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Politics

How much money is actually lost to fraud, waste in the US?

Elon Musk Social Security Donald Trump GAO the Government Accountability Office the Social Security Administration Fox Business Karoline Leavitt Medicare Social Security Administration

Elon Musk holds a chainsaw as a symbol of cost cutting on stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland, on February 20, 2025 [Nathan Howard/Reuters]

Billionaire Elon Musk, the driving force behind United States President Donald Trump’s budget-cutting Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has broached the sensitive issue of Social Security cost savings on the TV channel Fox Business.

Musk told host Larry Kudlow, a former Trump economic adviser, that the Government Accountability Office estimated in 2024 that federal government fraud was “half a trillion dollars”.

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