What will happen if you shut down a nation and then overflow its economy with trillions of uncontrolled aid? There's the raging inflation rate we're experiencing now, and there's also a lot of corruption and theft. A report in the Wall Street Journal says it's been reported that the Labor Department alone was fleeced out of nearly $45 billion in unemployment money as well as the NY Post who estimates that the total amount stolen from all relief programs is at an astounding $600 billion. To put this in perspective, it's nearly equal to our total budget for the military in 2022, which is $778 billion.
The Post reports:
“’COVID fraud’ is at the moment a redundant term. Congress has allocated over $5 trillion in COVID assistance, yet nearly 600 billion dollars could be lost to fraud — an alarming 12.2%. Washington's pandemic mishaps are the biggest boondoggle of the federal government of the century.”
Will Congress take action to address it? It's not a possibility while the majority is in power:
“And even the Department of Justice has taken note. In the month of March they were off from the raids of regime-related opponents home to establish 3 regional Fraud Strike Force Teams in San Francisco/Sacramento, Baltimore, and Miami.”
On the 14th of September, an announcement from The DOJ stated:
“These Strike Force teams will build on the Department's historic enforcement efforts to deter, detect, and disrupt pandemic fraud wherever it occurs,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “Since the outbreak of the pandemic in the year 2020, we have seen the Justice Department has seized over $1.2 billion in relief funds that criminals tried to steal, and has charged more than 1,500 defendants with criminal offenses in federal districts across the nation; however, our work isn't done. We at the Justice Department continue to relentlessly stop fraud in the pandemic and to hold those responsible accountable for the actions of the perpetrators.”
The initiative could be a little late. It's possible that you've always thought that the “Nigerian prince” emails were absurd. However, NBC News reported in August on the unrestricted theft of funds from foreigners:
“Russian criminals, Chinese hackers, and Nigerian fraudsters have made use of stolen identities to steal millions and billions of dollars of Covid benefits, and then transferring the cash overseas as huge transfers of wealth away from U.S. taxpayers, officials and experts believe. The experts say that it's continuing to happen.”
Below are Labor Department Inspector General's numbers regarding unemployment benefits in isolation:
“People who fraudulently claimed benefits in multiple states were able to escape with the sum of $29 billion. Fraudsters who employed fraudulent email services to conceal identities have claimed as much as $16 billion. Swindlers who forged their Social Security numbers of ineligible federal prisoners as well as dead Americans earned $400 million plus.”
The Wall Street Journal mentions the fact that House Republicans introduced anti-fraud legislation in the summer; however, Democrats did not take action on the issue. The Democrats seem to be more attracted by cash payments and not keeping an eye on where it's going. Is it a bit of fraud if it earns you more votes?
The Journal isn't impressed:
“… this is among the greatest thefts of taxpayers that have ever occurred. The decision of Democrats to examine what went on and to stop leaks is a blatant disregard for Congress's responsibility to ensure that the government is in good hands. However, their primary concern is to send more money out of the system.” [Emphasis mine.|
A variety of crimes have been committed millions of dollars may never be returned. The actual crime began when the state, local, and federal government shut down the entire country and shut down commerce and then launched a massive spending spree that lasted for ages. The resultant fraud and inflation have deprived all Americans of a portion of their hard-earned cash each day and everyone pays the price.
