While Americans celebrate DOGE eliminating wasteful government spending, the benefits from eliminating this waste far exceed the dollar amounts found.  As the National Debt Clock ticks off the savings from DOGE, it is important to keep in mind that even bigger losses are being eradicated.  To focus only on direct dollar savings is to miss the much bigger picture.

When contractors bribe government employees, Americans necessarily receive goods and services that are less valuable than the bribes involved.  Otherwise, the contractor could simply offer a discount up to the bribe amount to win the contract.  Could our defense infrastructure be highly inferior compared to what we are capable of?  What are the costs of concealing graft?  Are our hopelessly antiquated governmental financial control systems that absurdly inefficient on purpose, as a way of concealing corruption?  Federal government employee retirement benefits are being processed by hand in a mine.  Even simple accounting procedures to verify payments are being ignored.  Beyond the original graft, this laxity will lead to money being wasted that was not even part of the original fraud scheme.  This waste can be considered a cost of fraud.

Is our government hiring and retaining distinctly untalented and dishonest employees who will not notice fraud or care about it?  The harm to Americans from incompetent government services (apart from activities directly related to graft) can be quite large.  Are our educational systems purposefully weak to create unaware voters that do not demand an end to corruption?  What about government employee sweetheart deals to buy their silence, including not coming into the office and no supervision?  To sweeten the pot, are government employees allowed to pursue their own agenda?  There are numerous stories of government employees tormenting hapless Americans.  Granting government employees the ability to attack the victims of their choice (such as houses with MAGA signs) may be a form of payment to keep them from reporting corruption.

Laundering taxpayer dollars can be even more damaging because of extreme measures of concealment that can lead to treason.  Laundering money through foreign contractors that pretend to provide goods and services but pocket the money instead is an example.  Sending dollars overseas to do-nothing contractors makes theft easier to conceal and puts dollars into the hands of foreigners.  Only a cut of this profit then comes back to the U.S. in the form of political donations and rigged business deals.  Giving taxpayer dollars to dictators and terrorist organizations, and then asking them to pay out the money for “humanitarian” purposes, is an effective way to conceal how the money is spent; dictators and terrorists do not typically cooperate with audits.  The cost is to empower evil, victimize the innocent, and weaken our ability to defend ourselves.

Perhaps most damaging of all, concealment of graft leads to shifts in America’s strategy.  Are we investing in the wrong military equipment?  Are we even funding some wars solely because they make concealing graft easier?  In this case, the more corrupt the recipient, the better.  Ukraine comes to mind.  Is America aligning with countries that wish to do us harm but are more than happy to take our money?  Tracing payments in countries hostile to the United States will be particularly difficult because these hostile countries are not only benefiting monetarily, but also enjoying weakening the United States.  Whistleblowers are also much less likely to come forward in totalitarian regimes, from fear of torture and death.

These hostile countries will be very attractive to those who wish to facilitate graft.  Are we exporting death by funding wars with taxpayer dollars through paying both sides of a conflict, or, conversely, pursuing disastrous political strategies that trigger wars?  Defense contractors and others get a cut and send the rest to the conspirators.

The list goes on and on.  Is the United States pursuing an ill advised energy policy that promotes costly and inefficient energy projects but facilitates graft?  Is it easier to coordinate graft with one large company than a lot of small ones?  If so, is the government promoting, through its regulations and policies, large bloated companies over smaller efficient ones?

When seen from this light, waste and abuse are part of a purposeful strategy that has repercussions far beyond the graft payment amounts, including treason.  America’s enemies will be particularly attractive partners in crime.

Now is the time to celebrate the elimination of waste.  However, even more so, it is time to celebrate the end of the horrors that go with it.  Just to name a few: treason, national peril, death, persecution of American citizens, an uneducated population, economic stagnation, gross inefficiency, and unresponsive government agencies.

If we truly want to end this nightmare, then the United States should mete out severe penalties to all involved that reflect the damage done.  If these crimes are left unpunished, the devastation will return with a vengeance.

Dr. Joetta Forsyth is a professor of finance at a business school.  She can be reached at joetta.sg@gmail.com.

Image: JD Lasica via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0 (cropped).