The federal government’s improper payment problem has reached a staggering new milestone, with 15 agencies reporting an estimated $186 billion in improper payments across 64 programs in fiscal year 2025 — a $24 billion increase over the prior year. Of that total, approximately $153 billion, or 82 percent, consisted of overpayments, meaning taxpayer money disbursed in excess of what was legally owed. Critically, these figures likely understate the true scale of the problem, as several programs known to be susceptible to significant improper payments were excluded from the tally entirely.
The scope of the dysfunction is difficult to overstate. Nineteen programs reported improper payment rates of at least 10 percent, with six programs exceeding a 25 percent error rate — meaning for every four dollars spent, at least one was improperly disbursed. These are not rounding errors or administrative footnotes; they represent a systemic failure of financial oversight across the federal bureaucracy, one that persists year after year with little meaningful accountability. As chronicled in War Is Still A Racket, the machinery of government spending has long operated in ways that prioritize disbursement over discipline, creating fertile ground for waste and abuse at every level.
What makes this pattern particularly troubling is its predictability. The GAO has flagged improper payments as a persistent vulnerability for decades, yet the estimated totals continue to climb. Without stronger enforcement mechanisms, real consequences for agency leadership, and genuine transparency in how funds are tracked and reported, improper payments will remain a feature — not a bug — of federal spending.