OPINION:
Second of a two-part series
As the battle over the debt ceiling continues in Washington, Democrats and the media insist that anyone who opposes endless spending is harming the nation. But the exact opposite is the truth.
Congressional Republicans should not cower in the face of pressure from those who are satisfied with the status quo. Instead, they must take the message that Washington is in dire need of reform directly to the American people. There is no better way to do this than documenting the rampant corruption that plagues our federal agencies.
Social Security Administration
While the Washington establishment continues to sweep any discussion about Social Security under the rug, the Social Security Administration has overseen record waste, fraud and abuse in recent years.
For example, a Social Security Administration judge pleaded guilty after a $550 million fraud scheme was exposed. This is just a small part of at least $3 billion in waste and fraud per year related to Social Security statements.
What’s most disturbing about all of this is that the Social Security Administration couldn’t care less about the rampant corruption within the agency. Though it was barely covered in the media, a Senate investigation was recently launched into the Social Security Administration’s watchdog division after a shocking decline in internal fraud investigations.
Department of Veterans Affairs
There is perhaps no better poster child for the disastrous failures of the federal bureaucracy than the Department of Veterans Affairs. In 2014, rampant malpractice and lack of adequate care for our veterans likely resulted in more than 1,000 deaths. We should never forget this horrific scandal that shocked the nation.
And aside from the VA’s cultural rot and decline in quality of care, the agency also wastes billions of taxpayer dollars. According to a report by the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, the VA wastes between $6 billion and $10 billion a year.
Department of Agriculture
The Department of Agriculture is yet another example of how endless discretionary spending harms Americans. In keeping with the Democrats’ radical environmentalism, USDA now wants to electrify the nation’s farm equipment, which would decrease the reliability of food production.
USDA’s promoting the widespread use of these machines despite serious issues with them is shameful, but so are the pay-for-play scandals within the agency. For example, a former USDA official was recently sentenced after taking bribes resulting in the awarding of nearly $20 million in USDA contracts.
Department of Labor
The corrupt Department of Labor has made it even harder and in some cases nearly impossible to hire independent contractors, restricting the earning potential of 50 million Americans who perform independent work.
It’s clear that the Department of Labor is attempting to cram down the national version of California’s AB 5, a disastrous piece of legislation that reclassifies independent contractors in an effort to force employers to provide these workers the benefits of full-time employees. Predictably, this makes companies far less likely to work with independent contractors at all.
Department of the Interior
Rather than working on our nation’s behalf, the Department of the Interior has been tasked with carrying out aspects of President Biden’s green agenda.
Under Mr. Biden, the department has continued the Obama-era process of locking up America’s public lands. And the department canceled the Keystone XL pipeline at the president’s direction, which would have transported more than 800,000 barrels of oil daily into the United States.
The Department of the Interior is also slow-rolling new oil and gas leases, which drives up gasoline prices. The agency is yet another example of the failures of how the bureaucracy is failing us.
Department of State
The State Department’s incompetence has radically escalated the possibility of serious international conflict. As the Russia-Ukraine war drags on, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has refused to encourage negotiations. Instead, the administration has written the Ukrainian government a blank check, courtesy of the American taxpayer.
Mr. Blinken’s posturing has also had the effect of driving Russian dictator Vladimir Putin into China’s arms. With Chinese President Xi Jinping expected to visit Russia in the coming months, the likelihood of a major global war is growing by the day — thanks in no small part to the State Department’s poor decisions.
Department of Education
The Department of Education has wasted countless billions of taxpayer dollars since its inception, and the last three years have been no exception.
After hundreds of billions of dollars were allocated for education spending during the COVID-19 pandemic, the mismanagement of these funds was shocking. According to various reports, tens of billions of dollars have remained unspent — showing yet again how Washington’s funding of the bureaucracy has without question buried our country in debt.
And unfortunately, the department has also been taken over by woke ideology. In 2021, the Department of Education recommended that teachers use reading material from The New York Times’ 1619 Project, which “aims to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.” The 1619 Project has been skewered by prominent historians who have exposed its numerous lies.
Department of Housing and Urban Development
The Department of Housing and Urban Development has seen many scandals over the years. For example, a HUD employee was sentenced to prison in a bribery scheme after taking gifts in exchange for giving a contractor preferential treatment.
But aside from a culture of corruption at HUD, the agency has promoted radical housing policy. During former President Barack Obama’s time in office, he weaponized HUD against localities by creating an “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing” rule, which would compel any city or town receiving federal money to build low-income housing in the middle of suburbs to promote “equity.”
As this would drive down property values and strip authority away from municipal governments, former President Donald Trump repealed the rule in 2020. Last month, however, Mr. Biden’s HUD announced it would restore the rule.
This is only a taste of the corruption our federal agencies are engaged in. Republicans in Washington must finally get serious about doing what their constituents ask for — calling out corruption, cutting discretionary spending, and holding rogue bureaucrats accountable.
We can’t afford not to act.
• Noah Wall is an executive vice president at FreedomWorks.
