Waste Watch: Five Alarming Examples of Government Waste You Paid For 

Taxpayers deserve a government that works for them — one that’s transparent, accountable, and fiscally responsible. Unfortunately, recent watchdog reports and findings from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) highlight how federal agencies routinely fail to meet those standards.  

Over the past two months alone, audits and investigations published by Inspectors General have uncovered wasteful spending practices that cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars with little to no benefit and sometimes in direct violation of federal law. 

Here are five outrageous examples of recent wasteful government spending: 

1. $454 Million in Improper Medicare Payments for COVID Tests 

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) failed to put proper safeguards in place when administering the program for over-the-counter COVID-19 tests. As a result, Medicare paid providers up to $454 million in potentially improper claims covering more than 38 million test kits that exceeded the allowable limit. 

What went wrong? CMS didn’t implement a nationwide system to flag and block excessive claims, allowing providers to overbill taxpayers for COVID tests Medicare enrollees “did not order, need, or want.” This wasn’t just a one-off mistake; it was a systemic failure with a price tag approaching half a billion dollars. 

2. IRS Misused $21 Million for Outdated Tech 

The Internal Revenue Service spent an estimated $21 million of Inflation Reduction Act funds meant for modernizing its systems on maintaining outdated legacy technologies. That’s right: money allocated to upgrade the IRS was instead spent keeping old systems running. 

Despite clear limitations on how these modernization funds should be used, the IRS diverted them to prop up 14 systems that should have been replaced years ago. 

3. Over $600,000 Wasted on Unused Government Phones 

The Department of Transportation’s Office of the Chief Information Officer and the Federal Aviation Administration spent more than $626,000 on mobile devices that saw zero usage. 

Phones that no one used. Service plans with no activity. All charged to you, the taxpayer. 

This is a classic case of a “set it and forget it” bureaucracy where no one is held accountable for waste and agencies lack basic controls over routine expenses. 

4. $700,000 Sent to Demolished Buildings 

At the Bureau of Indian Affairs, auditors found $700,000 in detention facility funding allocated for buildings that were demolished seven years earlier. One detention center in Montana was so neglected that a leaking roof rendered it uninhabitable, even after multiple work orders. The auditors could not determine how the agency spent the $3 million appropriated “to hire additional detention/corrections staff,” a potential violation of federal law.  

Taxpayers paid to maintain non-existent buildings while inmates were relocated due to unsafe conditions — all because of poor oversight and inaccurate data. 

5. The Mystery of the Phantom Federal Office 

During a recent audit of the Udall Building in Washington, D.C., General Services Administration (GSA) officials couldn’t locate their own field office. That’s right, they weren’t sure where their office was or if it was even still in use. 

Turns out the space was either vacant or occupied by another agency entirely. GSA was apparently unaware that it was no longer occupying the location, raising questions about how many other federal offices are wasting money on space they don’t use — or can’t even find. 

Time for Real Accountability 

These are just five examples from the last two months, and they illustrate a larger, troubling pattern of waste, mismanagement, and zero accountability across multiple agencies. 

Taxpayers should not have to accept this as the norm. Your money should be spent wisely — not squandered on unused phones, phantom offices, or millions of unneeded COVID tests. 

But while sniffing out waste and abuse is crucial; there’s only one branch of the government with the power to get America back on the path of fiscal responsibility: Congress. Lawmakers need to act on their mandate to reform our broken budget and reduce our national debt.