How much fraud is in government payments?

How the answer evolved · oldest first

1. Oct 7, 2024 · Tucker Carlson · asked by Tucker Carlson

   Q: Is there any reason to pass a law like that except to abet voter fraud?

   It's so that fraud cannot be proven. So it enables large scale fraud and no way to prove it, because how would you prove it? It's literally impossible. No id. You're not even allowed to show your id. It's insane.

   Watch on X at 0:13:57 ↗Transcript ↗Unverified timestamp: from archive transcript, not checked against the X video

2. Feb 28, 2025 · The Joe Rogan Experience · asked by Joe Rogan

   Q: 40, 50 years ago, like COBOL for Social Security, Right?

   Yeah. The government accountability. By the way, a bunch of the things that DOGE is fixing were identified by the Government Accountability Office many years ago. Like, the fact that there's like 20 million people who are marked as alive in the Social Security database, it's more than like, I think the GAO first identified that in 2018, so five years ago. But there was like, I think maybe 16 or 17 million. Now …

   Watch at 2:23:22 ↗Transcript ↗Timestamp cross-checked

3. Mar 17, 2025 · Verdict with Ted Cruz · asked by Ben Ferguson

   Q: Is it incompetence that you're finding, or is this like the biggest money laundering scheme in the history of the world that you're finding?

   Look, I think it's mostly. If you say, look, what's the waste to fraud ratio? In my opinion, it's like 80% waste, 20% fraud. But you do have these sort of gray areas.

   Watch at 0:04:08 ↗Transcript ↗Timestamp cross-checked

4. Feb 5, 2026 · Dwarkesh Podcast · asked by Dwarkesh Patel

   Q: Were those people getting payments?

   Some were getting payments from Social Security, but the main fraud vector was to mark somebody as alive in Social Security and then use every other government payment system to basically to do fraud. Because what those other government payment systems do would do they will simply do an are you alive? Check to the Social Security database. It's a bank shot.

   Watch at 2:24:23 ↗Transcript ↗Timestamp cross-checked

5. Feb 5, 2026 · Dwarkesh Podcast · asked by Dwarkesh Patel

   Q: What would you estimate is the total amount of fraud from this mechanism?

   My guess is, and by the way, the Government Accountability Office has done these estimates before. I'm not the only one who's coming out of this. In fact, I think they did the GAO did analysis a rough estimate of fraud during the Biden administration and calculated at roughly half a trillion dollars. So don't take my word for it. Take it. A report issued during the Biden administration. How about that? From this …

   Watch at 2:24:50 ↗Transcript ↗Timestamp cross-checked

In his own posts on X

• @elonmusk · Feb 11, 2025

  At this point, I am 100% certain that the magnitude of the fraud in federal entitlements (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Welfare, Disability, etc) exceeds the combined sum of every private scam you’ve ever heard by FAR. It’s not even close.

  View on X ↗

• @elonmusk · Feb 12, 2025

  There are massive federal entitlements fraud rings that scam US taxpayer money and send it overseas https://t.co/wP43PBcLzo

  View on X ↗

• @elonmusk · Feb 17, 2025

  The REAL reason so many Democrats are upset about entitlements (social security, medical, etc) fraud investigations is that they are using your taxpayer money as handouts to attract and retain ILLEGAL immigrants. Their future voters. That’s what it’s all about. Truth.

  View on X ↗