During his "My Take," Monday "Varney & Co." host Stuart Varney criticized government bureaucracies for blowing through billions in COVID-19 relief funds, arguing the whole pandemic bailout was plagued with mistakes and "political favoritism."
: In a very brief period the government handed out roughly $5 trillion worth of COVID relief.
Why are we surprised when massive amounts of taxpayer money go missing?
We should know by now that government bureaucracies are not the best way of distributing cash.
US Vice President Kamala Harris and White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients listen while U.S. President Joe Biden speaks about the COVID response. (Getty Images)
Will we learn in the future?
As part of COVID relief, Congress set up the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee.
It studied how a small portion of the money was spent. What a mess.
10 agencies spent $2.6 billion in 6 communities on 89 programs.
White House COVID-19 response (iStock / iStock)
They didn't have the data to track where it all went. Incomplete records.
Why are we surprised?
To qualify for COVID unemployment money, all claimants had to do was submit a name, date of birth, address, and social security number. Open season for fraud.
The Small Business Administration estimates that 17% of the $1.2 trillion it distributed went to fraud. That's $200 billion!
COVID-19 pandemic relief
The whole pandemic bail-out was riddled with mistakes and political favoritism.
For example, $122 billion went to the schools, some of it unspent. Gigantic bailouts for Democrat-run states.
Yet it continues. The Democrats want to keep on spending by the trillion, raising the debt and threatening more inflation.
Why on earth do we think that this time spending will be different?