$400 Million Stolen from Hardworking Americans: The Outrageous Unemployment Fraud Uncovered by DOGE and the Secretary of Labor
In a shocking revelation that should make every taxpayer’s blood boil, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), alongside Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer, has exposed a staggering $400 million in unemployment insurance fraud. This isn’t just a bureaucratic oversight—it’s a betrayal of the American people, a slap in the face to every honest worker who pays into the system expecting it to be there when they need it. How could this happen under the watch of those entrusted to protect our tax dollars? The details are as infuriating as they are absurd.
According to DOGE’s initial survey of unemployment insurance claims since 2020, tens of thousands of fraudulent claims have been uncovered, with payments going to people who don’t even exist—or shouldn’t qualify in a million years. We’re talking about 24,500 “claimants” over 115 years old raking in $59 million. Another 28,000 claims, totaling $254 million, were made for children between 1 and 5 years old. And if that wasn’t enough to make your jaw drop, 9,700 claims worth $69 million were filed by people with birth dates over 15 years in the future—including one case of someone supposedly born in 2154 who claimed $41,000. This isn’t a glitch; it’s a systemic failure of epic proportions.
Elon Musk, the de facto leader of DOGE, didn’t mince words when he said there was “no sanity check” in place at the Labor Department to stop these fraudulent payments. He’s right—where were the safeguards? How could the Labor Department allow such blatant abuse to go unchecked for years? States like California, New York, and Massachusetts reportedly account for the bulk of these improper claims, totaling $305 million. These are states with some of the highest tax burdens in the country, where hardworking Americans are already stretched thin. To think that their tax dollars were funneled to nonexistent people while real families struggle is nothing short of a disgrace.
Secretary Chavez-DeRemer has vowed to “catch these thieves” and recover the stolen funds, but the damage is already done. The Labor Department’s failure to implement basic oversight has allowed this fraud to flourish, and now the American people are left footing the bill. While Chavez-DeRemer touts DOGE’s “incredible discovery,” one has to wonder: why did it take an external task force to uncover what the Labor Department should have caught years ago? Where was the accountability before DOGE stepped in? This isn’t just incompetence—it’s a betrayal of public trust.
The broader context makes this even more galling. DOGE, created by President Trump via executive order on January 20, 2025, has been tasked with rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government. In just a few months, they’ve exposed not only this unemployment fraud but also issues in Social Security, where millions of records were flagged for deceased or impossibly aged recipients. Yet, DOGE’s efforts have been met with resistance from critics who claim their methods are too aggressive, with some even protesting the mass layoffs of federal workers—over 280,000 since February. But when you see numbers like $400 million stolen through fraudulent claims, it’s hard to argue that the system didn’t need a shake-up.
Let’s be clear: this isn’t about politics. This is about fairness. The unemployment insurance system is meant to be a lifeline for Americans who lose their jobs through no fault of their own—not a piggy bank for scammers and fraudsters. Every dollar stolen is a dollar that doesn’t go to a struggling family, a laid-off worker, or a community in need. And while DOGE and the Labor Department are now scrambling to fix the mess, the real question is how this was allowed to happen in the first place. Who was asleep at the wheel while fake claimants, including “babies” and people not even born yet, siphoned off hundreds of millions?
The American people deserve answers—and they deserve justice. Those responsible for this fraud must be held accountable, and the Labor Department needs to explain how such a colossal failure occurred on its watch. Secretary Chavez-DeRemer, you’ve promised to recover these stolen tax dollars, but that’s not enough. We need systemic change to ensure this never happens again. And to every taxpayer reading this: let this be a wake-up call. Our government has failed us, and it’s time to demand better. The $400 million stolen isn’t just a number—it’s a symbol of a broken system that puts the interests of fraudsters over the needs of honest Americans. We should all be outraged.