LARRY KUDLOW: Elon Musk and DOGE are finding fraud — everywhere

If you think there's no waste, fraud, abuse, or corruption in the federal government — as many Democrats that want to stop Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency keep telling us — think again.After just a few weeks, the evidence is mounting and the numbers are growing larger.Let me start with Mr. Musk's Social Security database discovery, posted to his profile on X, that 20.7 million beneficiaries are allegedly over the age of 100 — including 3.9 million in the 130-to-139 age range. More than 3.5 million in the 140-to-149 range. And over 1.3 million in the 150-to-159 range.Seriously, does anybody believe these people are still alive?The former Director of the Social Security Administration tried desperately to keep DOGE out of Social Security. No wonder, if much of it is a scam.Just how much?Well, Robert Sterling — a Marine Corps veteran, former M&A specialist at Koch Industries, and current managing partner at EV Partners — calculates that roughly $522 billion, which is one third of all spending on Social Security each year, could potentially be fraudulent.He arrives at his estimate by calculating that the U.S. Census says there are 101,000 living centenarians. The average monthly benefit is around $2,100, times twelve months, equals $522 billion — or one third of all Social Security spending. That's incredible.Now, the DOGE people will review all these numbers, but something is surely fraudulently remiss in the Social Security Administration. And there's going to be a lot more.A couple of billion dollars at the Department of Housing and Urban Development was "misplaced" and recovered by DOGE. The Environmental Protection Agency’s administrator, Lee Zeldin, discovered a $20 billion slush fund at the agency that should not be spent.The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page cited a Government Accountability Office report last spring that estimated the federal government could be losing between $233 billion and $521 billion annually to fraud.The GAO earlier estimated between $100 and $135 billion of fraudulent pandemic unemployment benefits.Even the IRS paused processing pandemic employee retention tax credits because they soared to more than $230 billion and counting from $55 billion initially.Believe it or not, the Department of Health and Human Services last year estimated $85 billion in improper payments in Medicare and Medicaid — though, of course, they haven't done anything about it.And the DOGE team is just getting started. But you know that the growing pile of fraud and corruption is going to keep on growing.There has not been a serious financial audit in a long time. Way back when, President Clinton and Vice President Gore tried it. Even President Obama talked about it.But the key point is that, with Mr. Musk's jet fuel driving the process, President Trump's audit is going to be implemented.And legal scholars are pointing out that the Musk team is made up of political appointees who, of course, are now federal employees — and must be permitted to do their job.You can bet they will do just that. And that's exactly what people voted for.Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei FOX Business Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei FOX Business