News Analysis
Republicans and Democrats on the House Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency (DOGE) sparred on Feb. 12 about the hundreds of billions of tax dollars lost annually to improper payments, but little was said about the elephant in the hearing room.
The elephant is the 13,956 open inspector general (IG) recommendations—including more than 2,000 that are at least five years old—for huge cost-savings and efficiencies that could have prevented most if not all of the estimated $162 billion federal departments and agencies paid to undeserving recipients just last year.
Plus, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress, has more than 300 of its own recommendations to departments and agencies that have yet to be implemented….