Tad DeHaven
A 2011 poll taken during the Obama administration found that 60 percent of those surveyed believed that the federal budget could be balanced by simply eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse. Half said Social Security and Medicare aren’t a problem for the budget.
Those respondents were wrong.
If that survey were conducted today, the results would probably be about the same. And if Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) isn’t more careful, these myths could become further ingrained in the public’s mind.
Waste (a subjective term) and fraud are natural by-products of government spending. The federal government will spend approximately $7 trillion this year, with a budget deficit of almost $2 trillion. Spending on Social Security old-age and survivor benefits will be around $1.4 trillion, and net spending for Medicare will be close to $1 trillion. Put out a giant strobe light, and moths, bugs, and other undesirables will flock to it.
That’s not to suggest that waste and fraud aren’t issues to be addressed. They are. Indeed, the Government Accountability Office and the government’s inspector generals have been investigating and reporting on it for decades. (Curiously, Trump fired 17 inspectors general shortly after taking office because “They’re not my people.” Well, they’re not supposed to be. They’re supposed to maintain independence—that’s the point.)
DOGE’s ultimate aims remain unclear. Perhaps that’s an intentional strategy, or perhaps it’s because the team is freshly tackling a financial operation equal to almost a quarter of the nation’s economic output. If it’s more the latter, the learning curve DOGE faces is as steep as Yosemite National Park’s El Capitan. That’s why Cato submitted to DOGE a report on how to downsize and reform the federal government. That’s why our Downsizing the Federal Government website exists. Other knowledgeable experts and organizations have done the same.
It is thus disappointing that in the rush to post DOGE’s findings on X, the claims have sometimes turned out to be inaccurate or misleading (see today’s column from Ramesh Ponnuru).
This week, the most counterproductive example came with Musk’s X announcement that DOGE had discovered what “might be the biggest fraud in history.” But what looked like evidence the Social Security Administration has been paying benefits to millions of dead Americans turned out to be previously known issues with government recordkeeping. (Reason’s Eric Boehm has the details.)
It’s counterproductive because rising costs and demographic pressures are causing Social Security’s financial problems (see this new Cato analysis). But thanks to one erroneous X post, conceivably millions of Americans now incorrectly believe Social Security’s problem is fraud that the Trump administration can remedy (a notion the president is already happily encouraging).
Politicians are already terrified of confronting Social Security’s long-term imbalance because of the media-fueled public backlash that would ensue. Social Security recipients don’t want to hear that reigning in benefits growth is necessary to fix that imbalance. They don’t want to hear that the programs they benefit from are the main cause of the federal government’s massive debt problem.
The average citizen wants to hear that these problems can be solved with a little housecleaning by eliminating amorphous waste, fraud, and abuse. Politicians know this, which is why both Republicans and Democrats always say they’re going to root it out when asked what they’ll do about excessive federal spending and debt.
In 2011, then–Vice President Joe Biden “announced that $5.6 billion in fraud was recovered across the government” and discussed “new initiatives to eliminate wasteful government spending.” The nominal federal debt in 2011 was about $15 trillion. Today, it’s over $36 trillion and counting.
Targeting “waste, fraud, and abuse” didn’t solve the problem, and it never will.
At the very least, DOGE has an opportunity to help the public better understand the federal government’s spending problem. It should use examples of waste and fraud to make the case that agencies and programs need to be pulled from the roots. And if DOGE makes a mistake, which we all do when navigating the federal government’s financial labyrinth, Musk should admit it and use the occasion to inform accurately.
A lot of vested interests want to see DOGE fail. Avoiding making their efforts easier would be wise.