ATLANTA (AP) 鈥� Good-government advocates, anti-tax conservatives, politicians of various stripes and everyday Americans grouse about across the U.S. government.
President and the Department of Government Efficiency, , Elon Musk, opened the latest chapter for a phrase hailed as common sense and derided as propaganda.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a very broad idea,鈥� said Matt Weidinger of the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute. 鈥淏ut this phrase 鈥榳aste, fraud and abuse鈥� obviously means different things to different people.鈥�
Here is a look at this rhetorical cudgel and how it relates to the outset of Trump鈥檚 second administration.
The seemingly far-away government has always been a bogeyman
Pinpointing the genesis of 鈥渨aste, fraud and abuse鈥� as political rhetoric is difficult. But the concept and resulting battles are older than the nation: Think 鈥渢axation without representation鈥� and the break from Great Britain.
After winning independence, the early American republic reprised the arguments.
Two generations fought over Alexander Hamilton鈥檚 national bank 鈥� a philosophical forerunner to everything from the Federal Reserve system to Small Business Administration loans, federally backed mortgage securities and bank deposit insurance.
Trump鈥檚 populist hero, Andrew Jackson, cast the Second National Bank as a sop to its wealthy stockholders. 鈥淭here are no necessary evils in government,鈥� the seventh president wrote in one veto message. 鈥淚ts evils exist only in its abuses.鈥�
Many of Jackson鈥檚 fellow Southerners opposed the related 鈥渋nternal improvements鈥� of Henry Clay鈥檚 American System. The enslaving planter class viewed the spending for roads, bridges and navigable waterways 鈥� long before Washington had 鈥渋nfrastructure weeks鈥� 鈥� as an unconstitutional federal overreach that transferred their wealth indirectly to factory owners, bankers and shipping magnates in more industrialized northern states.
Ronald Reagan cemented modern conservatives鈥� approach in his first inaugural address. 鈥淕overnment is not the solution to our problem,鈥� he said in 1981. 鈥淕overnment is the problem.鈥�
He railed against 鈥渢he welfare queen鈥� as the public face of an inefficient social safety net and unaccountable federal government. Reagan based the attack, which critics lambasted as a racist trope, on one woman鈥檚 criminal fraud case for getting hundreds of thousands of dollars in assistance.
In a forerunner to DOGE, Reagan impaneled a group of private sector CEOs to identify waste. The 鈥淕race Commission,鈥� colloquially named for its chairman, businessman J. Peter Grace, moved more deliberately than DOGE, and its recommendations were not implemented on a broad scale. Reagan and Congress did raise the retirement age for Social Security eligibility.
The federal pie is massive
The federal government spent about $6.7 trillion in fiscal year 2023.
The libertarian Cato Institute counts the biggest-ticket items this way: $3.19 trillion in transfer payments; $1.15 trillion in aid to states; $950 billion in interest payments on national debt; $840 billion in purchases of goods and services; and $560 billion to pay federal workers.
Social Security and Medicare comprise most of Cato鈥檚 transfer category, along with programs like food assistance and the earned income tax credit for low-income households. Medicaid accounts for most state aid, which also includes education, transportation and other infrastructure.
The issue for Musk, or perhaps for Trump and Republican majorities in Congress, is that Americans hold conflicting views about the details.
March 2023 polling from found that 6 in 10 U.S. adults said the U.S. government was spending 鈥渢oo much鈥� overall. Yet an AP-NORC taken in January 2025 found that about two-thirds of American adults say the U.S. government is spending 鈥渢oo little鈥� on Social Security and education. About 6 and 10 said the same about Medicare, the government health insurance program for older Americans, and assistance to poor Americans.
Most adults also say Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poorest working-age Americans and low-income children, is underfunded. Medicare and Medicaid payments do not go directly to patients but to health care providers 鈥� physicians, hospitals, clinics, pharmaceutical companies and medical supply firms in communities across the country.
How much is actually lost to waste and fraud?
The Government Accountability Office and other agencies produce regular reports identifying inefficiencies and other problems. The GAO said in 2024 that its enacted recommendations have saved about $667 billion since 2011.
Vivek Ramaswamy, another Trump ally initially involved with DOGE, seized on hundreds of billions of dollars in contracts and programs that Congress may not have reauthorized explicitly. Yet contrary to Ramaswamy鈥檚 characterization, most are ongoing programs from veterans medical care to NASA functions.
Trump has not addressed another pool of potential money: the so-called 鈥渢ax gap.鈥� That鈥檚 not about the Republican vs. Democratic debate over rates and loopholes. It鈥檚 the estimated gap between what the federal government should collect under existing law and what actually gets paid on time. Like 鈥渋mproper payments,鈥� it鈥檚 a mix of clerical error and intentional fraud.
The IRS estimate for the 2022 tax year: $696 billion.
Other government reports identify 鈥渋mproper payments鈥� 鈥� Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment insurance 鈥� that total several hundred billion in typical years.
Weidinger, the AEI budget expert, said that includes some fraudulent spending but is mostly overpayments or payments that require more documentation. Mistakes could include a Social Security payment a month after a recipient has died, a government miscalculation of someone鈥檚 benefit, someone getting one unemployment check after getting a new job or an insufficiently documented claim from a health care provider.
But Weidinger also noted that special government programs, such as unemployment during the COVID pandemic, carried a much higher rate of outright fraud 鈥� identity thieves, including from foreign nations, gaming the system to get money.
鈥淲e won鈥檛 ever recover all of that,鈥� he said.
And, he added, the government鈥檚 estimates of fraud and improper payments are probably too low even if they almost certainly do not reach the levels of savings Musk and Trump have promised.
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Bill Barrow, The Associated Press
