A routine audit conducted last year while Biden was still President uncovered $72 billion in improper Social Security payments, leaving MSNBC host José Díaz-Balart visibly shocked.
The revelation comes as the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), created by President Trump, intensifies efforts to eliminate government waste.
Key Facts:
- A government audit found that the Social Security Administration made $72 billion in improper payments over eight years.
- Most of these payments were overpayments, not fraudulent payments to deceased or ineligible individuals.
- DOGE, established by Trump, is tasked with reviewing government agencies for waste and fraud.
- Tesla CEO Elon Musk oversees DOGE, which claims to have saved taxpayers $55 billion by eliminating inefficient government programs.
- A recent poll found that 56% of Americans support Trump’s executive order to reassess foreign aid spending.
The Rest of The Story:
During a live MSNBC segment, NBC News reporter Aaron Gilchrist shared the staggering audit findings, prompting Díaz-Balart to express disbelief at the sheer scale of waste.
The report revealed that nearly 1% of Social Security payments over the past eight years were improper, amounting to tens of billions of dollars in lost taxpayer money.
🚨The Social Security Administration made almost $72 BILLION in improper payments over an eight-year period.
Even @MSNBC is shocked! pic.twitter.com/pWlSGAezXo
— Rep. Keith Self (@RepKeithSelf) February 18, 2025
DOGE, a newly created government oversight department, has been given additional authority by President Trump to root out inefficiencies across federal agencies.
Its efforts have led to controversial agency shakeups, including the resignation of Social Security head Michelle King and the appointment of anti-fraud official Leland Dudek as acting administrator.
Meanwhile, the administration has also taken aggressive steps to streamline government operations, including mass layoffs at USAID.
Commentary:
When even a left-leaning network like MSNBC is shocked by government waste, you know there’s a serious problem.
The Social Security Administration’s loss of $72 billion is based on just a preliminary audit, meaning the actual waste could be far worse.
An in-depth audit would surely uncover hundreds of billions of dollars in mismanagement, yet critics are more focused on questioning DOGE’s oversight than demanding accountability.
To put this in perspective, the Social Security database still lists over 8 million people over the age of 130 as alive.
If that’s any indication of record-keeping, how much taxpayer money has been funneled into fraudulent payments?
Bruh, if I wanted to rummage through random personal shit, I could have done that at PAYPAL. Hello???
Having tens of millions of people marked in Social Security as “ALIVE” when they are definitely dead is a HUGE problem.
Obviously.
Some of these people would have been alive… https://t.co/L17rSBR1Tb pic.twitter.com/6hBqAJ5TbF
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 17, 2025
The resistance to DOGE’s efforts to investigate government waste raises questions about what some officials might be trying to hide.
The agency is not looking for personal data—it is investigating how taxpayer dollars are being misused.
That should be a bipartisan priority, yet some in Washington seem more concerned about protecting the status quo.
With a federal government that spends trillions, it’s easy for billions to disappear into bureaucratic black holes.
But this isn’t just about waste—it’s about trust.
Social Security is a crucial program, and every dollar wasted is one that could have helped struggling retirees.
If taxpayers are forced to pay into this system their whole lives, they at least deserve to know their money isn’t being thrown away.
The Bottom Line:
The discovery of $72 billion in improper Social Security payments is just the tip of the iceberg.
If a cursory audit uncovered this level of waste, the full extent of the problem could be staggering.
The fact that MSNBC was shocked by this revelation says a lot.
Americans deserve transparency and accountability, not excuses.
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