Scott Bessent: 10% of US Budget Stolen Annually
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says the federal government is bleeding hundreds of billions of dollars every year due to waste, fraud, and abuse — money he argues could be redirected to national priorities without increasing taxes or debt.
In an interview with journalist Christopher Rufo that aired Sunday, Bessent said the annual cost of federal mismanagement ranges from $300 billion to $600 billion. He explained that the estimate is grounded in figures from the Government Accountability Office, which has calculated that fraud alone accounts for roughly 10% of the federal budget and between 1% and 2% of gross domestic product.
According to Bessent, even a partial reduction of those losses would unlock significant funding for national defense, aligning with President Donald Trump’s push to rebuild the U.S. military after what the administration views as years of neglect.
“If we can get rid of this waste, fraud, and abuse, we can finance a safer, sounder U.S. … without taking on more debt,” Bessent said during the Rufo interview.
The GAO analysis Bessent cited estimates that fraud costs the federal government between $233 billion and $521 billion each year, based on data collected from fiscal years 2018 through 2022.
Beyond outright fraud, the GAO has also warned about the enormous cost of so-called “improper payments,” a category that includes mistakes, overpayments, and other errors. Over time, those losses have added up to trillions of dollars, underscoring what watchdogs describe as deeply flawed oversight mechanisms in Washington.
Bessent also discussed the administration’s Department of Government Efficiency initiative, which aims to rein in federal waste. While he said he shares Elon Musk’s objective of eliminating inefficiency, he made clear that his strategy differs sharply.
Rather than Musk’s well-known Silicon Valley ethos of “move fast and break things,” Bessent said his philosophy is “move deliberately and fix things,” indicating that Treasury-led probes will focus on meticulous investigations designed to withstand legal scrutiny.
That enforcement-oriented approach is spreading across the administration.
At a White House briefing on Thursday, Vice President JD Vance announced the establishment of a new assistant attorney general position dedicated to pursuing fraud involving taxpayer funds, with authority extending nationwide.
Vance’s remarks came amid growing attention on alleged large-scale fraud operations in Minnesota, which has emerged as a focal point in the national conversation about oversight and accountability in blue-state governments.
Bessent said Minnesota will serve as a testing ground for broader enforcement efforts, adding that the administration plans to “take this … map to the other 49 states,” signaling an aggressive expansion of federal investigations.
The interview also highlighted another major fiscal problem: unpaid taxes.
Internal Revenue Service estimates indicate that the net “tax gap” — the difference between taxes legally owed and those actually collected on time — reached approximately $606 billion for the 2022 tax year.
Bessent’s broader argument is that before Washington looks to raise taxes or increase borrowing, it must first demonstrate that it can clamp down on fraud, inefficiency, and weak enforcement — and then channel recovered funds into essential priorities such as national defense and border security.
{Matzav.com}
