The Facts
A new report from the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimates that pandemic unemployment benefits fraud exceeded $60B, with $8.5B of that amount coming from defrauding the regular unemployment insurance program.
The GAO extrapolated a lower-bound estimate to assume that 7.6% of all unemployment claims are fraudulent, making the $60B estimate a conservative one.
The Spin
Democratic narrative
COVID caused a historic upheaval of the US economy, and something needed to be done to support Americans who lost work. The states and Congress did what they could to prevent fraud, but obviously it was a momentous task. The government has learned how to deal with a situation that will hopefully not come up again.
Republican narrative
Paying people to stay home was always bad policy, but the Democrats couldn’t see past the opportunity they had to buy Americans' votes. Now the US will be bearing the costs of all the fraud for decades to come.
