Since President Donald Trump took office, X owner Elon Musk has repeatedly claimed without evidence that the Department of Government Efficiency has discovered “massive” government fraud.
Now social media users are wrongly crediting a congressional subcommittee working with DOGE — which Trump formed and tasked Musk with leading — with finding nearly $3 trillion of fraudulent federal health insurance payments.
“The DOGE subcommittee just discovered $2.7 trillion in improper payments in Medicare and Medicaid overseas, to people who should not have gotten it,” Threads, Facebook and Instagram posts from Feb. 12 to 14 said. It appears to be a reference to a Feb. 12 meeting of the Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency, which also was discussed during a Feb. 12 White House press conference.
The social media posts included video footage of Brian Glenn, a reporter from the conservative outlet Real America’s Voice, asking White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt during the Feb 12 press briefing:
Earlier the subcommittee headed by Chairman Marjorie Taylor Greene, her and her staff discovered $2.7 trillion in improper payments to Medicare, Medicaid, overseas to people who should not have gotten it. Some of this room might’ve missed that press conference. Can you elaborate on what the president is thinking at this point?
In the clip, Leavitt responded, “Well, again, that’s another example. There’s a very long list of the fraud, waste and abuse that DOGE is identifying on a daily basis.”
Musk reposted the claim Feb. 13 on X, writing, “Well, maybe this explains why the Democrats don’t want DOGE to investigate.”
But $2.7 trillion of improper payments were not “discovered” by DOGE or the subcommittee working alongside DOGE. And that figure isn’t solely made up of Medicare and Medicaid payments. News of a different federal agency uncovering $2.7 trillion in problematic federal payments predated Trump’s November 2024 reelection.
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Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., said during the Feb. 12 subcommittee hearing that the government “has lost $2.7 trillion because of improper payments” since 2003. Comer did not specify which federal agencies made the improper payments.
During the Biden administration, the U.S. Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan Congressional agency, published reports March 26, 2024, and June 27, 2024, estimating that, since fiscal year 2003, federal agencies had reported $2.7 trillion of what the GAO described as “improper” payments, defined as “those that should not have been made or were made in the incorrect amount.”
The $2.7 trillion included payments made by Medicare and Medicaid and other federal programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Auditors said the improper payments were made for many reasons, from “unintentional administrative errors to fraud.”
The GAO reports did not say those payments went to people outside the United States, although the social media claims say the payments were sent to people overseas.
We rate the claim that a “DOGE subcommittee discovered $2.7 trillion in improper” Medicaid and Medicare payments to people overseas False.
This fact check was originally published by PolitiFact, which is part of the Poynter Institute. See the sources for this fact check here.
