In the unemployment insurance system alone, an estimated $163 billion was paid “improperly,” thanks to some combination of accidental error and deliberate fraud. In the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, tens of billions of dollars went to multiple applicants who shared the same accounts or contact information, a sign of possible fraud. Michael Horowitz, chair of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (created by the 2020 Cares Act and composed of inspectors general), recently said he would not be surprised if the total amount of fraud “exceeded $100 billion.”
While the scale of criminality may seem shocking, its existence was entirely foreseeable.
As ginormous relief programs were being built from scratch, fast, the Trump administration resisted oversight. Even if a more transparency-minded president had initially been in charge, though, the government still likely would have been pickpocketed.
That’s because, as I wrote back in April 2020,…
