Scott Bessent: 10% of US Government Spending Is Stolen Every Single Year

I mentioned this on Friday but it's getting more notice now.

Hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars are being squandered on waste, fraud, and abuse each year, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent shockingly claimed in a recent interview.

Somewhere between 5-10% of the total federal budget gets gobbled up by wrongdoers each year, Bessent said, citing data from the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

"If we can narrow that number, President Trump asked for a $500 billion increase in the defense budget to fortify the 10 to 20 years of neglect," Bessent told journalist Christopher Rufo in a recent interview.

"If we need to flex up our military budget, if we can get rid of this waste, fraud, and abuse, we can finance a safer, sounder US with that, without taking on more debt. Sounds like a pretty good outcome to me."

A GAO analysis found that between $233 billion and $521 billion was lost annually due to fraud during fiscal years 2018 through 2022.

Since fiscal year 2003, improper payments -- separate from fraud -- have likely cost taxpayers about $2.8 trillion, the GAO also found.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent traveled to Minnesota -- and in another bit of insurrection, Tim Walz refused to provide security for the visiting Secretary.

Bessent says Walz knows what's coming:

When Bessent came for this roundtable discussion, Gov. Tim Walz reportedly didn't guarantee security at the state capitol, which led to Bessent delivering this haymaker:

Tim Walz is a coward. He is a coward. He would not guarantee that the Treasury Secretary would have protection in the Minnesota State Capitol. He's afraid of what is coming.

"He's not gonna be able to hide," he said. "We will get there."

I hope that means an arrest is coming, and in fact I do take him as implying that.

Update on Scott Adams' passing:

posted by Ace at 01:00 PM

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