Congress has appropriated more than $4.6 trillion in response to COVID-19, much of which has nothing to do with the pandemic. This does not include the proposed $1.75 (really $4.9) trillion Build Back Better Act, which stalled in the Senate. Of the $4.6 trillion, 78%, or $3.6 trillion, has been spent by 44 different federal agencies. With such a massive amount of spending in such a short period of time by a government that has an abysmal track record on fiscal responsibility, there has already been a significant amount of waste, fraud, and abuse, which will only grow larger as agency watchdogs catch up with the rate of expenditures.

The Secret Service has uncovered $100 billion in the theft of COVID-19 pandemic relief funds, with only 2% of that money recovered and more than 100 suspects arrested. If this is the number of people caught, there is no telling the full number of criminals who defrauded these programs. Cleaning up the mess after the money has been stolen is the government’s usual and ineffective approach, rather than establishing preventive processes and systems that will stop the money from being wasted in the first place.