Dear John,
When the federal government went on unprecedented spending spree for COVID-19 “relief” with little protection against fraud, Citizens Against Government Waste warned that a lot of that money would be wasted.
Unfortunately, we were right.
We have reported on wasteful spending using COVID funds to build stadiums, golf courses, bird sanctuaries, and even on how schools have failed to use the money for learning recovery.
When the Democrats controlled the House of Representatives, little was done to uncover this wasteful spending or to try recovering the fraud and waste from the $5 trillion that was spent on COVID “relief.”
Now, under the new Republican House majority, there will be accountability for the wasteful spending that was approved solely by President Biden and big-spending Democrats in Congress.
The House Committee on Oversight and Accountability held a hearing on pandemic relief fraud on February 1, 2023, and the House Ways and Means Committee then held its own hearing on February 8, 2023.
So far, they’ve heard about fraud and waste that has cost taxpayers more than $100 billion.
But that does not include the Small Business Administration inspector general’s estimate that his agency wasted $400 billion.
It also does not include up to $400 billion that could have been stolen through unemployment insurance fraud.
As a supporter and someone who I know cares about excessive government spending, I want to know what you think.
Should the new Republican House majority continue to make it a priority to hold hearings to root out COVID fraud and waste and pass laws that will prevent this from happening in the future or should they discontinue these hearings?
