do just that.