If you expected inflation to disappear on Day One, as was declared over and over, you have been duped. If you expect the “Big & Beautiful” tariffs will be paid by anyone other than the consumer, you have been duped. This is classic bait and switch, and the new mantra is now, “We are getting rid of waste, fraud and abuse”.
Speaker of the House and Sycophant Extraordinaire Mike Johnson, is shepherding the passing of Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill”. The House budget bill includes $2 trillion in spending cuts, and $4.8 trillion in tax cuts and spending increases. The totals for the spending cuts, tax cuts and spending increases are based over 10 years.
These are cuts that have been targeted by MAGA and Project 2025 for years, and now that the Republicans control all (3) branches of the federal government, the cuts may soon become a reality, extending tax cuts that benefit the wealthiest taxpayers the most, both in raw dollars and as a share of their income.
Of course, the spending cuts and the target of all the “waste, fraud and abuse” are Medicaid, SNAP, and other programs that serve and support our neediest citizens.
We should all be in favor of getting rid of “waste, fraud and abuse”, so I decided to ask Claude, my favorite AI pal, the following question: “Based on current information, provide data for for individual income tax fraud, corporate tax fraud, payroll tax fraud, and sales and excise tax fraud and abuse”.
Claude’s reply is most interesting, particularly with the annual dollars involved:
Individual Income Tax Fraud is estimated at $290-310 billion, consisting of underreporting income, false itemized deductions and non-filings.
Corporate Tax Fraud is estimated at $160-180 billion base on profit shifting and misreporting of business income.
Payroll Tax Fraud is estimated at $75-85 billion, primarily from employee misclassification, unreported tips and cash wages, and tax evasion schemes.
Sales and Excise Tax Fraud is estimated at $40-50 billion made up of state sales tax evasion, federal excise tax evasion and online marketplace fraud.
The combined annual taxes lost to waste, fraud and abuse is estimated at $565-625 billion! Again, this is an annual number. Do the math and carry this out for the next 10 years. Yet the sycophants in Congress choose to cut programs and services for our neediest citizens, offer tax cuts for the wealthy, and provide even more opportunities for “waste, fraud and abuse”.
*Charts from New York Times 02.26.25
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