Talk is cheap

For those whose devotion to big government overshadows common sense, the revelation that at least $191 billion in pandemic unemployment benefits were “misspent” — not $163 billion as previously thought — should help defrock them from the faith.

The U.S. Labor Department revealed to the newly minted Republican House Ways and Means Committee that fraud of covid funds amounts to almost $30 billion more than previously thought; the exact number will never be determined.

But we do know how much taxpayers spent on covid relief: The U.S. government under presidents Trump and Biden has thus far issued (roughly) $5 trillion in emergency funds to help Americans who lost jobs due the pandemic.

Rep. Jason Smith of Missouri, the Republican who chairs the Ways and Means Committee, called the covid relief fraud the “greatest theft of taxpayer dollars in American history.”

Larry Turner, inspector general of the Labor Department, testified that the country’s so-called misspending on pandemic-related unemployment benefits is expected to be far greater than previously thought, and a significant portion of the $191 billion is attributed to fraud. He said the unprecedented infusion of cash into the unemployment insurance program gave “individuals and organized criminal groups a high-value target to exploit.”

Bad accounting and organized crime: not a good combination.

Covid relief was a no-brainer. The money kept people in food and electricity when the economy shut down. Which is why a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution is a bad idea; emergencies happen. But oversight wasn’t much of a priority. Until recently.

Officials from the Government Accountability Office and the Justice Department testified of outdated computer systems, of the system being inundated and opening the door for criminals to apply for benefits — using the names of real Americans and thus evading detection.

The feds’ opting against requiring documentation from those who sought benefits under the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, which paid workers who otherwise wouldn’t have been eligible for unemployment insurance, exacerbated the problem.

The circumstances were extreme. And the government’s response reflected as much. But one GAO official testified that fraud alone cost taxpayers $60 billion.

In response to the revelation of just how deep the graft went, federal watchdog groups, House Republicans and even the White House pledged to curtail any such future corruption. Uh-huh.

Watchdog groups have clamored for more resources to help root out similar fraud of government programs and prosecute those who perpetrate it; House Republicans have pledged additional oversight; and President Biden, in his State of the Union address, made a promise eerily similar to one he made a year ago when addressing Congress: “Now, let’s triple our anti-fraud strike forces going after these criminals, double the statute of limitations on these crimes, and crack down on identity fraud by criminal syndicates stealing billions of dollars from the American people.”

Such talk is cheap. Pandemic relief, it turns out, not so much.