Improper Payments Cost Taxpayers $2.7 Trillion Since 2003

Estimates by executive branch agencies suggest the federal government has doled out $2.7 trillion in improper payments since fiscal year 2003, a government watchdog agency reported Tuesday.

That includes an estimated $236 billion in fiscal year 2023 alone, said the new report from the Government Accountability Office.

Six federal programs accounted for roughly $200 billion of the $236 billion tally in fiscal 2023: Medicare, Medicaid, Unemployment Insurance, the Paycheck Protection Program, the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Supplemental Security Income program. Each of these programs is, or has been, on the GAO’s list of “at-risk” programs prone to waste, ...