DOGE Finds Nearly $40 Billion in Spending Linked to Government-Issued Credit Cards (1 Viewer)

[Carjosse]

I have a city-issued credit card, for use on allowable expenses.

Am I defrauding the public?

Yes, I am sure DOGE would say you are defrauding the public for billions everyday.

 

[Luce]

Yes, I am sure DOGE would say you are defrauding the public for billions everyday.

LOL. If I bought a candy bar on that card without authorization, I'd have IID up my arse with a surf board. Sideways.

I love @sanman's insistence that the credit cards are by definition fraud.

 

[Carjosse]

LOL. If I bought a candy bar on that card without authorization, I'd have IID up my arse with a surf board. Sideways.

I love @sanman's insistence that the credit cards are by definition fraud.

I mean with how DOGE is going if someone would try to defraud the government over a candy bar they would dispute a legitimate purchase for a similar price, add like 6 zeros on the end and say millions are being saved. That is literally what they are doing with contracts.

 

[gman]

DOGE keeps digging up more bones - only a matter of time until they find whole skeletons buried in places

DOGE finds nearly $40 billion in spending linked to government-issued credit cards

“The US government currently has ~4.6M active credit cards/accounts, which processed ~90M unique transactions for ~$40B of spend in FY24,” read an X post from the cost-cutting initiative’s officia…

nypost.com

Call me skeptical. We all know there's fraud, waste, and abuse, in the system. However, to claim $40B as questionable and then blow it up for headlines to be more than it is, is Trumpian. We're looking at 4 years of hyperbole to paint an already shitty picture to much, much worse than it actually is.

 

[Luce]

I mean with how DOGE is going if someone would try to defraud the government over a candy bar they would dispute a legitimate purchase for a similar price, add like 6 zeros on the end and say millions are being saved. That is literally what they are doing with contracts.

So what you do is, you take the values they give, and ask where the money is now.

 

[Callen]

I love @sanman's insistence that the credit cards are by definition fraud

I am convinced that those making such statements have no personal experience in the areas they comment on. It's all regurgitated RW talking points

 

[Carjosse]

So what you do is, you take the values they give, and ask where the money is now.

They will say that is illegal and is violating their rights.

 

[SCrider]

Doge found that $40B was spent using government credit cards......and the point would be?

To make idiots think they found something.
It has worked for them up to this point.

 

[SCrider]

For starters, the contract in question has been cancelled. No more DEI spending. No more grants for trans opera in Columbia. Etc. For the first time ever - there is real oversight over what executive agencies are spending money on.

You actually believe that?

 

[sanman]

LOL. If I bought a candy bar on that card without authorization, I'd have IID up my arse with a surf board. Sideways.

I love @sanman's insistence that the credit cards are by definition fraud.

They are a kind of parallel economy which those like you want to see grow to subsume the regular economy.
This is your socialist big-govt vision.

 

[Luce]

They are a kind of parallel economy which those like you want to see grow to subsume the regular economy.
This is your socialist big-govt vision.

They are a method of purchasing which is regulated by the agency that acquired the cards, and by the GAO. This is no different than issuing a purchase order.

And this is not my version of "socialist big government". Oh, no. Not even close.

 

[Cordelier]

LOL. If I bought a candy bar on that card without authorization, I'd have IID up my arse with a surf board. Sideways.

I love @sanman's insistence that the credit cards are by definition fraud.

Just think how much the public would save if everybody hitchhiked for Government business instead! And if we have to stay overnight somewhere, why can't we just find some cardboard box at a local homeless camp?

Billions, I tell ya, billions!

 

[Napoleon]

You actually believe that?

What?

 

[Cordelier]

Tales of when America was great... (Quoted from of the Tome of the same title by Dr. I.P. Freely):

Back when President Jefferson was sending Lewis and Clark out on Government business, were they given a Government vehicle for the job? Did they have a credit card? Hell no... those go-getters didn't need a per diem to do their job. They drew their ration of hard tack, salt beef, and tobacco, and they set forth on their assigned mission. There was no staying at the Best Western for those intrepid civil servants - they slept out beneath the stars, forged for their provisions, and made due with the bounty of what the Good Lord provided, and look at what they accomplished! How many civil servants in today's Government can boast of similar accomplishments? Yes sir, it's high time we Made America Great Again! Who knows what we could find? Maybe even a whole new Pacific Ocean!

 

[Carjosse]

They are a kind of parallel economy which those like you want to see grow to subsume the regular economy.
This is your socialist big-govt vision.

So you think these agencies have no controls over the spending on these cards?

 

[sanman]

So you think these agencies have no controls over the spending on these cards?

Nobody innately wants controls over their spending when it's other peoples' money being spent. That's human nature.

 

[Luce]

Nobody innately wants controls over their spending when it's other peoples' money being spent. That's human nature.

So I don't have to turn in my receipts and match the bill every month?

Amazing.

 

[Ikari]

So I don't have to turn in my receipts and match the bill every month?

Amazing.

I'm sure there's fraud in this system, it can't be zero. Any real system doesn't tend to see 0's or 100's. And there are audits and repercussions for fraud when discovered. There's a lot of procedures and paperwork for these sorts of credit cards, for the normal people not abusing the system, these are tedious.

I doubt this claim of "nearly 40 billion" though, I don't think IG reports or other audits produced values that high. But DOGE is not trustworthy, I think mostly they're posting misleading information or just outright lies regarding the magnitude of fraud they're finding.

 

[Luce]

I'm sure there's fraud in this system, it can't be zero. Any real system doesn't tend to see 0's or 100's. And there are audits and repercussions for fraud when discovered. There's a lot of procedures and paperwork for these sorts of credit cards, for the normal people not abusing the system, these are tedious.

I doubt this claim of "nearly 40 billion" though, I don't think IG reports or other audits produced values that high. But DOGE is not trustworthy, I think mostly they're posting misleading information or just outright lies regarding the magnitude of fraud they're finding.

@sanman's assertion is that the use of credit cards is in itself evidence of fraud.

 

[Carjosse]

I'm sure there's fraud in this system, it can't be zero. Any real system doesn't tend to see 0's or 100's. And there are audits and repercussions for fraud when discovered. There's a lot of procedures and paperwork for these sorts of credit cards, for the normal people not abusing the system, these are tedious.

I doubt this claim of "nearly 40 billion" though, I don't think IG reports or other audits produced values that high. But DOGE is not trustworthy, I think mostly they're posting misleading information or just outright lies regarding the magnitude of fraud they're finding.

They cleaned to find $8bn in savings from cancelling a DHS contract, the actual amount was $8m. All they do is lie.

 

[ncguy]

They cleaned to find $8bn in savings from cancelling a DHS contract, the actual amount was $8m. All they do is lie.

and not even $8M, that was the total value but some had already been spent.

they are liars or idiots or both

 

[Ikari]

@sanman's assertion is that the use of credit cards is in itself evidence of fraud.

No, that's ****ing absurd. There's nothing inherently wrong with using a credit card, sometimes companies want to keep a little tighter control or expedite the nominal reimbursement routine. You can use credit cards to that end.

If you didn't and you just had to submit receipts and blah blah blah, you'll still have cases of fraud. It's almost easier to commit fraud with receipts than it is having to use a credit card.

 

[roguenuke]

So I don't have to turn in my receipts and match the bill every month?

Amazing.

I certainly had to turn in mine every month to account for everything spent on that card. I generally got a little bit back, reimbursed direct deposit, as it was certainly easier to use my own card for any purchase that could even look like it would get flagged as you didn't want to have to go through that hassle. I just generally used mine for the bigger stuff, car, hotel, flights and maybe gas. I rarely bought food with it, like I said that was a risk, but just getting paid back in my own account the little bit of stipend we were given. But some of our younger Sailors didn't have much choice as they just didn't have that much budget to do that.

 

[Bum]

Don’t forget Greenland.

It's nothing a "special military operation" can't fix....and he even has a mentor to show him how it's done.

 

[The AntiDonald]

Nobody ever said it was new. The GAO has been calling fraud, waste, and abuse for decades and their reports have fallen on deaf ears. Until now. What’s new is that the President and DOGE are doing something about it.

They're firing random people. Doing something about it would be a deep dive into the details and fire the people who are committing the fraud and bringing charges against them. That shouldn't be all that hard since a gov. CC has to be issued to a person with a name.

When will we see all these prosecutions? I would presume that stealing money from the federal government would be a jailable offence.