The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) announced last week that it discovered $382 million in fraudulent unemployment payments that have been distributed since 2020, with the overwhelming majority of the unemployment fraud linked to the Democrat-controlled states of New York, California, and Massachusetts.
In a Thursday post on X, formerly Twitter, DOGE tweeted, “California, New York, and Massachusetts accounted for most of these improper claims, totaling $305M in unemployment benefits.”
DOGE also noted that California “accounted for 68% of the unemployment benefits paid to parolees” who were flagged by U.S. Customs and Border Protection for being on the “terrorist watchlist” or having “criminal records” under former President Joe Biden’s administration.
Prior to DOGE’s revelation on Thursday, the department reported that hundreds of millions of dollars in fraudulent unemployment benefits had been distributed to individuals with questionable or impossible birthdates.
DOGE claimed that an “initial survey of Unemployment Insurance claims since 2020” resulted in the discovery of $59 million in benefits distributed to over 24,000 people listed as over 115 years old, $254 million in benefits distributed to 28,000 people between the ages of one and five, and $41,000 distributed to an individual listed with a future birthday in 2154.
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According to Fox News, Labor Department Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said, “This is another incredible discovery by the DOGE team, finding nearly $400 million in fraudulent unemployment payments. The Labor Department is committed to recovering Americans’ stolen tax dollars. We will catch these thieves and keep working to root out egregious fraud.”
Responding to DOGE’s discovery last week, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who is the head of the department, tweeted, “Your tax dollars were going to pay fraudulent unemployment claims for fake people born in the future! This is so crazy that I had to read it several times before it sank in.”
According to Fox News, New York, California, and Massachusetts all have Democratic governors, a Democrat-run state senate, and a Democrat-run state house. The outlet noted that each of the states also has a Democrat secretary of state and attorney general.
“There’s a reason for the mass exodus from Democrat-run states that have mismanaged their economies and driven residents to the nearest Republican-led state,” Harrison Fields, a White House spokesperson, told Fox News. “High taxes, poor stewardship of taxpayer dollars and progressive policies continue to yield negative results, which is why Americans overwhelmingly support the work of DOGE.”
