COMMENTARY_ Trump’s second coming of DOGE (Cal Thomas - THE WASHINGTON TIMES)

THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Trump’s second coming of DOGE

Fixing fraud ought to be a bipartisan priority

Government Waste Illustration by Greg Groesch/The Washington Times more >

COMMENTARY

By Cal Thomas - Wednesday, March 18, 2026

OPINION:


President Trump has signed an executive order creating a task force to crack down on fraud in government programs. It will be headed by Vice President JD Vance.

This is the administration’s second effort to reduce government misspending and overspending following Elon Musk’s effort as head of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

As we approach another April 15 with a $38 trillion debt (and counting), addressing fraud is something that ought to be a bipartisan goal. The fact that it hasn’t been a priority for politicians is largely because, I suspect, it isn’t their money that’s being wasted.

It might also be said that those on the receiving end of ill-gotten gains are not about to relinquish their largesse.

How bad is the problem? According to the disingenuously named Government Accountability Office (GAO), the federal government “loses between $233 billion and $521 billion annually to fraud in improper payments.” The GAO can’t give an accurate figure and says it could be higher because not all losses are reported.

If there was more accountability, perhaps fraud would not be such a big problem.

The GAO says 16 agencies reported a total loss of $162 billion in improper payments across 68 programs just in fiscal years 2024. It distinguishes between fraud and improper payments, but lost money is lost money no matter the process.

It should come as no surprise, given past reports, that Medicare and Medicaid account for more than half (53%) of the fraudulent losses. Congress — especially Republicans — have failed to do anything to reform these entitlement programs for fear of being demagogued by the opposite party.

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READ MORE: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2026/mar/18/trumps-second-coming-doge/

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