Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency are finding fraud — everywhere.

And that’s the subject of the riff.

If you think there’s no waste, fraud, abuse, or corruption in the federal government — as many Democrats that want to stop Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency keep telling us — think again.

After just a few weeks, the evidence is mounting and the numbers are growing larger.

Let me start with Mr. Musk’s Social Security database discovery that 20.7 million beneficiaries are older than the age of 100 — including 3.9 million in the 130-to-139 age range. More than 3.5 million in the 140-to-149 age range. And more than 1.3 million in the 150-to-159 age range.

Seriously, does anybody believe these people are still alive?

[Audits by inspectors general found that “almost none” of these supposed centenarians “were actually cashing Social Security checks,” the New York Post reported, “despite the glaring accounting errors.”] 

The former Director of the Social Security Administration tried desperately to keep DOGE out of Social Security. No wonder. Much of it’s a scam.

How much?

Well, a Marine Corps veteran, former M&A specialist at Koch Industries, and current managing partner at EV Partners, Robert Sterling, calculates that $522 billion, which is one-third of ALL spending on Social Security each year, could be fraudulent.

He arrives at his estimate by calculating that  the U.S. Census says there are 101,000 living centenarians. The average monthly benefit is around $2,100, times twelve months equals $522 billion — or one third of all Social Security spending. That’s incredible.

Now, the DOGE people will review all these numbers, but something is surely fraudulently remiss in the Social Security Administration. But there’s going to be a lot more.

A couple of billion dollars at the Department of Housing and Urban Development was “misplaced” and recovered by DOGE.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s administrator, Lee Zeldin, discovered a $20 billion slush fund at the agency that should not be spent.

The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page cited a Government Accountability Office report last spring that estimated the federal government could be losing between $233 billion and $521 billion annually to fraud.

The GAO earlier estimated between $100 billion and $135 billion of fraudulent pandemic unemployment benefits.

Even the IRS paused processing pandemic employee retention tax credits because they soared to more than $230 billion and counting from $55 billion initially.

Believe it or not, the Department of Health and Human Services last year estimated $85 billion in improper payments in Medicare and Medicaid — though, of course, they haven’t done anything about it.

And the DOGE team is just getting started. But you know that the growing pile of fraud and corruption is going to keep on growing.

There has not been a serious financial audit in a long time. Way back when, President Clinton and Vice President Gore tried it. Even President Obama talked about it.

But the key point is that, with Mr. Musk’s jet fuel driving the process, Mr. Trump’s audit is going to be implemented.

And legal scholars are pointing out that the Musk team is made up of political appointees who, of course, are now federal employees — and must be permitted to do their job.

You can bet they will do just that. And that’s exactly what people voted for.

From Mr. Kudlow’s broadcast on Fox Business Network.