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🚨 Sen. Joni Ernst just unloaded one of the most jaw-dropping rundowns of federal waste you’ll hear all year — and honestly, it belongs in a satire show if it weren’t all TRUE.For over a decade she’s given her monthly Squeal Award to the worst examples of government incompetence, but this newest batch is almost unbelievable.Senator Joni Ernst: "For over a decade, I’ve been exposing egregious Washington waste with my monthly Squeal Award. Some examples are too outrageous to believe. I’m talking about bureaucrats approving PPP loans for applicants who used pictures of dolls for IDs. Imagine giving Barbie or Ken a taxpayer-funded loan.Not only that, but they also believed folks claiming to be over 115 years old were alive and well enough to be approved for 3,095 PPP and EIDL loans worth $333 million, including $36,000 to a 157-year-old. That’s pure hogwash.But this is only the tip of the iceberg. Instead of boosting Main Street, millions of your tax dollars were wasted through USAID to fund Iraqi Sesame Street. And this one is unacceptable: improper payments—or the government tossing cash into the wrong trough—have become commonplace. In fiscal year 2024, federal agencies shoveled out $162 billion in improper payments. The most frustrating part is how simple it is to stop this waste. A report by the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee found that $79 billion in potential COVID fraud could have been prevented if four basic questions were asked:One, is the applicant’s Social Security Number valid? Two, if valid, does the name connected to that number match the name on the application? Three, does the birthday match? And lastly, is the individual alive?Seriously, folks, that could have saved $79 billion right there.The good news is that we can prevent nearly all improper payments in the future with my DOSE in Spending Act that enacts common-sense guardrails like those four simple questions."