photo #9327399

This cartoon says what every taxpayer already knows in their gut. The debt is just the tip. The fraud is the iceberg underneath.We argue endlessly about the national debt like it fell from the sky. It did not. A staggering amount of it is money that was simply stolen, wasted, or shoveled out the door with no one checking where it went.And here is the painfully obvious part. The government's own watchdog, the GAO, estimates Washington loses between $233 billion and $521 billion to fraud every single year. Every year. That is not a rounding error. That is a second government operating in the shadows of the first. U.S. News & World ReportLook at Minnesota. Federal prosecutors now say half or more of roughly $18 billion in federal funds flowing through 14 state programs since 2018 may have been stolen. Money meant to feed kids and help autistic children, spent on cars, property, and luxury travel. U.S. News & World ReportKWTXLook at California. Pandemic unemployment fraud alone was estimated at $32.6 billion. Two states. Tens of billions gone. Now ask yourself the obvious question. What do the other 48 look like? houseBut what is truly crazy is what happens when anyone tries to police it. Suddenly, chasing fraudsters becomes "politicized." Asking where the money went becomes an attack. Stealing from taxpayers should be the one thing every American, left and right, agrees to prosecute.The Founders understood this problem before it existed. When government grows beyond what the people can watch, oversight shrinks to nothing. Madison warned in Federalist 46 that federal power would stay in check only so long as the states and the people stayed vigilant. We stopped watching. The iceberg grew.The good news is the fraud is finally being dragged into the sunlight. Prosecutions are happening. Audits are happening. Vigilance works when we actually use it.