By Mark Minnella for DAILY CALLER
In his recent joint address to Congress, President Donald Trump promised a balanced budget, and he appointed Vice President JD Vance to head a “war on fraud.” Later, in Detroit, Trump said that if the U.S. conquered its fraud problem, the budget could be balanced. He was referring to the kind of skullduggery found in Minnesota.
It’s hard to overstate this problem for regular American citizens. America is hemorrhaging taxpayer dollars through fraud and then borrowing money to cover the loss.
The national debt now exceeds $38 trillion. Annual deficits run in the trillions. At the same time, credible watchdog reports suggest entitlement fraud in programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid may be costing taxpayers between $200 billion and $500 billion each year. Even at the low end, the scale is staggering.
If $300 billion per year is lost to fraud, that is nearly one-third of a trillion dollars siphoned from taxpayers annually. That money does not exist in surplus. It is borrowed. Interest is paid on it. The obligation is passed to the next generation.
We are borrowing money to fund fraud.
