More than $5.4 billion in Covid loans went to applicants using 'questionable' Social Security numbers, watchdog says
NBCAPR 2023
The scope and scale of COVID relief fraud may never be truly known, as the government irresponsibly gave out fistfuls of taxpayer money to those that did not deserve it. The government has had longstanding issues with benefit fraud, as this wastefulness adds to the US' gargantuan national debt. While Democrats have tried to brush aside the extent of the mismanagement, the American people deserve to know what went wrong.
The government tried to disburse COVID funds to those that needed them the most, which is what happened to the vast majority of the funds provided. It was the Trump admin. that insisted on a policy of retroactive enforcement for inevitable instances of fraud, with Biden adding more stringent oversight measures when he entered office. We need to use the lessons from COVID to build a better emergency relief system, not as an excuse to tear it apart.