For every dollar that the federal government hands out in benefits to Americans, it is reported that at least another dollar is unaccounted for. In fact, a lot of experts in the field claim that it's more like a 3 to 1 ration, meaning that for every $5 the government spends on benefits, they're actually spending $20 to make up for the loss of the $15 extra. This loss is a blend of fraud, misappropriation and mismanagement. It's not always a corrupt system; sometimes it's an inept system. Not that that's any better, of course. Though many Americans do prefer a government that simply doesn't know how to manage money vs. a government that steals the money. The latest big news in the government benefits realm is something that doesn't shock anyone at all. According to the Labor Department, more than $87 billion is just missing from the unemployment pool.

In fact, it's worse than just money missing. The Labor Department claims that this money was "siphoned out of the pool," which specifically means that someone stole it. Likely many thousands of people cheating the system in some way. But the point is that we're talking about nearly $100 billion dollars in benefits here that are just mission. 8,700 million, to put it into perspective. Just think about how many tens of millions of people that money could have helped. Though with the American government, they don't even bat an eyelash. They'll print more money, spend more, and won't even investigate what happened to this money.

Over the course of the pandemic, the US Labor Department estimates that over $872 billion was appropriated for those who lost their jobs. They're also estimating that 10% of these funds were inappropriately given out due to fraud. What's so worrisome here is that they're putting the blame on the people who file unemployment benefits, instead of accepting any responsibility at all for not checking to whom they were handing the money over. Imagine lying on a loan application for thousands of dollars, but the bank never checks out your application. They just hand you the money, and suddenly it's your fault they gave it to you. Yes, the people attempting to defraud the government are guilty of a crime; but that's all it should be: An attempt. The government actually paying people without checking is entirely ludicrous.

Labor Department Cites Organized Crime

What makes this story even wilder is that, according to the Labor Department, entire rings of organized crime conspired to defraud the government of unemployment benefits. So, to put this into perspective, the US government will literally send FBI agents to investigate and raid the houses of housewives who raise their voices at PTA and school board meetings. They consider that outright terrorism. Yet large organizations filing suspicious unemployment claims to defraud the federal government of billions of dollars is something that's not even considered until which point they get away with the crime. Some Americans wholeheartedly believe that the federal government is too stupid to be allowed so much power.

This Isn't the First Time

If you thought this story couldn't get any worse, think again. The fact is that every single year in America, the Labor Department reports that they have been defrauded of billions of dollars. So it's not like criminals managed to sneak up on them during the pandemic. They have known about these schemes for decades. Yet, again, the entirety of the government is weaponized against mothers at school board meetings and middle-aged people who marched around the Capitol building with toy novelty flags. They're considered the criminals that need to be investigated, while they outright ignore people defrauding Americans of unemployment benefits until which point the money is already stolen.

The Explain-All Excuse

Nothing will come of this. Nothing will be done about this. According to the government, millions were kept out of poverty due to the massive government spending, and so it doesn't matter that 10% of the funds were stolen through fraud. Just imagine living your personal life that way. How much money would you have to possess that you could shrug off 10% of it coming up missing? Perhaps if the government was held to account for properly spending the people's money, they wouldn't need a new spending bill every three months. This is really outrageous stuff, especially when you consider that the federal government shut off the unemployment benefits because they ran out of money.

More people would have gotten more money if only they had sense enough not to get robbed.